Bush: You're either with us or with the terrorists
Or, you know, a major ally, or an employee... whatever

Please, let this make it into American Mainstream Media: BBC: Pakistan pays tribe al-Qaeda debt

Pakistan says it has paid 32m rupees ($540,000) to help four former wanted tribal militants in South Waziristan settle debts with al-Qaeda.
Military operations chief in the region, Lt Gen Safdar Hussain, said the payments were part of a peace deal signed on Monday with tribesmen.

It is the first time Pakistan has admitted making such payments.

Al-Qaeda provides terrorism insurance to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and others. You pay them money... you get less terrorism. They're just thugs with good spin (for their religious extremist followers). Much like the Bush Administration but a hell of a lot worse.


Going From Jail to Mars, and Beyond

The second Bush administration has been much kinder to Thomas P. Jasin than the first. In this administration, he's just been named director of NASA's Robotic Lunar Exploration Program, preparing the way for future manned missions.

In the first, he found himself doing a stretch in the federal slammer after being found guilty of conspiring to evade the international arms embargo against South Africa in a deal involving Stryker anti-tank missiles.

Apartheid supporting missile toting robots are soon going to roam the craters of the moon.

I just don't know how I'll ever thank you enough Mr. Bush.

- rob 1:37 PM - [PermaLink] -

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You mean like D.C. Republicans with souls are endangered?

Scientists say they've been told to withhold species findings

WASHINGTON -- Scientists in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service say they've been forced to alter or withhold findings that would have led to greater protections for endangered species, according to a survey released by two environmental groups.
...
The mail-in survey by the Union of Concerned Scientists and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility -- which drew responses from 414 of 1,400 biologists, ecologists, botanists and other scientists -- was not a scientific poll. But the two groups said the large number of responses reflect concern by many Fish and Wildlife Service employees that political appointees are inappropriately influencing the science that drives decisions to list species and protect their habitat.

With the Bush Administration everything is just politics: War, Terror, Health, Extinction

- rob 1:18 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Stupid is as Stupid does

Missing Halliburton shipment of radioactive material found in Boston

WASHINGTON (AP) A Halliburton Co. shipment of radioactive material that landed in New York in October was lost en route to Texas, and was not found until Wednesday, when it turned up in Boston.

With Halliburton on the job, you know you are safe.

Both the NRC and Halliburton officials said Thursday that the public never was in danger.

The americium was being shipped from Russia to Houston, Halliburton said in a report filed with the NRC. On Thursday, the company blamed the shipper Greeneville, Tenn.-based Forward Air for losing track of the material and failing to tell Halliburton it had been misplaced.

A spokesman for Forward Air did not return calls for comment.

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the agency was not told about the missing material until Tuesday. Depending on the material, government rules require notification either immediately or within 30 days.

``The focus through today was on trying to find the material,'' Sheehan said. ``We're going to be pressing them on why the notification was not more timely.''

Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall said the shipping company improperly labeled the material and sent it to the wrong location. She said Halliburton contacted the shipper ``multiple times'' about the package and was told repeatedly it was en route to Houston.

She said Halliburton was told in late December that the material had been shipped to Texas, but after more calls, the shipping company acknowledged Tuesday it could not find it.

Oh.. I see, it wasn't poor wittle Halliburton's fault. It got lost in shippment. True Halliburton was told the shipment was in transit to Texas in December and they didn't bother to let the government it never arrived until this past Tuesday. They're just really busy over charging the defense department, so cut them some slack.

Again, this stuff is perfectly save and no harm could come to anyone, that's why

...the material was encased in a double-walled stainless steel cylinder that was locked in a steel transport container designed to protect workers.

``All of this was found intact, and we have no information that leads us to believe that the public or environment were in danger,'' Hall said.

Feel better now.

- rob 11:13 AM - [PermaLink] -

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I'm a Suspect, You're a Suspect, We're All Suspects

Especially if you're a Canadian citizen! We'll cut your dick off, shove it in your mouth, gouge your eyes out and slit your throat, because somebody in Washington doesn't like the cut of your jib, even if you happen to be changing planes, because you had no choice in the matter and were flown in, against your will, to this godforsaken country. You're a suspect:

Torture, American Style
By BOB HERBERT, NYT, Feb. 11 2005

Maher Arar is a 34-year-old native of Syria who emigrated to Canada as a teenager. On Sept. 26, 2002, as he was returning from a family vacation in Tunisia, he was seized by American authorities at Kennedy Airport in New York, where he was in the process of changing planes.

Mr. Arar, a Canadian citizen, was not charged with a crime. But, as Jane Mayer tells us in a compelling and deeply disturbing article in the current issue of The New Yorker, he "was placed in handcuffs and leg irons by plainclothes officials and transferred to an executive jet."

In an instant, Mr. Arar was swept into an increasingly common nightmare, courtesy of the United States of America. The plane that took off with him from Kennedy "flew to Washington, continued to Portland, Maine, stopped in Rome, Italy, then landed in Amman, Jordan."

Any rights Mr. Arar might have thought he had, either as a Canadian citizen or a human being, had been left behind. At times during the trip, Mr. Arar heard the pilots and crew identify themselves in radio communications as members of "the Special Removal Unit." He was being taken, on the orders of the U.S. government, to Syria, where he would be tortured.

The title of Ms. Mayer's article is "Outsourcing Torture." It's a detailed account of the frightening and extremely secretive U.S. program known as "extraordinary rendition."

This is one of the great euphemisms of our time. Extraordinary rendition is the name that's been given to the policy of seizing individuals without even the semblance of due process and sending them off to be interrogated by regimes known to practice torture. In terms of bad behavior, it stands side by side with contract killings.

Our henchmen in places like Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Uzbekistan and Jordan are torturing terror suspects at the behest of a nation - the United States - that just went through a national election in which the issue of moral values was supposed to have been decisive. How in the world did we become a country in which gays' getting married is considered an abomination, but torture is O.K.?

As Ms. Mayer pointed out: "Terrorism suspects in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East have often been abducted by hooded or masked American agents, then forced onto a Gulfstream V jet, like the one described by Arar. ... Upon arriving in foreign countries, rendered suspects often vanish. Detainees are not provided with lawyers, and many families are not informed of their whereabouts."

Mr. Arar was seized because his name had turned up on a watch list of terror suspects. He was reported to have been a co-worker of a man in Canada whose brother was a suspected terrorist.

"Although he initially tried to assert his innocence, he eventually confessed to anything his tormentors wanted him to say," Ms. Mayer wrote.

The confession under torture was worthless. Syrian officials reported back to the United States that they could find no links between Mr. Arar and terrorism. He was released in October 2003 without ever being charged and is now back in Canada.

Barbara Olshansky is the assistant legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing Mr. Arar in a lawsuit against the U.S. I asked her to describe Mr. Arar's physical and emotional state following his release from custody.

She sounded shaken by the memory. "He's not a big guy," she said. "He had lost more than 40 pounds. His pallor was terrible, and his eyes were sunken. He looked like someone who was kind of dead inside."

Any government that commits, condones, promotes or fosters torture is a malignant force in the world. And those who refuse to raise their voices against something as clearly evil as torture are enablers, if not collaborators.

There is a widespread but mistaken notion in the U.S. that everybody seized by the government in its so-called war on terror is in fact somehow connected to terrorist activity. That is just wildly wrong.

Tony Blair knows a little about that sort of thing. Just two days ago the British prime minister formally apologized to 11 people who were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for bombings in England by the Irish Republican Army three decades ago.

Jettisoning the rule of law to permit such acts of evil as kidnapping and torture is not a defensible policy for a civilized nation. It's wrong. And nothing good can come from it.

You better hope you're not brown.

- Michael 9:55 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Jeff Gannon Update

Gannongate hits the mainstream news ("did someone say gay prostitution?" an editor yelped - and suddenly it was newsworthy)

New York Daily News Bush press pal quits over gay prostie link

WASHINGTON - A conservative ringer who was given a press pass to the White House and lobbed softball questions at President Bush quit yesterday after left-leaning Internet bloggers discovered possible ties to gay prostitution.

If you have time (or broadband) and Quicktime, the fine folks over at OneGoodMove have last nights entire MSNBC Countdown story on Gannon. Hilarious.

- rob 4:55 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Looks like we did bring American style democracy to Iraq afterall.

Recount forces Iraq to delay election result

- rob 4:51 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush Administration: "Remember that bit about 'we'll make the country safer'? We don't"

Bush budget scraps 9,790 border patrol agents
President uses law's escape clause to drop funding for new homeland security force

Officially approved by Bush on Dec. 17 after extensive bickering in Congress, the National Intelligence Reform Act included the requirement to add 10,000 border patrol agents in the five years beginning with 2006. Roughly 80 percent of the agents were to patrol the southern U.S. border from Texas to California, along which thousands of people cross into the United States illegally every year.

But Bush's proposed 2006 budget, revealed Monday, funds only 210 new border agents.

The shrunken increase reflects the lack of money for an army of border guards and the capacity to train them, officials said.

Yep, that's right, less then 2 months ago the Bush administration had no idea there was a deficit. None. Nope. Came as a complete surprise.

Pity we spent all that money 'bickering in congress' on nothing. Think of how that money could have been better spent, like paying off more journalists or encouraging teens to have sex with more abstinence education.
(umm... Michael? Is there a better way to phrase that? I don't want to imply the teens have sex with education... I'm not even sure how that would be possible. Maybe teens could be encouraged to 'love' education, as we all know 'love' is a code word for the homosexual agenda... see my awkward grammer has now gotten my completely off track...)

- rob 4:42 PM - [PermaLink] -

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This may upset you, perhaps

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows:

New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts
John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

The Declaration of Independence, 1776.

- Michael 3:00 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Because I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and, doggonit, people like me!

Franken expected to make announcement on candidacy

WASHINGTON - Just one day after U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton decided not to run for a second term, comedian Al Franken may be throwing his hat into the ring.

Last year, Franken said he wanted to run for the Senate in 2008. But last night he told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that he is now considering his candidacy for next year.

Franken, a Minnesota native, plans to make an announcement live on his national radio show in Washington D.C. 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS will be in the studio with Franken for that announcement.

The announcement is expected to come near the end of the broadcast, which will be around 1:45 p.m.

Franken's been involved in Politics with books and his radio show... and his (as Stuart Smalley) interview with Al Gore demonstrates a real understanding of the emotions involved with politics.

Stuart Smalley: Yes. Do you think that Al has feelings.. about not being President.

Tipper Gore: Yes.

Al Gore: Well, of course I have! I-

Stuart Smalley: Al, I'm talking to Tipper. [ turns to Tipper ] And, do you think that Al is maybe in denial about his feelings?

Al Gore: Oh, for goodness sakes!

Tipper Gore: Maybe a little.

Stuart Smalley: Do you think it might be good for the whole Gore Family if Al dealt with his.. his feelings?

Tipper Gore: Well.. sure, I do.

Stuart Smalley: You're doing good work! Good work. Al?

Al Gore: [ fuming ] What?

Stuart Smalley: You are in.. denial. But we are going to trace it, face it, and erase it. I want you to look at the mirror - come on, don't look at me, only you can help you. [ Al looks into the mirror ] Look at the mirror. Come on. That's it. Okay. I want you to say.. "Hi, Me!"

Al Gore: [ relunctant ] Hi, Me.

Stuart Smalley: "I am sad.. about not being President." Come on.

Al Gore: I am.. sad.. about not being.. President.

Stuart Smalley: "And that's.. okay."

Al Gore: And that's okay.

Stuart Smalley: "I don't have to be the most powerful man in the world."

Al Gore: I don't have to be the most powerful.. man in the world.

Stuart Smalley: "I don't have to be able to.. [ thinking ] ..bomb a country any time I want."

Al Gore: Look, I would never arbitrarily bomb..

Stuart Smalley: Okay, okay.. I-I-I'm sorry. Uh.. "All I have to do is be the best Al I can be."

Al Gore: All I have to do is.. be the best Al I can be.

Stuart Smalley: "Because I'm good enough.." Come on! "I'm good enough.. I'm smart enough.. and, doggonit, people like me!"

Al Gore: Because I'm good enough.. I'm smart enough.. and, doggonit, people like me!

Stuart Smalley: Feel better? You feel better?

Al Gore: Actually, I.. I do feel better!

Stuart Smalley: You do? You do feel better?

Al Gore: Yes. Actually, I do.

Stuart Smalley: Hug? [ holds arms out ]

Al Gore: No.

- rob 1:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush Administration: Now that the election is over we might as well say: we didn't give a damn if 9/11 happened or not. But Hey, 9/11 changed everything.

9/11 Report Cites Many Warnings About Hijackings

The Bush administration has blocked the public release of the full, classified version of the report for more than five months, officials said, much to the frustration of former commission members who say it provides a critical understanding of the failures of the civil aviation system. The administration provided both the classified report and a declassified, 120-page version to the National Archives two weeks ago and, even with heavy redactions in some areas, the declassified version provides the firmest evidence to date about the warnings that aviation officials received concerning the threat of an attack on airliners and the failure to take steps to deter it.

Among other things, the report says that leaders of the F.A.A. received 52 intelligence reports from their security branch that mentioned Mr. bin Laden or Al Qaeda from April to Sept. 10, 2001. That represented half of all the intelligence summaries in that time.

Five of the intelligence reports specifically mentioned Al Qaeda's training or capability to conduct hijackings, the report said. Two mentioned suicide operations, although not connected to aviation, the report said.

- rob 11:55 AM - [PermaLink] -

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The place today on all things Gannon: AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth

Here's some selections from many of today and yesterday's posts there:

On CNN, he [Howard Kurtz] paints the story as "did these liberal bloggers go too far in investigating this guy's personal life?"

Oh, I don't know. The issue here is whether we might have a male prostitute (or pimp) asking questions of the president and being leaked internal CIA documents. And Kurtz doesn't think that's a story worth investigating.

Not to mention, did Kurtz even ask Gannon the most obvious question from Journalism 101:

Are you in any way associated with the Web addressees MilitaryEscorts.com and MilitaryEscortsM4M.com?

Then your second question is:

It appears these Web sites deal with prostitution - a crime - am I wrong?
...
How the hell could this Gannon/Guckert scandal happen right in front of the White House Press Corps? Seems to me, attending a White House Press Briefing is unlike most other briefings. You don't just show up.

First, you can't even get into the White House complex without a background check and picture identification. So who got the background check? Gannon or Guckert.

Did he tell the Secret Service his real name? If not, how the hell did the Secret Service let someone using a false name get close to the President. That is kinda scary.

And if Gannon/Guckert used a pseudonym to get press credentials, someone in the White House had to know. Under what name did he pass that background check and get White House press credentials? The White House just doesn't hand those things out. Who approved it? And again, who did they approve it for? Gannon or Guckert. And why did he get the credentials? Just to lob softballs.
...
From DailyKos:

White House-credentialed fake news reporter "Jeff Gannon" from fake news agency "Talon News" was cited by the Washington Post as having the only access to an internal CIA memo that named Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a covert CIA agent. Gannon, in a question posed to Wilson in an October 2003 interview, referred to the memo (to which no other news outlet had access, according to the Post). Gannon subsequently has been subpoenaed by the federal grand jury looking into the Plame outing.

I'm sorry, but a potential male prostitute was given access to internal CIA documents? Hello? We CANNOT let this story die.

Gannon has quit and Talon has removed all of his stories from their site (and any articles supporting the anti-gay marriage amendment interestingly enough). Mainstream media won't notice this story because it really isn't important that a possible male prostitute (or a person possibly connected to male prostitution) under a fake name was allowed in the White House every day and in the same room as the President. Maybe because they were in the same room with that guy every day and they didn't notice nor care. Hey look Michael Jackson's wearing one glove today!!!!!!

- rob 7:01 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Ohio never left us
It was only sleeping

The Glibs are still at it. From COBB 2004 RELEASE: NEW OHIO RECOUNT MAY GET FED COURT HEARING: (news release)

Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb's pending request to have the flawed recount of Ohio's presidential vote be done again, this time in conformance with state and federal law, moved a step closer to judicial resolution with the filing last week of the final necessary documents before the matter can be heard by a federal judge.

Attorneys acting on behalf of Cobb and Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik, filed a legal Memorandum on February 3, countering the "remarkable assertion" of Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell that he is not a proper party to the recount litigation and that the lawsuit filed by the presidential candidates should be dismissed.
"Mr. Blackwell and Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro are doing their utmost to keep the public and the proper authorities from finding out what went wrong with Ohio's presidential election and the bungled recount which followed it. Collectively, they have refused to testify before members of Congress and they have sought sanctions against attorneys prosecuting legitimate election claims. It is not at all surprising that they are claiming a federal court has no jurisdiction in the oversight of a federal election. It's not surprising, it's simply ridiculous," said Blair Bobier, Media Director for the Cobb-LaMarche 2004 Green Party presidential campaign.

elsewhere I read...Daily Kos :: Christopher Hitchens thinks the OHIO VOTE WAS STOLEN

Christopher Hitchens has a new article in Vanity Fair entitled, OHIO'S ODD NUMBER'S. The lead-in states "No conspiracy theorist, and no fan of John Kerry's, the author nevertheless found the Ohio polling results impossible to swallow: Given what happened in that key state on Election Day 2004, both democracy and common sense cry out for a court-ordered inspection of its new voting machines."
...
As he [Hitchens] says about Kerry in this Vanity Fair article: "...I did not think that John Kerry should have been President of any country at any time."

Yet, in spite of this, he now says that, "The Federal Election Commission, which has been a risible body for far too long, ought to make Ohio its business. The Diebold company, which also manufactures A.T.M.'s, should not receive another dime until it can produce a voting system that is similarly reliable. And Americans should cease to be treated like serfs or extras when they present themselves to exercise their franchise."

Why?

Read the Post, there are lost of reasons why, many of which you may have read here in the November and December period... something smells in Ohio (and it isn't the Cuyahoga River).

- rob 6:33 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Get a Load o' This

Smells bad in here . . . Who farted?

NEW YORK Jeff Gannon, the controversial reporter for conservative Web site Talon News who drew complaints for gaining access to White House press events, resigned from his job last night amid liberal blogs' allegations about his real name and his personal and professional life.

Today, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to President Bush asking him to "address the matter" in light of "mounting evidence that your Administration has, on several occasions, paid members of the media to advocate in favor of Administration policies."

Gannon, whose real name, according to investigators at DailyKos and other blogs, is James "J.D." Guckert, first gained attention several weeks ago when he asked a question at a presidential press conference that some in the press corps considered so friendly it might have been planted. Later it was revealed by E&P that Gannon had been turned down last year for a congressional press pass because he could not prove his employer was a valid news organization. That denial barred him from receiving a White House "hard pass," allowing regular access to White House press events.

But Gannon had been obtaining daily White House press passes, a situation that had irked some veteran White House reporters who also questioned his credentials or considered him to be too partisan in his questioning.

Another intriguing issue is his involvement, along with better known Robert Novak, Judith Miller and others, in the Valerie Plame/CIA episode. His name turned up on a list of reporters targeted for questioning by the federal prosecutor in the case. Dan Froomkin of the The Washington Post wrote last spring that "the reason Gannon is on the list is most likely an attempt to find out who gave him a secret memo that he mentioned in an interview he had with Plame's husband, former ambassador and administration critic Joseph Wilson."

I love the dateline: NEW YORK. And the question asker: Rep. Slaughter (D-N.Y.) Kinda makes me feel alone in this U.S. of A. Maybe if we're lucky, the terrorists will blow up some more of New York, and finish it for good.

- Michael 4:49 PM - [PermaLink] -

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This Flash animation has been around since 2001, but I just saw it. It's excellent and brought to you by the folks who made the Meatrix.

Keep Liberty's Torch Shining

- rob 4:49 PM - [PermaLink] -

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One of these things is not like the others
One of these things doesn't belong
(okay make that three not one)

What do these domain names have in common?

Conservativeguy.com
Conservative-guy.com
Conservativelegal.com
Exposejessejackson.com
Jeffgannon.com
Theconservativeguy.com
Theconservativelegal.com
The-conservative-guy.com
conservative-guy.com
Hotmilitarystud.com
Militaryescorts.com
Militaryescortsm4m.com

All are owned by the same folks who brought you "Jeff Gannon." Interesting that the same folks who brought you Conservativeguy.com and lob softballs at the President also run Hotmilitarystud.com.

Ah... hypocrasy is fun.

Found along with a lot of other stuff in:

Daily Kos :: Comments Plame Leaked by Fake News Source? Part VI

- rob 4:45 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Bypass the President... heck bypass the constitution: Let Rummy talk directly with the Chinese military. What could go wrong?

Rumsfeld to visit China, eyes hot line for defense

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has agreed to visit China this year and the Pentagon is discussing the creation of a telephone hot line to the Chinese military, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

Who needs the state department. Let Rummy put the Chinese military in its place.

God, thanks to Rummy, this century is on the verge of being so much more suckier.
(hey Michael... is that good grammer?)

- rob 12:05 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I'll Be Brief

I had to post this letter from today's NYTs:

To the Editor:

In David Brooks's looking-glass world, the "urban and university-town elite" Democrats myopically pursue their own self-interest while Republicans earn electoral majorities by rubbing elbows with all varieties of the common man.

Mr. Brooks reduces the word "educated" to just another brand-name affiliation. In fact, educated people tend to ponder the lessons of history, pursue logic and reason over superstition and fear, and exhibit curiosity and compassion toward people with lives far different from their own.

Education - the driving force behind American social mobility - imparts skills and economic success unrelated to the status of one's paternal line. Why would any American take up the rallying cry of an uneducated constituency that duly elects a posse of anti-intellectual leaders?

Rebecca Carman
New York, Feb. 6, 2005

Amen Rebecca. Are we the only intelligent apes left?

Then there's this and also this. My favorite quotes:

Over all, the budget is a sham that takes big cuts out of politically vulnerable programs that have very little to do with the explosion of the deficit in Mr. Bush's tenure.

Programs benefiting low-income citizens, like community development and health care, are destined to bear close to half of the cuts even though they accounted for less than 10 percent of the spending increases during the first Bush term. Some of the cruelest cuts would affect hundreds of thousands of working poor people who rely on child-care assistance and food stamps.

The deficit problem is a reflection of lowered revenue more than high spending - a fact that the president and the Republicans in Congress are determined to ignore. To the contrary, their proposal is to lock the once-"temporary" Bush tax cuts into stone.

As a political tract, the budget neatly omits any accounting for next year's costs of the Iraq war, lately running at more than $5 billion a month.

Oh, only $5 billion a month? And I'm getting all of my benefits cut, from a system I've been paying into for more than 30 years, straight out of my paycheck, automatically! Wow, that sounds fantastic. Why don't you just hit me over the head with a blackjack and send me to the morgue? Here's more:

Why expose workers to that much risk? Ideology. "Social Security is the soft underbelly of the welfare state," declares Stephen Moore of the Club for Growth and the Cato Institute. "If you can jab your spear through that, you can undermine the whole welfare state."

By the welfare state, Mr. Moore means Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid - social insurance programs whose purpose, above all, is to protect Americans against the extreme economic insecurity that prevailed before the New Deal. The hard right has never forgiven F.D.R. (and later L.B.J.) for his efforts to reduce that insecurity, and now that the right is running Washington, it's trying to turn the clock back to 1932.

The attempt to "jab a spear" through Social Security complements the strategy of "starve the beast," long advocated by right-wing intellectuals: cut taxes, then use the resulting deficits as an excuse for cuts in social spending. The spearing doesn't seem to be going too well at the moment, but the starving was on full display in the budget released yesterday.

Almost all of this plunge came from a sharp decline in receipts from the personal income tax and the corporate profits tax. These are the taxes that fall primarily on people with high incomes - and in 2003 and 2004, their combined take as a share of G.D.P. was at its lowest level since 1942. On the other hand, the payroll tax, which is the main federal tax paid by middle-class and working-class Americans, remains at near-record levels.

There you have it, my friends.

- Michael 3:20 PM - [PermaLink] -

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absence makes the heart grow fonder

Daily Kos :: Abstinence-only education budget *increased*

Remember when Bush promised to cut only those federal programs that were "ineffective" or "duplicative"? Like programs that help inner-city youth go to college?

Abstinence-only sex education programs have had "little impact" on Texas teenagers' behavior, according to an ongoing study funded by the Texas Department of Health and presented to state officials last week, the Dallas Morning News reports.
...
For the study, junior high and high school students filled out an anonymous 10-page questionnaire on their sexual behavior. The study found that 23% of ninth-grade girls reported having had sexual intercourse before they received abstinence education, a percentage below the national average. However, the study found that 28% of the same girls reported having had sexual intercourse after receiving abstinence education, a percentage that is "closer to that of their peers across the state," according to the Morning News. In addition, the study found that the percentage of ninth-grade boys reporting having had sexual intercourse remained unchanged before and after abstinence education; however, the percentage of 10th grade boys reporting sexual activity "jumped" from 24% to 39% after participating in abstinence education, according to the Morning News. "We didn't find strong evidence of program effect," Pruitt said, adding, "We didn't find what many would like for us to find."

So here we have a federal program that is clearly ineffective (and we don't need a study to know that teens will have sex whether we like it or not). So according to Bush's criteria, it should be slated for elimination.

You can see the punchline coming a mile away:

If the budget is approved, abstinence education would get $206 million, an increase of $39 million.

Abortions are up during Bush's term. Divorces are up during Bush's term. And, thanks to abstinence-only education, it looks like teen sex is also up during Bush's term.

Wow, when you put it like that Bush really seems to be more the type of President Bacchus would want rather than the type of President Jesus would want.

- rob 12:59 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Yesterday was Monday all day: The Top Ten Conservative Idiots

5. Melissa Fryrear
We noted last week that one prominent member of the American Taliban (the Family Research Council) employ a "homosexual detection expert," presumably for the purposes of rooting out evil-doers who belongs to the Axis of Tolerance (see Idiots 184). That's because "tolerance," according to the FRC, is a code word for creeping homosexuality. And creeping homosexuality is not to be ignored. Why, before you know it, homosexuality could be creeping down your chimney. But terrified heteros, take note: "tolerance" isn't the only word on the fundies' no-no list. Check out Focus on the Family "gender issues analyst" and alleged "former lesbian" Melissa Fryrear: "'Love' is one of the Trojan horses for the acceptance of homosexuality ... Gay activists are trying to find an argument that carries emotional weight: 'love,' after all, sounds good to everyone. The problem, though, is their definition of 'love' is carefully camouflaged to mean more than Cupid ever meant it to mean. Their definition is meant to mean the acceptance and the celebration of homosexuality." So let me get this straight... somehow the Christian right have gotten themselves into a situation where "tolerance" and "love" are now words that must not be spoken? How peculiar. To be fair though, I must admit that I've always wondered whether Jesus really meant it when he said "love thy neighbor," or whether he was secretly advertising a big gay gangbang at the house next door.

6. The White House
Of course you're all familiar with the ridiculous costs of the recent presidential inauguration - the most expensive in history - which took place in Washington a couple weeks ago (if not, see Idiots 181). The theme of the inauguration was "celebrate the troops," so lets take a look at how they were celebrated, shall we? Rebecca Lawson of West Babylon, NY, told MSNBC that her son attended the inauguration - because he was ordered to. When he got there, "He said there was no food provided for them, so they ate after the event at some fast-food restaurant ... He stayed at a local military base with the rest of the group, but they made him pay for the room." Huh. The White House spent $40 million on the inauguration, and they couldn't even feed or house the soldiers who were ordered to attend? Humbug.

- rob 12:15 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush raises taxes... calls it a "change in pricing structure"

Bush Budget Would Change Electrical Power Pricing Structure

Western lawmakers from both parties vowed to block the proposal, which they said could raise electric power rates in the Pacific Northwest by as much as 20 percent.

Besides the Portland, Ore.-based Bonneville Power Administration, which supplies power to four states in the Pacific Northwest, the plan also would affect three other regional agencies that supply power to dozens of states: the Colorado-based Western Area Power Administration; Georgia-based Southeastern Power Administration; and Oklahoma-based Southwestern Power Administration.

Overall, the plan could save up to $12 billion over 10 years by removing subsidies and other federal assistance, officials said.
...
Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., also opposed the plan, which he said could cost Northwest rate payers as much as $2 billion over three years.

"BPA's customers are still recovering from the West Coast energy crisis and a sluggish economy. They've already been hit with rate hikes and can't afford any more. I am going to exhaust every right and privilege I have as a senator to kill this proposal," Smith said.
...
"This is the same as a billion-dollar tax hike on Washington state, and as far as I'm concerned, it's dead on arrival," said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. "To think we would arbitrarily pay more for power generated right here in the Northwest is ludicrous."

Well serves those "ecotopia" (pacific northwest) residents right... Releasing all those tapes about how Enron fixed the prices. Embarrassing friends of the President... that's just not right.

Tapes: Enron plotted to shut down power plant

(CNN) -- A Washington state utility released audiotapes Thursday that it said revealed bankrupt energy trader Enron Corp. plotted to take a power plant off-line in 2001 to jack up electric prices in Western states.
...
"We want you guys to get a little creative ... and come up with a reason to go down," the Enron worker tells the plant employee on one of the tapes.

"Anything you want to do over there? ... Cleaning, anything like that?" the Enron employee says.

"Yeah, yeah," the other replies. "There's some stuff we could be doing."

Eric Christensen, the utility's assistant general counsel, said the tapes show Enron was planning to manipulate Western power markets as early as 1998 -- before California's deregulated energy market opened.

The California (the whole west coast really) energy crisis was never about energy... it was about greed. There was no crisis... save for the ethics crisis in the halls of Washington D.C. and Houston.

- rob 12:00 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Denials Follow Canseco's Steroid Accusations

The Daily News also reported Canseco's claims in the book that U.S. president George Bush, who was the Texas Rangers general managing partner when Canseco played there, had to have been aware that his players were using performance-enhancing drugs but did nothing about it.

White House spokesman Ken Lisaius declined to comment on the claims, but he noted that President Bush called on players and owners during his 2004 State of the Union address to get rid of steroids and applauded the beefed-up drug policy Major League Baseball and the Players Association agreed to in December, the Daily News said.

"This President's position on steroids has been clear for some time," Lisaius told the newspaper.

Yep, as soon as he stopped making money from players using steroids, he was against players using steroids. But we still like him because he doesn't flip flop.

Though honestly, Bush "had to have been aware" and Bush actually being aware are two separate things, as we have seen demonstrated constantly.

- rob 11:50 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush to scientists: "Bombs on Mars is more important"

NASA budget would kill Hubble

No, don't try to find any mention of bombs on Mars in the article... the subject of this post is more a Bush thought bubble than a Bush speech bubble.

- rob 10:50 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush to veterans: "sure you've served our country. But what have you done for me lately?

Advocates for veterans decry fee hike

But for the second year in a row, funding of medical care will increase just 1.2 percent, far less than is needed to keep up with demand, according to veterans advocates.

"The budget is not adequate for veterans that have earned benefits by virtue of their service," said Bob Clements, state commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Clements said he and other veterans groups plan to fight the proposed enrollment fee and increase in drug co-payments, which would require veterans in higher-income groups to pay $15 for a 30-day supply instead of $7.

Veterans must pay more for health service so Bush's campaign supporters can pay less in taxes.

Pretty straight forward isn't it?

- rob 10:45 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush Raises Taxes

Calls them fees

Airlines protest hike in security fee in proposed Bush budget

- rob 10:41 AM - [PermaLink] -

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We'll blame this one on Clinton. (No one will do the math and realize these kids weren't even in kindergarten when Monica was in the news.)

Less bare skin to be new rule

SOUTH HADLEY - The new dress code at Michael E. Smith Middle School that seeks to limit the amount of skin pupils may bare in class had its genesis last year after some female students fell out of their tops.
...
"We had girls fall out of their shirts in the sixth grade," principal Melodie L. Goodwin said during a recent interview at the school about the code, which takes effect March 21.

Some male teachers expressed concern about the amount of flesh being displayed, and Goodwin started gathering input to develop a new dress code

"They were a little uncomfortable interacting with some of the girls," Goodwin said.

The principal said for some reason pupils began wearing much more revealing clothes to school starting last spring, something about which parents may be ignorant because many youngsters leave home with a hooded, zippered top under which they may be wearing a halter top. Pupils also started rolling down their sweat pants at school, revealing the tops of their buttocks, as well as not wearing brassieres or underpants and traipsing around in stiletto heels.

"This year we had a young lady come into the cafeteria with only a bra and sweat pants on," Goodwin said. "Her mom agreed it was very inappropriate."

Goodwin attributes the racy dressing to the styles adolescents see actors and rock stars wearing on television.

Because everyone on TV back in the old days (which for Goodwin was probably the seventies) were always properly attired.



I think the catch phrase in the article is "...parents may be ignorant...."

(yes... TV has an amazingly powerful effect on children... as a parent I know it is hard to be a parent and saying it is the parent's fault is always unfair. That being said the number one shaper of a child's behavior is not TV, not church, not music, but the parents. I'm not saying these kids had parents that dressed inappropriately [though they might have], I'm saying that it probably would have been helpful if the parents were involved in the child's life; if they had demonstrated and expressed the importance of self respect... blah blah).

I mainly like the article because it is from a paper called "The Republican." (its from a blue state though...)

- rob 2:05 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Later Cheney said "Who the F#*k put the truth serum in my coffee!"

Cheney knew he was being interviewed by pals at Fox News... and he let his guard down. Ooops.

Cheney foresees trillions in debt

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney acknowledged Sunday that the federal government would need to borrow trillions of dollars over the next few decades to cover the cost of the private retirement accounts at the heart of President Bush's plan to revamp Social Security.

Cheney said the government would have to borrow $754 billion over the next 10 years, and conceded that the price tag would involve borrowing trillions of dollars more in subsequent decades.

"That's right. Trillions more after that," Cheney said in response to a question on "Fox News Sunday."

Wow, so after spending trillions, the payroll tax isn't reduced and the actual benefits are less. Looks like a winner Bush!

Atrios over at Eschaton states it simply: Trillions

The point is this:

The president is proposing to spend about 4.5 trillion dollars over 20 years to:

Change Social Security in a way which pays the average beneficiary less than is both promised under current law and payable under current projections for the next 75 years.

Over on Eschaton today Atrios has some great Quotes from Bush from his magical mystery social security tour: Fantastic!

In Omaha on Friday, a divorced single mother named Mary Mornin tells the president, "I have one child, Robbie, who is mentally challenged, and I have two daughters."

"Fantastic," the president exclaims, and he tells her she has "the hardest job in America, being a single mom."

Later, the 57-year old Mornin tells Bush that she works three jobs, which the president deems "uniquely American" and "fantastic." He asks her if she gets any sleep.

- rob 12:23 PM - [PermaLink] -

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First we got the bomb, and that was good
'Cause we love peace and motherhood
Then Russia got the bomb, but that's okay
'Cause the balance of power's maintained that way
Who's next....

France got the bomb, but don't you grieve
'Cause they're on our side, I believe
China got the bomb, but have no fears
They can't wipe us out for at least five years
Who's next....
...
Egypt's gonna get one too
Just to use on you know who
So Israel's getting tense
Wants one in self defense
"The Lord's our shepherd," says the psalm
But just in case, we better get a bomb
Who's next....
- Tom Lehrer (Who's Next)

More than ever "Who's Next?" is a very good question to ask.

Doesn't it seem odd that we're torturing folks in over crowded prisons in Iraq to find out the location of non-existent WMDs, while in Pakistan we politely ask a man who sold nuclear bomb technology (the mother of all WMDs) to anyone and everyone and who lives in his nice home under house arrest if he would (if it wasn't a bother) tell us to whom he sold the tech to?

Khan's nuke Walmart still operational: TIME

[World News]: Lahore, Feb.7 : Recent investigations have revealed that the nuclear proliferation network once managed by Pakistan's top nuclear scientist, A. Q.Khan, is still operational.

"Nothing has changed," TIME quoted one of Khan's former aides as saying. "The hardware is still available, and the network hasn't stopped".

The report that has extensively been quoted by the Daily Times says that the Khan network played a much larger role in helping both Iran and North Korea to become nuclear proficient than previously disclosed.
...
Many fear that these disclosures represent the tip of the iceberg, given that the father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb travelled the world for more than a decade, visiting countries in Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East.

US officials are currently investigating the possibility that Khan's network sold nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, the magazine quotes a Pakistani defence official as saying. He also confirmed that the US has submitted questions to Khan on whether North Korea and Iran sold such equipment to third parties.

Please... I was offered a nuke last time I walked through Washington Square.

Oh what the heck... here's a photo of Khan:

- rob 11:38 AM - [PermaLink] -

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In a world gone mad... I miss the good old CIA

Paranoia grips the U.S. capital

This week, former military intelligence analyst William Arkin revealed a hitherto unknown directive, with the Orwellian name "JCS Conplan 0300-97," authorizing the Pentagon to employ special, ultra-secret "anti-terrorist" military units on American soil for what the author claims are "extra-legal missions."

In other words, using U.S. soldiers to kill or arrest Americans, acts that have been illegal since the U.S. Civil War.
...
Instead of being fired for the grotesque military-political fiasco in Iraq and the shameful torture scandals, Rumsfeld has just managed to create a new, Pentagon spy/special ops organization, blandly named "Strategic Support Branch," that will replace or duplicate many of the CIA's tasks.

The CIA has been sent to the doghouse. Too many CIA veterans criticized or contradicted Bush's and Cheney's phony claims over Iraq and terrorism. So Bush has imposed a new, yes-man director on the agency, slashed its budgets, purged its senior officers, and downgraded CIA to third-class status.

Rumsfeld's new, massively funded SSB will become the Pentagon's CIA, complete with commando units, spies, mercenary forces, intelligence gathering and analysis, and a direct line to the White House. The Pentagon has just effectively taken over the spy business.

I think Rummy's got nude photos of Bush sniffing coke off the breasts of a Redskin's cheerleader or something (to quote a phrase I saw somewhere)... he must have something on somebody. Why does the man even have a job, much less his own KGB.

Oh, and I don't know how I missed this "JCS Conplan 0300-97" last week (okay 2 weeks ago), but here it is: Commandos Get Duty on U.S. Soil

These commandos, operating under a secret counterterrorism program code-named Power Geyser, were mentioned publicly for the first time this week on a Web site for a new book, "Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans, Programs and Operation in the 9/11 World," (Steerforth Press). The book was written by William M. Arkin, a former intelligence analyst for the Army.
...
The role of the armed forces in the United States has been a contentious issue for more than a century. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which restricts military forces from performing domestic law enforcement duties, like policing, was enacted after the Civil War in response to the perceived misuse of federal troops who were policing in the South.

Over the years, the law has been amended to allow the military to lend equipment to federal, state and local authorities; assist federal agencies in drug interdiction; protect national parks; and execute quarantine and certain health laws. About 5,000 federal troops supported civilian agencies at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City three years ago.

Since Sept. 11, however, military and law enforcement agencies have worked much more closely not only to help detect and defeat any possible attack, including from unconventional weapons, but also to assure the continuity of the federal government in case of cataclysmic disaster.
...
A civil liberties advocate who was told about the program by a reporter said that he had no objections to the program as described to him because its scope appeared to be limited to supporting the counterterrorism efforts of civilian authorities.

Mr. Arkin, in the online supplement to his book (codenames.org/documents.html), says the contingency plan, called JCS Conplan 0300-97, calls for "special-mission units in extra-legal missions to combat terrorism in the United States" based on top-secret orders that are managed by the military's Joint Staff and coordinated with the military's Special Operations Command and Northern Command, which is the lead military headquarters for domestic defense.
...
Three senior Defense Department and Bush administration officials confirmed the existence of the plan and mission, but disputed Mr. Arkin's characterization of the mission as "extra-legal."

One of the officials said the units operated in the United States under "special authority" from either the president or the secretary of defense

What could go wrong... what kind of plans could the pentagon come up with under "special authority" from the president?

Oh yeah... Operation Northwoods.

In the early 1960s, America's top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba.

Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities.

The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba's then new leader, communist Fidel Castro.

America's top military brass even contemplated causing U.S. military casualties, writing: "We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba," and, "casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation."

- rob 11:31 AM - [PermaLink] -

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You say terrorist I say ally
Terrorist - Ally
Terrorist - Ally

Let's blow the whole place up.

State Department: MEK is a terrorist organisation. U.S. is against terrorists.
Defense Department: MEK is going to give us as reliable information about Iran as Chalabi did for Iraq. And we like that.

Gee what a short title: U.S. Seeking Members of Iranian Group MEK to be Operatives Against Tehran; Will Train as Spies Then Send Back to Iran to Gather Intelligence Against Clerical Regime

NEW YORK, Feb. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Members of an Iranian group known for its support of the U.S. Embassy takeover in 1979 may now be sought by the Bush administration as operatives for use against Tehran, Newsweek reports in the current issue. At a camp south of Baghdad called Ashraf, 3,850 members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (People's Holy Warriors) or MEK have been confined but gently treated by U.S. forces since the invasion of Iraq (once they were allies of Saddam against their own country in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war).

Because our support of bin Laden and the Afganistan Mujahedin worked out so well.......

- rob 10:35 AM - [PermaLink] -

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