In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
what me worry?
Bush Gave No Sign of Worry In August 2001
- rob 3:38 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Making the nation safer one dirty nuke at a time. Thanks again George- Thursday, April 15, 2004 -
Probe Shows Iraq Nuke Facilities Unguarded
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Some Iraqi nuclear facilities appear to be unguarded, and radioactive materials are being taken out of the country, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency reported after reviewing satellite images and equipment that has turned up in European scrapyards.
- rob 3:34 PM - [PermaLink] -
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More press conference followup:
Mr. Bush's Press Conference
Happily, President Bush finally held a prime-time news conference last night. Unhappily, he failed to address either of the questions uppermost in Americans' minds: how to move Iraq from its current chaos, and what he has learned from the 9/11 investigations.
Mr. Bush was grave and impressive while reading his opening remarks, which focused on the horrors of terrorism and the great good that could come from establishing a free and democratic Iraq. No one in the country could disagree with either thought. But his responses to questions were distressingly rambling and unfocused. He promised that Iraq would move from the violence and disarray of today to full democracy by the end of 2005, but the description of how to get there was mainly a list of dates when good things are supposed to happen.
There was still no clear description of exactly who will accept the sovereignty of Iraq from the coalition on June 30. "We'll find out that soon," the president said, adding that U.N. officials are "figuring out the nature of the entity we'll be handing sovereignty over" to. In Mr. Bush's mind, whatever happens next now appears to be the responsibility of the United Nations. That must have come as a surprise to the U.N. negotiators and their bosses, who have not agreed to accept that responsibility and do not believe that they have been given the authority to make those decisions. Emphasis mine.
- rob 2:43 PM - [PermaLink] -
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The Out-of-Towner - While Bush vacationed, 9/11 warnings went unheard. By Fred Kaplan
In an otherwise dry day of hearings before the 9/11 commission, one brief bit of dialogue set off a sudden flash of clarity on the basic question of how our government let disaster happen.
The revelation came this morning, when CIA Director George Tenet was on the stand. Timothy Roemer, a former Democratic congressman, asked him when he first found out about the report from the FBI's Minnesota field office that Zacarias Moussaoui, an Islamic jihadist, had been taking lessons on how to fly a 747. Tenet replied that he was briefed about the case on Aug. 23 or 24, 2001.
Roemer then asked Tenet if he mentioned Moussaoui to President Bush at one of their frequent morning briefings. Tenet replied, "I was not in briefings at this time." Bush, he noted, "was on vacation." He added that he didn't see the president at all in August 2001. During the entire month, Bush was at his ranch in Texas. "You never talked with him?" Roemer asked. "No," Tenet replied. By the way, for much of August, Tenet too was, as he put it, "on leave."
And there you have it. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice has made a big point of the fact that Tenet briefed the president nearly every day.
...
Bush got back after Labor Day. That first day, Sept. 4, was when the "Principals Committee"—consisting of his Cabinet heads—met in the White House to discuss terrorism. As Dick Clarke has since complained, and Condi Rice and others have acknowledged, it was the first time Bush's principals held a meeting on the subject.
This morning, Roemer asked Tenet if he brought up the Moussaoui briefing at that meeting. No, Tenet replied. "It wasn't the appropriate place." Roemer didn't follow up and ask, "Why not? Where was the appropriate place?" Perhaps he was too stunned. He sure looked it.
- rob 2:41 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Turkey Doesn't go with Mustard
Bush Makes Three Mistakes While Trying to Cite One
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - While struggling unsuccessfully this week to think of a single mistake he has made since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, President Bush committed three factual errors about weapons finds in Libya, the White House said on Wednesday.
Bush, long known for his grammatical conundrums and confusing phraseology, told reporters twice during Tuesday's prime-time news conference that 50 tons of mustard gas were discovered at a turkey farm in Libya.
On the second occasion, he was responding to a reporter who asked him to identify the biggest mistake he had made since the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people and prompted the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
He could not. But as he searched for an answer, the Republican president reaffirmed his decision to invade Iraq and said weapons of mass destruction may still lie hidden there.
"They could still be there. They could be hidden, like the 50 tons of mustard gas in a turkey farm," said Bush, referring to Libya's voluntary disclosure of weapons in March.
The next day, the White House said the accurate figure for the Libyan mustard gas was 23.6 metric tons, or 26 short tons, not 50 tons.
Moreover, the substance was found at different locations across Libya, not at a turkey farm. And observers did not find mustard gas on the farm at all, but rather unfilled chemical munitions, the White House acknowledged.
- rob 2:39 PM - [PermaLink] -
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America's Ayatollah- Wednesday, April 14, 2004 -
The term of the moment in Washington is "the wall." This is the legal barrier that once separated the CIA and its investigators from the FBI and its investigators, and which may have contributed to the confusion that enabled the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A more interesting wall, however, was on view Tuesday evening in President Bush's prime-time news conference. It's the one between him and reality.
Never mind that even for Bush, this was a poor performance -- answers that resembled a frantic scavenger hunt for the right (or any) word or, too often, a thought. Never mind that he really had very little to say -- no exit plan for Iraq, no second thoughts about Sept. 11, no wonderment, even, at the apparent disappearance of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and how that might have happened. Like a kid who has been told otherwise, Bush persists in believing in his own version of Santa Claus. The weapons are there, somewhere -- in a North Pole of his mind.
Bush is making sure all turkey farms in Iraq are searched.
- rob 2:36 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Bush: Why's Clarke and Tenet jumping up and down with flags over there? Are they trying to get my attention?
Rice: No sir. Anyway, let's you and I talk about missile defense and Iraq.
Cheney: No you stupid monkey. Anyway, let's talk about my energy policy and Iraq.
Ashcroft: Why bless you no, sir, but since we're talking I'm really concerned about bare breasts.
Rove: No sir, you god of a manly man you, but hey did you get my note about how to appease your religious voters about stem cells? Oh, and let's not forget to punch up our anti-Iraq statments a bit...it polls great.
Panel Says Bush Saw Repeated Warnings
By the time a CIA briefer gave President Bush the Aug. 6, 2001, President's Daily Brief headlined "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US," the president had seen a stream of alarming reports on al Qaeda's intentions. So had Vice President Cheney and Bush's top national security team, according to newly declassified information released yesterday by the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In April and May 2001, for example, the intelligence community headlined some of those reports "Bin Laden planning multiple operations," "Bin Laden network's plans advancing" and "Bin Laden threats are real."
The intelligence included reports of a hostage plot against Americans. It noted that operatives might choose to hijack an aircraft or storm a U.S. embassy. Without knowing when, where or how the terrorists would strike, the CIA "consistently described the upcoming attacks as occurring on a catastrophic level, indicating that they would cause the world to be in turmoil," according to one of two staff reports released by the panel yesterday.
- rob 3:45 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Free Mouthproofing
I was driving to the strip mall yesterday and passed a sign that said "Free Mouthproofing" -- I immediately sucked in my lips and mentally sewed them shut, like Boris Karloff in The Mummy, eyes goggling and terrified.
The Scalia First Amendment Holocaust has me completely rattled.
It was actually a sign at the dry cleaners that said "Free Mothproofing"
- Michael 3:11 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Roberts contradicts Frist on Clarke
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, says former Bush counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke’s testimony before a joint congressional panel on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks did not contradict his later testimony before a presidentially appointed commission.
Roberts’s comments to The Hill contradict a stinging condemnation of Clarke by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) on the Senate floor after Clarke accused President Bush of failing to take Osama bin Laden seriously before Sept. 11.
Roberts said Frist did not consult him before making his floor speech, which has been criticized by Democrats. Roberts’s words make perjury charges against Clarke highly unlikely.
Doesn't it seem like more and more Republican senators have stopped drinking the cool-aide of late?
- rob 3:03 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Cigarette-Smoking Man
Ashcroft's fictional twin the black-lunged SOB from X-files.
- rob 2:39 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Yesterday's Bush Press Conference Summary:
(Bush talks turkey [farms])
Bush: Iraq right thing to do, stay the course, not sure what course i'm talking about either, but stay with it, god loves us, we are agents of God. Being agents of God can be tough and violent, just ask the Blues Brothers.
The rest of the Nation: Oh God please, he's not really our President is he?
Here's some mainstream press:
A Prime Time to Ask The President Questions
"When I say something, I mean it," George W. Bush said decisively near the end of last night's prime-time presidential news conference. Nobody called out, "When will you say something?" -- the White House press corps is too mannerly for that -- but some reporters, and some viewers, must have been thinking it.
Trust, Don't Verify
Bush's incredible definition of credibility.
That's the summation President Bush delivered as he wrapped up his press conference Tuesday night. It's the message he emphasized throughout: Our commitment. Our pledge. Our word. My conviction. Given the stakes in Iraq and the war against terrorism, it would be petty to poke fun at Bush for calling credibility "incredibly important." His routine misuse of the word "incredible," while illiterate, is harmless. His misunderstanding of the word "credible," however, isn't harmless. It's catastrophic.
To Bush, credibility means that you keep saying today what you said yesterday, and that you do today what you promised yesterday. "A free Iraq will confirm to a watching world that America's word, once given, can be relied upon," he argued Tuesday night. When the situation is clear and requires pure courage, this steadfastness is Bush's most useful trait. But when the situation is unclear, Bush's notion of credibility turns out to be dangerously unhinged. The only words and deeds that have to match are his. No correspondence to reality is required. Bush can say today what he said yesterday, and do today what he promised yesterday, even if nothing he believes about the rest of the world is true.
Bush Acknowledges 'Tough' Weeks, Signals Intent to Bolster Iraq Force
Here's some blog postings about last night (better reading than the mainstream press);
A Busy Person's Guide to the Bush Press Conference
Fundamentalist Attribution Error
But I think it is best summed up by a fellow phunkster:
I worry about a president who has a press conference where I feel like I could field the questions better. He was so confused and unfocused.
Could he have answered the question... "Mr. President, what is your name?"
.."Oh, let's see. I wish I had the question in writing in advance. ah. er. I can say that I am looking forward to speaking to my mother and father about that. I do know that whatever my name is I am proud of what we are doing in Iraq. It is going to be a hard set of weeks ahead... not that it has been a mistake, but hard none the less. I was pinning a purple heart on the chest of a soldier and he said to me that he could not wait to return to his platoon. That is why I think I am going to win the election next fall... it is all about how we are doing in Iraq... whatever my name is"
- rob 2:29 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Yesterday's Hearings Summary:- Tuesday, April 13, 2004 -
Ashcroft: I did everything I could. I thought terrorism was important. Its all Clinton's fault. Clinton's people wouldn't even allow the CIA to kill Osama bin Laden (known as UBL in the Clinton days).
ex-acting FBI Chief: Ashcroft said don't bother me about terrorism, let's talk about the danger of bare breasts.
Everyone else watching the procedure: Isn't it interesting that the administration that controls what is classified or unclassified will unclassify unflattering Clinton documents, but not unclassify documents such as the one that states the Clinton okayed the assassination of bin Laden. Ashcroft knows that is not declassified so feels free to lie.
Some articles:
Ashcroft's Efforts on Terrorism Criticized
Ashcroft Gets a Free Pass
Ashcroft denies taking little interest in terrorism
(hey X-files fans, check out the picture of Ashcroft in the above article: It's The Cigarette Smoking Man
- rob 2:00 PM - [PermaLink] -
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A Strategy for Iraq
By John F. Kerry
Yep, it looks like our next president is going to be a JFK from Massachusetts.
F is for Forbes... weird.
- rob 2:22 PM - [PermaLink] -
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A sad business George has created
The FTD® Salute to a Patriot ™ Bouquet
A appropriate display of respect and sympathy. This arrangement takes red roses and carnations and surrounds them with blue larkspur and white mini carnations and snapdragons. Appropriate to send to a home or to a funeral.
Thanks to This Modern World for the link.
- rob 1:47 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Questions that won't be asked tonight
13 Questions for Bush
- On Sunday, April 11, when asked by Tim Russert which Iraqi leaders the U.S. planned to turn the government over to on June 30, Paul Bremer said, "That's a good question." What is your answer to that question?
- Now that you've ordered more troops to Iraq, do you wish you had listened to Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki last year when he argued that troops levels were far too low there? Has anyone in the Pentagon or within your administration, such as Paul Wolfowitz, been reprimanded for mocking his suggestion?
- Before the war, Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld said the U.S. knew exactly where Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were. Your chief weapons inspector David Kay now says "we were all wrong." Are you willing to say now that you were wrong? If so, can you explain why you were wrong?
- Given that finding no WMDs in Iraq represents an intelligence failure of the greatest magnitude, why was no one dismissed?
- Do you agree with your national security adviser, Condoleeza Rice, that the Aug. 6 PDB, entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Within the U.S.," is merely a "historical" document?
- rob 1:43 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Pakistani Tells of North Korean Nuclear Devices
WASHINGTON, April 12 — Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani scientist who sold nuclear technology around the world, has told his interrogators that during a trip to North Korea five years ago he was taken to a secret underground nuclear plant and shown what he described as three nuclear devices, according to Asian and American officials who have been briefed by the Pakistanis.
Dang Saddam is sneaky, he hid his WMD's in North Korea!!!
- rob 1:32 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Flashback:
President wants Senate to hurry with new laws - July 30, 1996
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton urged Congress Tuesday to act swiftly in developing anti-terrorism legislation before its August recess.
"We need to keep this country together right now. We need to focus on this terrorism issue," Clinton said during a White House news conference.
But while the president pushed for quick legislation, Republican lawmakers hardened their stance against some of the proposed anti-terrorism measures.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, doubted that the Senate would rush to action before they recess this weekend.
You see, the Whitewater investigation was much more of a priority.
- rob 1:27 PM - [PermaLink] -
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In politics, Wall Street ignores history
Wall street wants - and expects - President Bush to be reelected. And like business in general, the financial industry gives far more campaign funds to Republicans than Democrats.
That's odd, in a way. Looking just at history, Wall Street is backing the wrong horse. The economy has done better under Democratic presidents than Republican ones since the 1940s.
Surprised? Examine gross domestic product. Real growth in the measure of the nation's total goods and services averaged 4.0 percent a year with a Democratic president; only 3.1 percent with a Republican, according to an analysis by Merrill Lynch.
The stock market? No contest. The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index rose 54 percent on average during a Democrat's term; only 32.3 percent with a Republican. Even unemployment fell with Democrats in the Oval Office (by 0.3 percentage points) and rose (1.1 points) with Republicans in charge. Republicans beat Democrats in one economic measure. Inflation under the Democrats increased 1.6 percentage points; it fell 1.1 points under GOP presidents.
The general view on Wall Street is that inflation damages financial markets. Yet bonds (which rise and fall with interest rates) have done better under Demo- crats. The value of 10-year Treasuries rose 1.2 percentage points under Demo- cratic presidents; they fell 0.5 percentage points under Republicans.
So why support Republicans? Because it isn't about being good for business, it is about supporting and protecting your own. The economy in general might not do well under Republicans, but the fat cats do great. You see class warfare was officially called in the eighties and fighting became heavy in the nineties, but no one for got to tell the middle and lower classes that they could fight back.
- rob 1:22 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Thanks to George the number got so large that it made the sign too heavy for the old building.- Monday, April 12, 2004 -
Debt Clock Moving
The world-famous National Debt Clock that hung on the side of a three-story building at 43rd Street and Sixth Avenue has been torn from its home of more than 15 years. The building, owned by the Durst Organization, is being stripped and demolished in order to make room for a high-rise.
But because the national debt is still rising, a new billboard-sized digital clock will be reappearing in a few weeks one block north at 1133 Sixth Ave. "It'll be going back up in a month," said Douglas Durst, president of the Durst Organization, which looks after the clock.
Durst's late father, real-estate magnate Seymour Durst, installed the clock in 1989 when the debt was $2.7 trillion. When the clock returns in May, the debt will be more than $7 trillion.
In fact, the debt is now rising so quickly that the last seven numbers of the new clock will be moving too quickly to be read, Durst said.
...
The last time the clock went dark was in September 2000 - because the national debt was actually falling. It was plugged back in on July 2002 when the debt again began to rise.
Thanks for making the clock run again George!
- rob 12:07 PM - [PermaLink] -
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President spends 40% of time out of the office
All the time off is why George is so in touch with the common man. The common man serves him his lemonade and fluffs his pillow.
Mr Bush was on his 33rd visit to his ranch in Crawford, Texas, at the Easter weekend, where he has spent 233 days or almost eight months since his inauguration, according to a tally by CBS news. Add his 78 visits to Camp David and five to Kennebunkport, Maine, and he has spent all or part of 500 days out of the office while in office.
...
Mr Bush was at his ranch on August 6 2001 as part of a month-long holiday when he received the briefing warning of Osama bin Laden's determination to attack the US, which has become a focal point of the 9/11 commission of inquiry.
On Thursday the president watched his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, give her testimony on television, then toured his ranch with the chief executive of the National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre, before giving an interview to Ladies Home Journal.
Regardless of what is going on in the world Mr Bush is usually in bed by 10pm and wakes at 6am. As governor of Texas he would be in work by 8.30am and out by 5.30pm. In between was a 90-minute to two-hour break for exercise or a nap.
The President of the United States at best puts in a 7 and a half hour day? Why? Because George is just so damn good that he does in those seven and a half hours what Clinton would spend all of his 12 to 14 hour work days trying to achieve.
- rob 5:27 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Bush doesn't want donors audited
Okay, that's not really the title, but read on:
Only 0.73 percent of business tax returns were audited in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, down from 0.88 percent in the previous year, TRAC found. In 1997, 2.62 percent of business tax filers could expect to be audited.
There was also a dramatic slide for corporations with assets of at least $250 million. Among those, audit rates slid to 28.98 percent last year from 33.68 percent in 2002. In 1995, more than half of such companies were audited.
From 1999 to 2003, the number of civil negligence penalties aimed at corporations fell to 12 from 62. Civil fraud penalties dropped to 170 last year from 247 in 1999. Tax prosecutions fell last year to 538, from 563 in 2002. Ten years ago, the IRS and Justice Department prosecuted more than 1,000 cases.
“We don't pay taxes. The little people pay taxes.” Leona Helmsley
- rob 2:22 PM - [PermaLink] -
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From our great leader as to why he didn't take action on the information contained in the PDB of August 6, today's WaPo:
"It was not a hijacking of an airplane to fly into a building, it was hijacking of airplanes in order to free somebody that was being held as a prisoner in the United States."
So, if I've got his logic correct, in September 2001, it was just peachy for terrorists to hijack airplanes for any purpose other than flying them into buildings. If they had done anything but fly planes into buildings, apparently the Bush administration response would have been the equivalent of a geopolitical "no harm, no foul." Flying into buildings, now that's a completely different story. If they had known *that* well, *then* they would have done something. But for your regular, ordinary, run-of-the-mill hijacking, shooting a few people, disrupting air service, closing down airports, that kind of thing, well that was ok. The administration didn't actually need to do anything about *that.*
Thanks to Synergy for the above.
- rob 2:18 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Fundamentally, Bush Works on Faith
NEW YORK — Ask Bush family members and friends about the intersection between the war on terrorism and George W. Bush's Christian faith and you get some strong answers.
"George sees this as a religious war," one family member told us. "He doesn't have a PC view of this war. His view is that they are trying to kill the Christians. And we the Christians will strike back with more force and more ferocity than they will ever know."
Family friend Franklin Graham told us: "The president is not stupid. The people who attacked this country did it in the name of their religion. He's made it clear that we are not at war with Islam. But he understands the implications of what is going on and the spiritual dimensions."
Holy Crap It's Interdimensional War!!!!
So George's religion is attacking bin Laden's religion and his main means of doing that is attacking Iraq, which for all its problems had a secular government, and in so doing will create a country that is officially bin Laden's religion making George's religion happy? And as both bin Laden's religion and George's religion have as major tenants "Thou Shalt Not Kill," this entire "religious" war is being conducted with paint ball?
Sorry, it is stupid to fight a religious war. Its the 21st century for God's sake! There are only two ways to look at this:But I guess George found a 3rd way: God does exist, but lied about "thou shalt not kill," or at least left open a lot of loop holes about sacred sand and stuff.
- God exists and she/he doesn't want you to kill, in his name, my name, George's name... just don't kill. or
- God doesn't exist and fighting a religious war is as intelligent as, well, fighting a war for no reason.
- rob 2:07 PM - [PermaLink] -
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I'm going to copy and paste liberally from David Sirota's Website in this post. David's blog has some excellent examples of the mendacity that is coming from the White House these days.- Sunday, April 11, 2004 -
It is well past the point where it should be perfectly reasonable for a reporter to say "The President lied again today." And the world yawned.
CLAIM:
President Bush said yesterday that a memo he received a month before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks did not contain enough specific threat information to prevent the hijackings and "said nothing about an attack on America." "I am satisfied that I never saw any intelligence that indicated there was going to be an attack on America -- at a time and a place, an attack."
- Washington Post, 4/12/04
FACT:
In a single 17-sentence document, the intelligence briefing delivered to President George W. Bush in August 2001 spells out the who, hints at the what and points toward the where of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington that followed 36 days later.
- NY Times, 4/12/04
Isn't it good to know that Bush is satisfied that he wasn't warned properly? And isn't it good to know that if the memo said "morning rush hour, World Trade Center, September 11th" that might have been specific enough for him to react.
I'm confused (shock!) by the Bush administration's method of diffusing this issue:Meanwhile Rice stated in her testimony that despite the above.
- It wasn't specific enough.
- It wasn't a warning at all.
- there were no Action Items.
I guess they are just covering their basis. It seems the only proof they have that the nation was on war footing was that Bush was on vacation, just as he was last week when all hell broke out in Iraq.
- The President set the nation on war footing.
- They earnestly followed up with the FBI.
More "accuracy issues":
CLAIM:
"The [August 6, 2001] PDB was no indication of a terrorist threat...[It] said nothing about an attack on America."
- President George W. Bush, 4/11/04
FACT:
"[There are] patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York...The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives."
- Presidential Daily Briefing, August 6, 2001
CLAIM:
"I asked the intelligence agency to analyze the data to tell me whether or not we faced a threat internally, like they thought we had faced a threat in other parts of the world. That's what the PDB request was."
- President George W. Bush, 4/11/04
FACT:
According to the CIA, the briefing "was not requested by President Bush." As commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste disclosed, "the CIA informed the panel that the author of the briefing does not recall such a request from Bush and that the idea to compile the briefing came from within the CIA."
- Washington Post, 3/25/04
And here's something from when Dr. Rice Testi-lied:
CLAIM:
[The August 6th PDB] "was historical information based on old reporting. There was no new threat information. And it did not, in fact, warn of any coming attacks inside the United States."
- National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 4/8/04
FACT:
The August 6th PDB included very current information, including warnings that the FBI had detected "patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York." The memo also included information from just 90 days beforehand noting that al Qaeda members were trying to enter the United States for an attack with explosives. "The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the U.S. that it considers Bin Laden-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group or Bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives," the document said.
- Retuers, 4/10/04
You know what is great about telling the truth? It is soooo easy, you just say what happened, that way you don't have to remember who you told what, etc. But Bush isn't about doing things the easy way... its about... something else I guess.
People say this is Monday morning quarterbacking, but not when the Bush administration had created a legend of them being the all perfect administration that was blindsided. Then pointing out the chinks in the armor is not only fair, it is necessary. If in October or November or December humility was shown America would have forgiven, now I'm not so sure. The purpose of finding out what when wrong is not about pointing blame, that is a byproduct. The importance of the commission is to show us where we need to improve, show us what went wrong, so it doesn't happen again. Why is the Bush administration against that?
- rob 1:51 PM - [PermaLink] -
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We're in a Giant Rewind
TCS quiz: What year am I?
1) a growing U.S. defense budget plus
2) weakening productivity plus
3) falling exports plus
4) a growing balance-of-payments deficit plus
5) unilateral war with no end in sight plus
6) hemorrhaging jobs plus
7) a despised Republican president running for second term plus
8) brewing political scandals
equals
9) rising inflation
10) imposing domestic wage and price controls
11) placing a major surcharge on imports
12) international monetary turbulence
13) international energy crisis
14) political crisis
15) fiscal crisis
16) China and North Korea seen as world terror threat
17) U.S. cold war president seriously considering nuclear option
18) U.S. Consitution under massive assault by Republicans
You guessed it! I'm April 1972.
The difference between now and 32 years ago to the month is striking, isn't it? We've come so far, gained such wisdom. And by today's standards, Nixon is considered a liberal.
Is it me, or is this century sucking even worse than it did at the height of Nixon and Vietnam, when people were rioting in the streets?
PS. No way nohow Bush resigns second term, no matter what crimes are committed by this White House.
- Michael 3:35 PM - [PermaLink] -
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fitting response."
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions, but laws must and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
- Thomas Jefferson
"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain
degree."
- James Madison
"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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