Richard Cohen - The Explanation Hillary Clinton Owes - washingtonpost.com

I'm not a huge Richard Cohen fan, and his motives for writing this column are probably different from mine in agreeing with him.

Nevertheless, I do believe we are owed an explanation from each candidate; a believable one would be nice.

Maybe we should put them all under oath, right before we put Bush and Cheney under oath.

How could 20 some odd senators have figured out that the whole Iraq thing was a boondoggle, and certainly not in the country's best interests and every last damn one of you were either fooled right out of your socks or voted for a war, you were pretty damn sure was bullshit, for political reasons.

Tell the damn truth!!!

Richard Cohen - The Explanation Hillary Clinton Owes - washingtonpost.com:

Yet another man has betrayed Hillary Clinton. This time it's George W. Bush, who not only deceived her about weapons of mass destruction but, when granted congressional authorization to go to war in Iraq, actually did so. This, apparently, came as a surprise to her, although in every hamlet and village in America, every resident who could either read or watch Fox News knew that Bush was going to take the country to war. Among other things, troops were already being dispatched.

Somehow, Bush's intentions were lost on Clinton, who then as now was a member of the United States Senate. This was the case even though she now rightly calls Bush's desire to topple Saddam Hussein an 'obsession.'

Bush's Friends, The Saudis

This is by far one of the most interesting things about 9/11 and everything that has happened since.

Does anyone really have a clue what the Bushites are up to? Because it sure as hell has nothing to do with their stated goals?

Is it ever a good idea to have a president whose family is so enter-twined with the heads of state of another country?

Will we ever know the whole truth about who played what roles in the nightmare of deception; smoke and mirrors, tear gas in the eyes, fog of war, whatever one wished to call it, we have been living in for the past 6 years?

Old Dead-eye was "summoned" by the Saudi Royals not all that long ago? Seems they were not at all happy with the status quo of chaos and civil war in Iraq. The official leak pretty much said that if the U.S. couldn't stop a Shia take-over of Iraq, they would be forced to. Seems they are scared of Iran, too, or so the story goes.

Bush's Friends, The Saudis [Oliver Willis: Like Kryptonite To Stupid]:

On 9/11, several Saudi Arabian citizens who were part of the Al Qaeda network killed over 3,000 innocent people at the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and on United 93. Saudi Arabia faced no repercussions for their role and President Bush responded by holding hands with an old family friend (They've got numerous business dealings with his father and him in the past and I'm sure in the future. Apparently that Saudi money helps keep the family compound in Kennebunkport in tight shape).

In the last few days we've been subject to a p.r. campaign by the administration and their allies in the media focused on supposed Iranian funding of the Shiite faction in the Iraqi civil war. But at the same time, Saudi Arabia is funding the Sunni side. Once again, Saudi Arabia gets a pass.

Dave Lindorff: Inappropriate Behavior and Impeachment

"If there was any integrity in Congress..."

Yeah, well...can't say we've seen much, yet? Although anything this Congress does is 100% better than the last three Congresses.

That sure as hell ain't saying much.

Dave Lindorff: Inappropriate Behavior and Impeachment | BuzzFlash:

Douglas Feith, who headed up the insidious Office of Special Plans at the Pentagon that was created to develop, gin up, and manufacture 'evidence' to justify a U.S. attack on Iraq, has been reprimanded in a long-delayed report by the Pentagon Inspector General's office, which concludes that the whole OSP project, while perhaps not illegal, was 'inappropriate.'

Feith and the Republican establishment are taking that as the final word, and as an official okay for the OSP's activities.

But wait a minute.

When is the last time we heard the term 'inappropriate behavior' used?

Right.

It was Bill Clinton and his cigar in the Oval Office.

White House slams carpooling, new road fees better

So, now what?

We are going to have toll roads everywhere?

OK, how about a heavier tolls for heavier vehicles?

But no tolls on country roads, which are the only ones I like anyway.

The whole damn thing is stupid.

White House slams carpooling, new road fees better - Yahoo! News:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Carpooling won't do much to reduce U.S. highway congestion in urban areas, and a better solution would be to build new highways and charge drivers fees to use them, the White House said on Monday.

'It is increasingly appropriate to charge drivers for some roadway use in the same way the private market charges for other goods and services,' the White House said in its annual report on the U.S. economy.

While some urban areas have designated roads for vehicles with two or more passengers, those high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes are often underused because carpooling is becoming less popular, the administration said.

Based on the latest data supplied by the White House, only about 13 percent of motorists carpooled to work in 2000. That compared with 20 percent of daily American commuters in 1980.

'This trend makes it unlikely that initiatives focused on carpooling will make large strides in reducing vehicle use,' the White House said.

Vice President Cheney will not testify at Libby trial

I don't believe they ever intended to call Cheney and they can't put their client on the stand, knowing he will commit perjury.

If Libby doesn't testify now, after his attorney said that he would, he is toast.

If Congress has been paying attention to the revelations of the Libby Trial, Cheney is toast as well, because if he isn't, Congress, as it currently exists, is.

Impeach Vice!

Vice President Cheney will not testify at Libby trial - CNN.com:

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Neither Vice President Dick Cheney nor his former aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby will testify at Libby's perjury and obstruction trial in the CIA leak case, Libby's lawyer said Tuesday.

Defense attorney Theodore Wells said he advised Cheney's lawyer over lunch that the vice president's testimony would not be needed. Wells also said he planned to rest his case this week without calling Libby.

In December, Wells had announced he would call Cheney as a defense witness. Historians said it would have been the first time a sitting vice president would have sat as a witness in a criminal case.

Anger Issues Could Become Campaign Issues for Both GOP Frontrunners

McCain has already made a few trips into bonkers-land, Rudi will follow, just as soon as the pressure hits.

They both lean toward fascism.

Pensito Review » Anger Issues Could Become Campaign Issues for Both GOP Frontrunners:

Mayor Giuliani was so “mean and thin-skinned” he made criticizing him a criminal offense.

A GOP pol has called McCain a “vicious person.”

Campaigning for president is above all else an exhausting experience. The 2008 campaign will be the longest on record — it is underway now, and will ramp up in intensity over the next 21 months.

Bush Caught on Tape Lying about 2003 SOTU ‘16 Words’ - Media Yawns

It will be front page news when Bush is caught telling the truth, about anything.

Pensito Review » Bush Caught on Tape Lying about 2003 SOTU ‘16 Words’ - Media Yawns:

Prevaricator-in-Chief: The media is ignoring the revelation yesterday that it was Vice Pres. Cheney who knowingly inserted a false statement about Iraq’s nuclear program into the 2003 State of the Union speech.

They are also apparently uninterested in reporting that both Pres. Bush and his spokesman Scott McClellan lied on the record in July 2003 about how the infamous 16-word statement — “The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” — came to be included in the speech.

Transcripts follow… (Read On ^)

McCain Has No Clue!

So, only the threat of more loss of American life is all that is upsetting Americans, eh?

Is this man playing with a full deck?

Couldn't possibly be that Americans are upset because they were deceived forty ways from Sunday about Iraq?

How about because they have a nitwit and various psychopaths and sociopaths running their country and threatening to start WWIII?

Couldn't possible be because we are up to our eyeballs in several layers o f debt, the cost of living is high and the cost of health care is outrageous?

Could it possibly be because billions of dollars have simply vanished in Iraq and the rest has gone to some of the most flagrant war-profiteers I have ever seen.?

Naw, none of us are upset that the most unique city in America was allowed to simply drown, with little to nothing having been done to reconstruct that city, because the money is all going to destroying other cities.

McCain, you are seriously disturbed.

USNews.com: Inside Washington: AP Article:

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Republican presidential hopeful John McCain said Monday he fears an offensive by Iraqi insurgents similar to the Tet offensive by the Viet Cong that sent U.S. casualties soaring in Vietnam nearly 40 years ago.

McCain, a Vietnam war veteran who spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war, said in an interview with The Associated Press that it's not the U.S. presence in Iraq that upsets voters but rather the number of casualties and the possibility those numbers could rise.

The U.S. death toll is more than 3,100 in the nearly four-year-old war.

BuCheney: A Huge Credibility Problem

Did no one ever tell little Dick and little George about the little boy who cried wolf?

USNews.com: Political Bulletin: Tuesday, February 13, 2007:

Another Blow To Bush's Credibility?

Only one day after Administration officials briefed reporters on what they claimed was 'evidence' of Iran's involvement with the Iraqi insurgency, the story may be turning into a PR nightmare for the Bush team. Today's Washington Post reports Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace, during a visit to Australia, appeared to cast doubt on the Administration's message, telling the Voice of America that while 'Iranians are involved, and it's clear that materials from Iran are involved,' he 'would not say...that the Iranian government clearly knows or is complicit.' McClatchy says that 'neither the White House nor the Pentagon responded to requests for an explanation of the apparent contradiction between the nation's highest-ranking military officer and his subordinates in Baghdad.' Moreover, Pace's comment 'could make it harder for the Bush administration, its credibility about Iran questioned because of its false pre-war claims about Saddam Hussein, to make its case that Iranian meddling in Iraq is fueling sectarian violence and causing US casualties.

Gallup: Most Americans Want Congress to Go Beyond Non-Binding Vote on War

The people keep speaking, but is anyone listening?

They had damned well better be!

Gallup: Most Americans Want Congress to Go Beyond Non-Binding Vote on War:

NEW YORK: A new Gallup Poll released today -- as a landmark debate on the Iraq war begins in the House of Representatives -- finds that most Americans favor congressional action for a cap on, and then withdrawal of, troops. They are less excited about the current non-binding resolution against a 'surge.'

Still, 6 out of 10 oppose the 'surge' in troops.

'Many Americans say that their congressional representative's position on the war will be an important factor in their congressional vote next year,' Gallup reports, 'but most do not know what their representative's position on the troop surge is.'

Given a list of options, 63% opted for the cap and withdrawal by the end of next year. Some 51% backed the anti-surge resolution. Fewer, 4 in 10, want to cut off funds for the surge.

Surprisingly, 64% said they did not know what their representative's stand on the surge is -- but 42% said his or her position on the war would be a major factor in next year's vote for re-election.

Politico’s Simon: Libby Didn’t Commit A ‘Real Crime’

Who the hell is this guy and why is he lying through his teeth?

Think Progress » Politico’s Simon: Libby Didn’t Commit A ‘Real Crime’: (See video)

Today on Meet the Press, Politico reporter Roger Simon called the case against Scooter Libby “a nutty trial that nobody except the people involved in it and the people covering it care about.” Simon said Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald indicted Libby merely because he “didn’t tell him the complete truth.”

Actually, Scooter Libby lied — under oath, to a federal grand jury. He is facing serious felony charges: obstruction of justice, making false statements to a grand jury, and perjury. But according to Simon, these aren’t “real crimes.”

Joint Chiefs chairman sees no evidence of meddling by Iran's regime

This is freaking insane, and everyone knows it.

Impeach the bastards, now!

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 02/12/2007 | Joint Chiefs chairman sees no evidence of meddling by Iran's regime:

"WASHINGTON - A day after the U.S. military charged Iran's government with shipping powerful explosive devices to Shiite Muslim fighters in Iraq to use against American troops, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday that he hasn't seen any intelligence to support the claim.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace's comment could make it harder for the Bush administration, its credibility about Iran questioned because of its false pre-war claims about Saddam Hussein, to make its case that Iranian meddling in Iraq is fueling sectarian violence and causing U.S. casualties.

At a briefing Sunday in Baghdad, U.S. military officials said the al-Quds Force, an elite Iranian paramilitary organization, is sending arms into Iraq that include bombs that shoot molten metal jets through the armor of American tanks and Humvees.

Immediate Impeachments: Preventing "The Guns of August" in Eurasia

Actually, from what we have been able to gather, from various constitutional scholars and attorneys, the Bushites can't even be stopped from striking Iran, unless Congress acts to prevent it.

In other words, it isn't enough for various Reps. and Senators to get up on the floor of their respective chambers and say that Bush can't go into Iran without Congressional approval, it will require an Act of Congress.

Even then, who knows if Bush and Cheney will abide by the law. They have shown no signs of being law abiding so far.

Immediate Impeachments: Preventing "The Guns of August" in Eurasia:

The Bush Jr. /Cheney refusal to obtain additional authorization from Congress for this substantial enlargement of U.S. armed forces in Iraq constitutes an impeachable offense under the terms of Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution for violating the Constitution’s War Powers Clause and Congress’s own War Powers Resolution

If President Bush Jr. and Vice President Cheney are not stopped immediately by means of impeachment, they could readily set off World War III in the volatile Middle East, Persian Gulf and Central Asia, where two-thirds of the world’s hydrocarbon resources are up for grabs among the United States, Russia, China, and India. The Guns of August indeed.


O n the evening of 10 January 2007 in a nationally televised address to the American people from the White House, President Bush Jr. announced that he was going to “surge” an additional 21,500 U.S. troops into Iraq. Both President Bush Jr. and Vice President Cheney also made it perfectly clear that they would initiate this “surge” against the manifest will of the American people expressed in the U.S. national elections of November 2006 and without obtaining authorization by the U.S. Congress.

Breaking News: Americans caught with Iranian Weapons in Iraq

As usual with the Bushites, there is something damn fishy going on here.

Global Security reports, you decide....

Breaking News: Americans caught with Iranian Weapons in Iraq

Rervolution, Please!

I want to get into solutions: Alternatine, renewable energy, diplomacy. fairness, honesty and truth.

Withdrawal from Iraq.

No attack on Iran.

Diplomcy. Please God, Diplomacy!

We are in this together. We share the same home.

....and the truth shall set us free.

Gates Counters Putin’s Words on U.S. Power

Hey Gates, who says it's going to be cold?

Gates Counters Putin’s Words on U.S. Power - New York Times:

"MUNICH, Feb. 11 — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, disputing a lengthy critique of American power by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, said Sunday at a European security conference here, “One cold war was quite enough.”

Doesn't Look Like Farsi To Me?

Excuse us while we do a mini-investigation.

We thought this was odd too, when we saw it on the TeeVee.

However, there is also a chance that these bombs came from Britain via the IRA

Doesn't Look Like Farsi To Me? | The Agonist:

Look, I admit, I don't know much about bomb-making. And I don't know much about how factories label bombs. But I do know that in Iran virtually all numbers were in the Farsi-Arabic script.

They were not and do not resemble our numbers. Now, I may be wrong, but I have a feeling that the implication that this round captured in the photo is bogus. Color me very skeptical.

Any thoughts?

Anyone want to google this and other aspects of the story?

Steve has the same idea.

Couple questions spring to mind first: is this pattern of numbers to be found on other similar weapons, made by other countries? This Russian 82mm has the markings etched in Russian.

Are we sure that the Iranians use the 81mm round? Just in case I really embarrass myself by asking a tremendously stupid question, let me just add this (consider it troll repellent): there are no stupid questions.

The only stupid questions are those not asked. Otherwise how are we supposed to learn.

Markings on the Zelzal 2 rocket are in Farsi.

On a similar note, Juan Cole crunches some numbers. Result: implausible. Looks like the Zelzal 3 has markings in Farsi too. Here's an anti-ship missile with Farsi on it.

Finally, here are Persian serial numbers etched onto a handgun.

Read On ^

Treasonous Novakula Takes The Stand

Let's not forget that it was a leak from Rove to Novak that got Rove fired by Poppy Bush.

Which is one reason why I doubt that Armitage was the original source, not unless he was set up to be.

UPDATES: Novak Takes the Stand As Libby Trial Resumes:

"Then Robert Novak took the stand just after lunch. He named Karl Rove and Richard Armitage as the two sources for his famous 'outing' column.

Novak said Armitage, a key State Dept. official, was his primary source and Rove only a 'confirming' source. On July 8, 2003, Armitage referred to former Ambassador Joe Wilson's wife as 'Valerie' and Novak then looked up his name in Who's Who to determine that he last name seemed to be Plame.

He also said that he had no idea she was covert and called her an 'operative' in his column probably because he was so used to using that term in relation to 'political operatives.' He talked to Libby around the same day and Libby did not mention Plame, Novak said.

The defense asked when he finished the Plame column and Novak answered around noon on July 11, 2003. He was then asked how quickly it is sent out by his syndicate and he said, pretty much right away. The defense is clearly suggesting that it could have been published or at least seen by someone before its July 14, 2003, publication date.

Novak said it was embargoed until the 14th but it's possible someone could have seen it come off the wire in a media office before then.

The Libby Defense Starts with a Bank Shot

Guess you have to go to court with the defense you have not the defense you wish you had; like an innocent client.

The Libby Defense Starts with a Bank Shot - Bench Conference:

So far, Libby's lawyers have not exactly blown away court observers with their first witnesses-- and of course you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Pincus told the panel that it was former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer who first told him about Valerie Plame Wilson, the CIA agent and wife of Joseph Wilson, the administration critic. Last week, you may recall, Fleischer testified that he was told about Plame Wilson by Libby. Meanwhile, Bob Woodward told jurors that he learned about Plame Wilson from Richard Armitage, now known to the world as THE original (and repentent and unindicted and official) leaker to the media of Wilson's identity. And Novak confirms Armitage as the leaker and says that Karl Rove confirmed the leak.

Interesting, sure. With gusts up to fascinating. But, you may resonably ask, what does any of this have to do with whether Libby lied to federal investigators and to jurors when questioned about Plame Wilson? And, so far, the answer is easy: not much.

Bush doesn't give a flip!

One has to wonder, WTF is Bush thinking?

It sure isn't spreading Democracy!

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall February 10, 2007 12:37 PM:

At a farewell reception at Blair House for the retiring chief of protocol, Don Ensenat, who was President Bush's Yale roommate, the president shook hands with Washington Life Magazine's Soroush Shehabi. 'I'm the grandson of one of the late Shah's ministers,' said Soroush, 'and I simply want to say one U.S. bomb on Iran and the regime we all despise will remain in power for another 20 or 30 years and 70 million Iranians will become radicalized.'

'I know,' President Bush answered.

'But does Vice President Cheney know?' asked Soroush.

President Bush chuckled and walked away.

Cronkite Warns Drive for Media Profits Poses Threat to Democracy

No Shit, Sherlock!

The MSM and corporate press are all complicit in the Iraq debacle and now they are serving the same "steno-Sue" role with Iran.

When the revolution begins, as it surely will, the news media should be among the tops targets.

Cronkite Warns Drive for Media Profits Poses Threat to Democracy:

Pressures by media companies to generate ever-greater profits are threatening the very freedom the nation was built upon, former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite warned yesterday.

In a keynote address at Columbia University, Cronkite said today's journalists face greater challenges than those from his generation. No longer could journalists count on their employers to provide the necessary resources, he said, 'to expose truths that powerful politicians and special interests often did not want exposed.'

Instead, he said, 'they face rounds and rounds of job cuts and cost cuts that require them to do ever more with ever less.'

'In this information age and the very complicated world in which we live today, the need for high-quality reporting is greater than ever,' he told journalism students and professionals at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. 'It's not just the journalist's job at risk here. It's American democracy. It is freedom.'

U.S. sending third carrier strike group to Gulf.

We've been knowing this for months.

Now that it is for sure that the Enterprise is one of the Carriers involved, a ship that is about to be decommissioned, a false flag op could "decommission" it to the bottom of the Arabian Gulf.

What Congressman or Senator would stand against Bush then, with our sailors in a watery grave?

Think Progress » U.S. sending third carrier strike group to Gulf.:

At least one former White House official contends that some Bush advisers secretly want an excuse to attack Iran. “They intend to be as provocative as possible and make the Iranians do something [America] would be forced to retaliate for,” says Hillary Mann, the administration’s former National Security Council director for Iran and Persian Gulf Affairs. …

A second Navy carrier group is steaming toward the Persian Gulf, and NEWSWEEK has learned that a third carrier will likely follow. Iran shot off a few missiles in those same tense waters last week, in a highly publicized test. With Americans and Iranians jousting on the chaotic battleground of Iraq, the chances of a small incident’s spiraling into a crisis are higher than they’ve been in years.

The Brits See It Too

Independent Online Edition > World Politics:

The United States is moving closer to war with Iran by accusing the 'highest levels' of the Iranian government of supplying sophisticated roadside bombs that have killed 170 US troops and wounded 620.

The allegations against Iran are similar in tone and credibility to those made four years ago by the US government about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction in order to justify the invasion of 2003.

Senior US defence officials in Baghdad, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they believed the bombs were manufactured in Iran and smuggled across the border to Shia militants in Iraq. The weapons, identified as 'explosively formed penetrators' (EFPs) are said to be capable of destroying an Abrams tank.

The officials speaking in Baghdad used aggressive rhetoric suggesting that Washington wants to ratchet up its confrontation with Tehran. It has not ruled out using armed force and has sent a second carrier task force to the Gulf.

Bush and Cheney Have Got To Go!

Hey Congress! Are you listening?

It's time for Bush and Cheney to go!


Consortiumnews.com:

George W. Bush had a point when he disparaged the Baker-Hamilton commission’s plan for gradual troop withdrawals from Iraq by saying “this business about graceful exit just simply has no realism to it whatsoever.” It’s now obvious that there can be no exit from Iraq – graceful or otherwise – as long as Bush remains President.

PAUL KRUGMAN: Scary Movie 2

Hard to believe the Bushites are planning to attack Iran, using the exact same MO they used with Iraq and the the god damned media are gain playing Steno Sue, yet again.

But then, we mutst remember who is calling the shots; Dead-eye Dick who think Iraq has been an enormous success.


Welcome to Pottersville: PAUL KRUGMAN: Scary Movie 2

The Full Obama Speech

This is an amazing speech, a little short on specifics, but I imagine they will come out over the next few weeks and months.

I, personally, still do not know all I want to know about Obama, but I intend to make every effort to enlighten myself, early.

There is something about this guy. He reminds me of someone, but it isn't Lincoln.

BarackObama.com:

Let me begin by saying thanks to all you who've traveled, from far and wide, to brave the cold today.

We all made this journey for a reason. It's humbling, but in my heart I know you didn't come here just for me, you came here because you believe in what this country can be. In the face of war, you believe there can be peace. In the face of despair, you believe there can be hope. In the face of a politics that's shut you out, that's told you to settle, that's divided us for too long, you believe we can be one people, reaching for what's possible, building that more perfect union.

That's the journey we're on today. But let me tell you how I came to be here. As most of you know, I am not a native of this great state. I moved to Illinois over two decades ago. I was a young man then, just a year out of college; I knew no one in Chicago, was without money or family connections. But a group of churches had offered me a job as a community organizer for $13,000 a year. And I accepted the job, sight unseen, motivated then by a single, simple, powerful idea - that I might play a small part in building a better America. (Read On ^)

Obama sees new generation of leadership

The Announcement

Obama sees new generation of leadership | Top News | Reuters.com

Obama pledges to 'transform' politics

I haven't watched the news all day, so I did not hear Obama's speech. Nevertheless, his use of the word, "transform," as opposed to the usual "reform." is heartening and, actually, odd, here at the Lantern, as we received a communique from one of our mountain elders who used the exact same term.

Think I'll share it in a coming post so Dear Readers can see what I mean by odd.

Obama pledges to 'transform' politics - Financial Times - MSNBC.com:

Barack Obama, the brightest rising star of US politics, on Saturday officially announced he was running for the White House in 2008, vowing to emulate Abraham Lincoln by unifying a divided nation and building 'a more hopeful America'.

The Democratic senator, bidding to become the first black US president, made his declaration to thousands of cheering supporters on a bitterly cold morning in Springfield, Illinois, where both he and President Lincoln started their political careers as state senators.

The Arab Silence

What's really going on in the Arab world of Grand Poo- bahs and High Hoohahs?

Independent Online Edition > Robert Fisk:

Could Rifaat al-Assad's day in court be growing closer? Yes, Rifaat - or Uncle Rifaat to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria - the man whose brother Hafez hurled him from Damascus after he tried to use his special forces troops to stage a coup. They were the same special forces who crushed the Islamist rebellion in Hama in February 1982, slaughtering up to - well, a few thousand, according to the regime, at least 10,000 according to Fisk (who was there) and up 20,000 if you believe The New York Times (which I generally don't).

Either way, I've always regarded it as a war crime, along with the massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatila camps in Beirut by Israel's Lebanese militia allies a few months later. Ariel Sharon, who was held personally responsible by Israel's own court of enquiry, is an unindicted war criminal. So is Rifaat.

Hillary: I Didn't Vote For Pre-Emptive War

Me thinks that Hillary just told a whopper!

WTF did she think was going to happen?

The Neocons tried to sell her husband on the same goofy plan that is currently destroying the country: Regime change in Iraq by force.

President Clinton said, no. Surely he informed her of this fact.

No more Clintons or Bushes in the White House, please!

Hillary: I Didn't Vote For Pre-Emptive War | TPMCafe:

By Eric Kleefeld | bio

In advance of her trip to New Hampshire this weekend, Hillary Clinton has clarified her Iraq war vote in an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader — and she says that her vote for the 2002 resoltuion was not automatically a vote to go to war. From the interview (emphasis ours):

Engineer: GPS Shoes Make People Findable

Just got a cosmic message from Orwell:

"I am so glad I am dead!"

Engineer: GPS Shoes Make People Findable:

MIAMI (AP) - Isaac Daniel calls the tiny Global Positioning System chip he's embedded into a line of sneakers 'peace of mind.' He wishes his 8-year-old son had been wearing them when he got a call from his school in 2002 saying the boy was missing. The worried father hopped a flight to Atlanta from New York where he had been on business to find the incident had been a miscommunication and his son was safe.

Days later, the engineer started working on a prototype of Quantum Satellite Technology, a line of $325 to $350 adult sneakers that hit shelves next month. It promises to locate the wearer anywhere in the world with the press of a button. A children's line will be out this summer.

'We call it a second eye watching over you,' Daniel said.

More Ground Zero Heroes On The Record: Building 7 Was Deliberately Brought Down

As we have said time and again, this appalling, criminal administration must die where it was really born; on a pile of smoldering rubble in Lower Manhattan.

A cycle as dark as this one, must be consciously brought to completion.

More Ground Zero Heroes On The Record: Building 7 Was Deliberately Brought Down:

Two more ground zero emergency rescue personnel are on the record as stating they were told Building 7 was going to be brought down on 9/11 hours before its symmetrical implosion, completely contradicting the official explanation of accidental collapse.

The new revelations provoke urgent questions about how a building was rigged with explosives within hours when such a process normally takes weeks or months and why the decision was taken to demolish the building amidst the chaos of the situation on that day.

Yesterday we reported on the testimony of an anonymous EMT named Mike who told Loose Change producer Dylan Avery that hundreds of emergency rescue personnel were told over bullhorns that Building 7, a 47 story skyscraper adjacent the twin towers that was not hit by a plane yet imploded symmetrically later in the afternoon on 9/11, was about to be 'pulled' and that a 20 second radio countdown preceded its collapse.

"Dark Clouds Gather on the Distant Horizon: The World Awaits George W. Bush's Attack on Iran"

Do you ever just suddenly feel as if you might be violently ill, just from reading the news?

The Progressive Daily Beacon: "Dark Clouds Gather on the Distant Horizon: The World Awaits George W. Bush's Attack on Iran":

Dark clouds gather on the distant horizon - their presence trumpets the undeniable reality that something sinister is coming this way. As the light of truth and reality fades from the nation's political consciousness, between the flashes of lies and deceit is seen the foreboding outline of vultures awaiting tragedy and their chance to feast on the death it is certain to deliver. All of humanity has paused, marking time until George W. Bush and Dick Cheney order the U.S. military to attack Iran.

It shouldn't be long now.

"These Are Tough Days to Be a Republican"

I just keep wondering when ordinary Republicans, like my father's Republicans, are going to break out of their denial and face the hard reality that Cheney and, therefore, Junior do not give a crap about the GOP.

The GOP is, for them, nothing but a power tool with which to pursue the Neoconservative, imperial vision as mapped out by the PNACers and the AEI.

We are now at a point of no return:

Do we want to continue our 200 and some odd year struggle to be a true Democratic Republic, or do we wish to simply give up and go with the flow towards a unique American fascism at home to support a corporate empire abroad?

Are there any of my father's Republicans left?

Anyone out there, who cares more about this country than they do their own inept and corrupt political party?

Or is it, again, up to the people?

The Progressive Daily Beacon: "These Are Tough Days to Be a Republican":

These are tough days to be a Republican. Really, who would want to be one? Their President was, according to real-life polling, considered more villainous than Lucifer...that's no joke. That's what this past December's AP/AOL News Poll found. This really is no time to be a Republican.

If Republicans were to meet with a group of today's kids and share with them all the GOP's woes, the kids would say, 'It sucks to be you!' And they'd be more correct than anybody had a right to be.

The Un-indicted Co-Conspirator

Just had a waft of that old Watergate feeling pass through me, again.

It isn't a good feeling. It is a terrifying feeling.

It must happen, I know. There is no choice but full accountability, this time.

It will, no doubt, not happen in the same way it did with Nixon.

This is Watergate on Mescaline!

Pundits like to say that the system worked during the Nixon nightmare.

Yes, one could say that it did, until Nixon was pardoned. That was the beginning of the road that would, inevitably, lead us to this sorry state.

Today, we are closer to a nuclear war than we have been since the Cuban missile crisis, at least that the public really ever knew about.

The problem with public, nuclear saber rattling, by people, neither of which have a very healthy ego (inflated beyond all belief, but disintegrated as hell), should be obvious.

Cheney at center of Libby trial - Politics - MSNBC.com:

"It is I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby whom special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is trying to put in jail in connection with the disclosure of a CIA operative’s identity, but as Libby’s trial reached the halfway point Wednesday, Fitzgerald appeared to be just as intent on putting Vice President Dick Cheney near the center of the case.

Libby, Cheney’s former chief of staff, is charged with perjury for telling a federal grand jury in 2004 that he first learned of the operative’s covert status from NBC News Washington bureau chief Tim Russert. Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald wrapped up his case Wednesday with Russert’s testimony contradicting Libby’s assertion.

Anatomy of Deceit: How the Bush Administration Used the Media to Sell the Iraq War and Out a Spy (Paperback)

This book is written by a blogger/citizen journalist, Marcy Wheeler, who manages to connect more dots in one published outing than the corporate press and news media have in 4 years.

For one jaw-dropping example: Judith Miller of the NYT wanted to stay in Iraq as the unit in which she was embedded prepared to leave the country.

The main reason for her wanting to stay was that she was being fed non-stop bullshit by Pentagon Darling, Ahmed Chalabi, and if she left, there would be no conduit for the bullshit, as it was meant for American consumption.

The Pentagon came to her rescue and arranged for her to stay in-country.

Guess who Judy's knight on white horse was?

No less than General Petraeus, the latest of Junior's about-to-be failed Generals

Buy the book:
BuzzFlash Review: Anatomy of Deceit: How the Bush Administration Used the Media to Sell the Iraq War and Out a Spy (Paperback):

In writing a review of this extraordinary book about the Plame-Gate/Treason-Gate crimes -- written by a citizen journalist, blogger Marcy Wheeler -- we have to take a deep breath for several reasons.

First of all, what Wheeler accomplishes as an unpaid journalistic investigator (she works as a full-time business consultant, out of Ann Arbor, unrelated to politcs) so thoroughly shames the corporate media, it is breathtaking. You realize, in the end, that the corporate media, exists in large part, to protect the status quo. So, they minimized the colossal treason and national betrayal of outing a CIA operative specializing in the illicit sale of Weapons of Mass Destruction, even though we invaded Iraq in large part because the Bush Administration deceitfully claimed that Saddam Hussein had WMDs.
"

Rockefeller Plans Investigations Into Pre-War Intel.

Looks like old Pat Roberts can't slam the door on pre-war shenanigans of people like Douglas Feith, who headed up Cheney's and Rumsfeld's own little Intelligence unit, apparently, the sole purpose of which, was to stove-pipe bullshit to the OVP and provide false or very shady evidence to prosecute a war of choice, AKA; a war of aggression, a crime against peace.

This is an investigation we simply must have.

People who say that it no longer matters how we got into this nightmare, only that we are now there and must determine what to do now, are full of donkey crap.

Of course it matters!

How we got into this horrendous quagmire in Iraq is largely the problem.

TPMmuckraker February 8, 2007 06:14 PM:

As vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) was often outmaneuvered by GOP chair Pat Roberts (R-KS), when it came to prewar intelligence. In response to the Pentagon inspector general's report on the Office of Special Plans, however, Rockefeller is hinting that era is fully closed. From a Rockefeller statement, just released:

The IG has concluded that this office was engaged in intelligence activities. The Senate Intelligence Committee was never informed of these activities. Whether these actions were authorized or not, it appears that they were not in compliance with the law.

“In the coming days, I will carefully review all aspects of the report and will consult with Vice Chairman Bond to determine whether any additional action by the Senate Intelligence Committee is warranted.

Tomgram: Over the Cliff with George and Dick?

This is a bloody must read, if there ever was one:

TomDispatch - Tomgram: Over the Cliff with George and Dick?:

Let me make an argument about Bush administration Iran policy -- about the possibility that a regime-change-style, shock-and-awe air assault might someday be launched on Iranian nuclear facilities and associated targets -- based on no insider knowledge, just the logic of George-and-Dick's Thelma-and-Louise-style imperialism.

Of course, we all know at least half the story by now. Is there anybody in official Washington -- other than our President, Vice President, the Vice President's secretive imperial staff, assorted backs-against-the-wall neocon supporters lodged in the federal bureaucracy, and associated right-wing think tanks -- who isn't sweating blood, popping pills, and wondering what in the world to do about our delusional leaders?

Pentagon prepares for failure in Iraq

While Bush and the GOP continue to push for the "Last Presidential Heave" in Iraq, the Pentagon prepares for reality.

Failure is a sure bet.

The Pentagon's not-so-little secret | Salon.com:

"Feb. 8, 2007 | Deep within the bowels of the Pentagon, policy planners are conducting secret meetings to discuss what to do in the worst-case scenario in Iraq about a year from today if and when President Bush's escalation of more than 20,000 troops fails, a participant in those discussions told me. None of those who are taking part in these exercises, shielded from the public view and the immediate scrutiny of the White House, believes that the so-called surge will succeed. On the contrary, everyone thinks it will not only fail to achieve its aims but also accelerate instability by providing a glaring example of U.S. incapacity and incompetence.

Toobin: Russert huge blow to defense

It may have been a blow, but it certainly was not surprise. Did anyone not know what Russert was going to say?

Toobin: Russert huge blow to defense - CNN.com:

"NEW YORK (CNN) -- NBC's Tim Russert, the last prosecution witness in I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby's perjury trial, takes the stand again on Thursday.

The 'Meet the Press' host testified Wednesday he did not inform Libby of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity, as Libby has said.

The prosecution is expected to wrap up with Russert, and then the defense will have a chance to drill the prosecution's star witness.

CNN's Heidi Collins spoke with legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin about the effectiveness of the prosecution's tactics.

COLLINS: How big of a blow was Russert's testimony to Scooter Libby's defense?

TOOBIN: I think it's a huge blow. You know, this has been a very lean, quick and effective prosecution. The prosecution is just about done, and it's only really been about two weeks of testimony. And the prosecution has done what the prosecution always wants to do in a criminal case, which is say, look, this is simple -- Libby testified to the grand jury that he heard about Valerie Wilson's status as a CIA agent from Tim Russert.

Veterans Group Speaks Out on War

Now, here's some good news......

We stand with Mr. Soltz, and why not?

He was a soldier and knows a little something about leading and following.

He is a human being that is familiar with the truth and he is an American, one of the few, who takes his oath, to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, both foreign and domestic, seriously.

That is the only kind of person I want in the fox-hole or in a battle with me.

Veterans Group Speaks Out on War - washingtonpost.com:

When Iraq war veteran Jon Soltz accused Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) of 'aiding the enemy,' the Democratic senators gathered around him yesterday did not wince. Nor did Democrats object when Soltz, the chairman of a group called VoteVets.org., called President Bush and Vice President Cheney 'draft dodgers.'

In the United States Congress, where decorum usually holds sway, Soltz and his small band of veterans are saying things many Democrats would like to express but can't. And as the politics heat up over the Iraq war, Democratic leaders increasingly are being drawn to Soltz and his angry soldiers.

Bush and Cheney must come clean

Hell, they probably will, just like they do every time they are caught, dead-to-rights, in some crime or the other.

Then they'll say, "So what? You can't stop us."

Can we?

WorkingForChange-Bush and Cheney must come clean:

Did president ask Libby to take the fall?

At long last, the fog of mystification generated by the Bush administration and the Washington media is lifting, so that everyone can see clearly why I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby is on trial and why his prosecution is important. Whether the jury eventually finds the former White House aide innocent or guilty of perjury, the evidence shows that his bosses George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have misled the public from the very beginning about the vengeful leaking of Valerie Plame Wilson's C.I.A. identity.

The question that now hangs over the President and the Vice President is whether they lied to special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald -- the same crime for which their fall guy Scooter now faces possible imprisonment and disgrace. According to published reports, the special counsel interviewed both Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney during the summer of 2004. The only way for them to dispel the suspicion that they may have lied to him is to permit full disclosure of those interviews.

From the Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Iraq: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com

DAMN!

What is it going to take to stop these crazy fools?

From the Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Iraq: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com:

The same neocon ideologues behind the Iraq war have been using the same tactics—alliances with shady exiles, dubious intelligence on W.M.D.—to push for the bombing of Iran. As President Bush ups the pressure on Tehran, is he planning to double his Middle East bet?

Coming soon to an arrogant government very near you: Fiscal Armageddon

Hate to say we told you so, and it gives us no joy being right, but we did and we are.

p m carpenter's commentary: Coming soon to an arrogant government very near you: Fiscal Armageddon:

The president's nearly $3 trillion, 2008 budget proposal reads like a happy 'how-to' manual for what Chalmers Johnson, the East Asian historian and thoughtful author of the eye-opening 'Blowback' series, unhappily surveys:

We are on the brink of losing our democracy for the sake of keeping our empire. Once a nation starts down that path, the dynamics that apply to all empires come into play -- isolation, overstretch, the uniting of local and global forces opposed to imperialism, and in the end bankruptcy.

Add to that mixture an unhealthy dose of plutocratic protectionism, and you can see that we're no longer merely on the brink: We have done toppled over. Indeed, Republican apostate Kevin Phillips, in works such as American Theocracy and Wealth and Democracy, forcefully argues that our system of governance is already a de-facto plutocracy -- yesterday's democracy is just that: yesterday.

Bush’s Advisers Telling Him ‘Invade Iran. Then Everyone Will See How Smart We Are’

These people need to be strung up, now, before they destroy the entire planet!

They are all insane and they won't admit it. They are a danger to themselves and others. Will someone please have them committed.

Think Progress » Norquist: Bush’s Advisers Telling Him ‘Invade Iran. Then Everyone Will See How Smart We Are’:

In this month’s issue of Vanity Fair, Craig Unger writes that the same neoconservative advisers who advocated for the Iraq war are now recycling the same tactics to push for the bombing of Iran. Unger reports that not all of Bush’s key conservative allies are pleased with the administration’s course on Iran:

“Everything the advocates of war said would happen hasn’t happened,” says the president of Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist, an influential conservative who backed the Iraq invasion. “And all the things the critics said would happen have happened. [The president’s neoconservative advisers] are effectively saying, ‘Invade Iran. Then everyone will see how smart we are.’ But after you’ve lost x number of times at the roulette wheel, do you double-down?”

The Truth About a "free Press"

There isn't one

John F. Kennedy Jr.:

John Swinton, the former Chief of Staff at the New York Times, made this candid confession [it's worth noting that Swinton was called 'The Dean of His Profession' by other newsmen, who admired him greatly]:
'

There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know
beforehand that it would never appear in print.

I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job.

If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to
vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell the country for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press.

We are the tools and vassals of the rich

Iran to Strike U.S. Interests if Attacked | World Latest | Guardian Unlimited

Well, what the hell do we expect?

Does anyone believe that Iran would just sit there and take it?

Would we?

Iran to Strike U.S. Interests if Attacked | World Latest | Guardian Unlimited:

"TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - If the United States were to attack Iran, the country would respond by striking U.S. interests all over the world, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday.

Speaking to a gathering of Iranian air force commanders, Khamenei said: ``The enemy knows well that any invasion would be followed by a comprehensive reaction to the invaders and their interests all over the world.''

About that Bush Family Ranch in Paraguay...

Interesting and well-documented follow up to the on-going Paraguay articles.

Nevertheless, we are not all that concerned about the Bushites escaping to South America as the Nazis did.

Times have changed.

No one is safe, if someone wants, badly enough, to get them.

Keeping track of investments anywhere around oil or fresh water is worth the effort, and can prove very instructive.

About that Bush Family Ranch in Paraguay... | TPMCafe:

"A government office forbidden by law from disseminating information domestically was the mouthpiece of choice for the administration to deny rumors that the Bush family purchased thousands of acres in a remote portion of northern Paraguay.

According to CNN, the State Department's USINFO Counter-Disinformation/Misinformation Team, led by Todd Leventhal, 'helps U.S. embassies identify and rebut other nations' disinformation, most often fabrications about the United States planted in foreign newspapers or television shows and, these days, on the Internet.'

The State Department's response is posted on the USINFO website in its 'media archives.' Curiously, the official denial (below) was not issued separately but was appended to an earlier statement responding to equally persistent rumors of a U.S. military base in Paraguay.

Permission Be Damned

AMEN!

The time is long past for real CD!

So, there is no time like the present.

William Rivers Pitt | Permission Be Damned:

Because I was unable to attend the anti-war demonstration in Washington, DC, last week, I made sure to watch the broadcast of it on C-SPAN. It was, from what I could see through the camera's eye, almost exactly like every other protest against this Iraq occupation that has taken place in the capital since October of 2002. It was loud and colorful, festooned with famous faces and eloquent voices, a showcase for the hundreds of thousands of souls who stand against this terrible conflict.

As the speakers made their statements, a friend and I wrote back and forth about the protest itself. My friend was irked that the protest itself was happening on a weekend, before an empty Capitol Building, and was not something that slowed or disrupted the business of this government. 'Why not snarl up DC on a weekday and get some real news coverage?' she wrote. 'Since when did civil disobedience care about permits?'

Her words, 'civil disobedience,' brought me up short.

This isn't civil disobedience,' I replied. 'This is a very polite, permission-granted protest. It is the essence of civil obedience. Don't get me wrong; I'm all for public protests. But to call this 'civil disobedience' is an insult to those who have actually put their asses on the line in real disobedience.

Libby Testimony Points Directly to Bush, Cheney

If this revelation does not spur Congress to action, impeachment, I give up on the idea that we have any legal means with which to deal with this criminal administration.

Click over, it gets worse!

Leopold and Ash | Libby Testimony Points Directly to Bush, Cheney: "

The document, titled the National intelligence Estimate, was officially declassified on July 18, 2003. However Libby testified before the grand jury in March 2004 that he had received instructions from Cheney on July 8, 2003, to release portions of the report to Judith Miller.

'The vice president instructed me to go talk to Judith Miller to lay things out for her,' Libby said, according to court transcripts. Libby added that President Bush did not know Judith Miller, but authorized Libby to share the NIE with her. Miller did not publish a story based on the information Libby leaked to her.

Libby testified that the leak of the NIE to Miller was aimed at undermining the credibility of former ambassador Joseph Wilson, who on July 6, 2003, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times accusing the Bush administration of 'twisting' pre-war intelligence on Iraq. Wilson's stinging rebuke of the administration led Libby and other White House officials to leak Wilson's wife's covert CIA status to reporters one week later.

Libby said, according to the court transcript, that the leak of the NIE on July 8, 2003, was a closely guarded secret and that only he, Vice President Dick Cheney, and President Bush were aware that some of its contents would be leaked.

Watchdog Group Unveils List of 25 Most Corrupt Admin Officials - CREW

How did CREW miss the top guys and gals?

Watchdog Group Unveils List of 25 Most Corrupt Admin Officials - CREW:

By Paul Kiel, TPMmuckraker.com
February 7, 2007

Quick! Which former Bush administration official was caught shoplifting? Which one was convicted for lying about his relationship to Jack Abramoff? Which one is heading to prison for soliciting sex from an underage girl?

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has the answers, in their list of 25 most corrupt administration officials, snappily titled, 'Criminals and Scoundrels.'

And those with an unending appetite for catalogues of administration corruption will also enjoy our list of scandalized administration officials that we painstakingly compiled back in December.

For the full story, please visit http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002498.php ."

Who the hell cares what happened to the money?

Must see video:

Stunning.

TPMmuckraker February 6, 2007 02:06 PM:

What happened to billions in Iraqi funds that were overseen by the Coalition Provisional Authority? That's not 'important,' according to David Oliver, the former Director of Management and Budget of the agency.

A recording of the unfortunately candid remarks, previously made by Oliver to the BBC, were played during this morning's oversight hearing by Rep. Diane Watson (D-CA). The hearing has focused on the CPA's administration of nearly $9 billion in Iraqi funds in 2003 and 2004 -- money that Stuart Bowen, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, has said was inadequately accounted for.

'I have no idea, I can't tell you whether or not the money went to the right things or didn't - nor do I actually think it is important,' Oliver says on the tape . 'Billions of dollars of their money disappeared, yes I understand, I'm saying what difference does it make?' "

The Quiet Plan to Kill Medicare

Well, of course the press hasn't noticed. They don't think they will ever need it.

Geeze Louise, do they ever have a shock waiting for them!

AlterNet: Blogs: PEEK: The Quiet Plan to Kill Medicare:

Posted by Elana Levin at 11:34 AM on February 6, 2007.

The press has failed to notice that the President's proposed 2008 budget includes a plan to do away with Medicare.

From The Nitpick File; annoying little phrases

Just returned from a lovely vacation from the News and anything remotely connected to it. One would think I would not be in a nitpicking state of mind.

One would be wrong!.

I am turning into a cranky, old curmudgeon before my time.

So, here we go......

I'm sure that everyone knows that official Washington and the citizens of pundit-world (Is there really a difference?) occasionally get stuck on one phrase or the other. It is repeated ad nauseum.

Back during Watergate, the pharse was, "at that point in time." Those of us who were alive and politically conscious during those days will remember that phrase. For example, "At that point in time," I was not aware that Richard Nixon was a crook, a creep or just plain psychotic, or something similar.

During Iran/Contra, we were treated to "plausible deniability." Plausible deniability meant that Ronald Reagan could go on live TeeVee and say that, in his heart, he did not believe that his administration had traded arms for hostages with Iran (Yes, Iran), and violated the hell out of the Boland amendment, as a side enterprise, but that apparently his administration was doing just that. He took "full responsibility," which means absolutely nothing.

(There is another one of those phrases. It goes something like this; "I take "full responsibility" for everything under the sun, but I do not expect to be held accountable for any of it, not do I intend to hold myself accountable by doing the right thing and resigning, effective at noon tomorrow.)

Even the independent counsel, at the time, Lawrence Walsh, bought that one, since Reagan did not recognize his own Secretary of State by the end of his presidency. Who in their right mind and compassionate heart would want to thrown an old man, in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's disease into prison. Certainly not me, nor anyone I know.

But I do believe that taking responsibility for a crime should mean accountability under the law. It usually does. Admittedly, when someone fesses up, before they are caught dead to rights after a costly investigation, there should be some leniency from society and its courts.

The vice in those days, George H.W. Bush, had "plausible deniability" because he said he was out-of-the-loop. Anyone who was paying attention to the Iran/Contra investigations, at all, had to be plain loopy to believe that, but by the time GHWB pardoned the only man who could tie him directly to Iran/Contra and more, Casper Weinberger, no one cared. "Plausible deniability" had managed to run out the clock against the typical American attention span.

Admittedly, Iran/ Contra was capable of putting even the most politically obssessed among us into a boredom-induced coma. There were no blow-jobs, no one got screwed, except the American people, of course, who always do, but couldn't care less.

We don't seem to care a whit about the raping, robbing and pillaging of our whole country, but are absolutely entranced by individual blow jobs, whether the receivers of said blow jobs are Hollywood celebrities or the POTUS.

(God, we are an odd lot! Trust me, we really are, though more often than not, one must get far enough away from the forest to see the trees, in order to get a true glimpse of just how really odd we are, as a nation.)

Now we come to the annoying phrases of today:

Today's annoying phrases are more annoying to me than those of yesteryear simply because they really have no meaning at all.

At least, those aforementioned annoying phrases had a meaning and a clear purpose. When someone specified "at that point in time," he or she was attempting to lay out a time line of sorts. Of course, time lines are much easier to lay out these days, with computers everywhere and records of what was said and done, and when, are kept by all sorts of folks, not just the news media and the government. In the early 70's it was not so easy.

Even "plausable deniability" was understandable by most folks. Out-of-the-loop was well understood, if not believed, in the context in which it was used.

One of today's linguistic herd-phrases is, "at the end of the day." I really don't know who started this one, but I think he or she should be put in stockades on the National Mall.

What freakin' day are we talking about?

This highly annoying phrase is used a gazillion times a day, to indicate a time for a "final outcome," one would assume.

But what the hell does it mean; at the end of what day? Today, tomorrow, July 30, 2008?

Could it mean, The Day After (starring Jason Robards) or Jan 1, In The Year, 2525, if man is still alive?

What the hell does it mean?

It is a throw away phrase. It is used ad nauseum, by members of both parties and all sorts of punditry. It doesn't mean a damn thing!

O.K. I admitted that this post was from the "Nitpick File." I know how petty this sounds, but I don't care, because I do have a point. I will get to it, eventually.

Here is another one of my favorite picks for the junk pile of stupid, meaningless phrases:

"Going forward." We are always "going forward," it seems. Even when it is damned apparent that we are standing still or, even, going backward.

We are "going forward" on everything from Iraq to Climate Change.

I just want to know what we are "going forward" to;" the 9th hell realm, national bankruptcy, Chinese ownership of all Americans, Armageddon, a miracle that will somehow save us from ourselves? What?

What the hell does "going forward" mean? Who decides which way is "forward?"

The Decider?

If so, we might as well all pull the covers over our heads and kiss our asses good-bye, not to mention any hope of financial solvency, let alone security, retirement or basic health care.

I am reminded of that old Christian saying, usually stated with all the authority of God, himself; "God will not give you more than you can handle."

As a friend of mine once asked, "until what happens, exactly?" Until your head explodes, until you melt down into a puddle of hopelessness and despair or, perhaps, have another sort of meltdown that causes even more despair for others?

What is the marker? Have you had all you can bear when your breakfast cereal is topped with Xanax instead of blueberries? How about when you are shot to the rim with Haldol and are drooling in a corner of a cuckoo's nest, somewhere? Maybe, when you would rather spend the few bucks you have left, after trying to pay the bills, on anti-depressants instead of food?

At what point does it become obvious, even to the village idiot, that God, or someone, has, indeed, given you more than you can bear?

"Suicide brings changes," says the theme song from M.A.S.H.

It does, indeed, but only to the people who care about the suicider.

How many Iraq war vets have offed themselves? Does anyone making the big bucks in the news media give a rat's ass?

Hell no, because we are going forward, at the end of the day! (Sure as hell is the end of the day for some folks)

Perhaps, I find these meaningless phrases and others, annoying because, after the last 6 years of "imperial reality creating," I am highly suspicious of any phrase that is repeated, ad nauseum, by simply everyone.

Then, there is always the possibility that I have been given more than I can bear and it has turned me into a very cranky person, who is annoyed by simply everything, including stupid, meaningless phrases, when meaningful lives ar being lost and shattered.

Don't even get me started on stupid, senatorial rows over the wording of non-binding resolutions to make a record of who is for or against "stay the course."

I certainly shall not comment on those senators who do not even wish to talk about it. I can do without visits from people working for alphabet soup agencies, just because I am feeling cranky.

How many meaningless words can we come up with to describe or refer to national disaster, total dishonor, loss of credibility and constitutional crisis?

Just wondering..........

Submitted by Dot Dedman, an Indy-sixer

....and the truth shall set us free.

Scooter Libby and the media debacle

The American news media has become almost irrelevant, and "treason-gate" is only one example.

Even now, they only report on the trial, which several blogs do a better job of reporting.

During the Libby trial, there has been evidence put into the record that would strongly indicate that the president and the vice president were complicit in the over-the-top aassult on Joe and Valerie Plame Wilson.

Where are the reporters, busy looking into this revelation?

Where is Congress, by the way? We can only hope they are waiting for the trial to finish, before the impeachment hearings begin on this matter.

We believe they have already begun on other matters, like trillions of missing dollars in Iraq, war profiteering and no-bid contracts and a host of other issues, like how the administration concocted evidence for the prosecution of an illegal war.

Media Matters - Scooter Libby and the media debacle:

The New York Times made headlines last week when it tapped a new D.C. bureau chief. But if the paper of record really wanted to jump-start its Beltway news operation, maybe it should have tried to lure Patrick Fitzgerald away from the Department of Justice.

Let's face it, as special counsel in charge of investigating the Valerie Plame CIA leak, and now the lead prosecutor in D.C. federal court methodically laying out the damning evidence of perjury, obstruction, and lying against Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, Fitzgerald has consistently shown more interest -- and determination -- in uncovering the facts of the Plame scandal than most Beltway journalists, including the often somnambulant D.C. newsroom of The New York Times.

Indeed, for long stretches, the special counsel easily supplanted the timid D.C. press corps and became the fact-finder of record for the Plame story. It was Fitzgerald and his team of G-men -- not journalists -- who were running down leads, asking tough questions and, in the end, helping inform the American people about possible criminal activity inside the White House.

Military waste under fire / $1 trillion missing -- Bush plan targets Pentagon accounting

Where did all the money go?

(In another news story yesterday, Peter Pace admitted that there is not enough equipment for the "surge.")

Congress has written enough blank checks during this insane war, totaling enough money to put a Prius (or similar car) in the driveway of every America, free of charge, and still have plenty left over to invest in R&D for alternatively fueled transportation.

We cannot pump our way to independence from Arabian oil or any OPEC oil, for that matter.

So what does Bush do? Throw trillions down a rat hole!

Military waste under fire / $1 trillion missing -- Bush plan targets Pentagon accounting:

The Department of Defense, already infamous for spending $640 for a toilet seat, once again finds itself under intense scrutiny, only this time because it couldn't account for more than a trillion dollars in financial transactions, not to mention dozens of tanks, missiles and planes.

The Pentagon's unenviable reputation for waste will top the congressional agenda this week, when the House and Senate are expected to begin floor debate on a Bush administration proposal to make sweeping changes in how the Pentagon spends money, manages contracts and treats civilian employees.

The Bush proposal, called the Defense Transformation for the 21st Century Act, arrives at a time when the nonpartisan General Accounting Office has raised the volume of its perennial complaints about the financial woes at Defense, which recently failed its seventh audit in as many years.

Court Hears Libby Describe Cheney as 'Upset' at Critic - washingtonpost.com

Libby's attorneys must be hard pressed for any defense, to put on this one.

"I forgot a half dozen conversations about someone who was considered W.H. enemy #1 and was, then, 'taken aback' when I heard the same thing from Tim Russert, who says he never said it."

I'm no lawyer, but it looks like these guys are just looking to appeal, appeal, appeal....until the pardon comes.

Court Hears Libby Describe Cheney as 'Upset' at Critic - washingtonpost.com:

Vice President Cheney and other senior White House officials regarded a former ambassador's accusations that President Bush misled the nation in going to war in Iraq as an unparalleled political assault and, early in the summer of 2003, held daily discussions about how to debunk them, I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby told a federal grand jury.

In grand jury audiotapes played yesterday during Libby's perjury trial, the vice president's then-chief of staff said Cheney had been 'upset' and 'disturbed' by criticisms from former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV that Bush had twisted intelligence to justify the war. And Libby said that Karl Rove had been 'animated' by a conversation with Robert D. Novak, in which the conservative columnist told Rove he 'had a bad taste in his mouth' about Wilson and was writing a column about him.

Libby is charged with lying to the grand jury as it investigated a leak by administration officials of the identity of Wilson's wife, an undercover CIA officer named Valerie Plame. The sound of Libby's clear, measured voice in the tapes -- filling a courtroom in U.S. District Court here for six hours over the past two days -- buttresses the prosecution's case in two significant ways.

Marshals: Innocent People Placed On 'Watch List' To Meet Quota

Here we are, in the Soviet States of America, and no one seems to give a damn!

How long are, we, the people, going to stand for this BS?

It is high time that these data bases were destroyed!

Marshals: Innocent People Placed On 'Watch List' To Meet Quota - News:

DENVER -- You could be on a secret government database or watch list for simply taking a picture on an airplane. Some federal air marshals say they're reporting your actions to meet a quota, even though some top officials deny it.

The air marshals, whose identities are being concealed, told 7NEWS that they're required to submit at least one report a month. If they don't, there's no raise, no bonus, no awards and no special assignments.

'Innocent passengers are being entered into an international intelligence database as suspicious persons, acting in a suspicious manner on an aircraft ... and they did nothing wrong,' said one federal air marshal.

Leak case hangs on Libby's credibility - Los Angeles Times

There is no credibility in this administration, period!

Leak case hangs on Libby's credibility - Los Angeles Times:

WASHINGTON — Former vice presidential aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby's defense in his perjury trial rests largely on the claim that he was too busy with pressing affairs of state to recall minor events such as conversations with reporters about an obscure CIA employee.

But after nine government witnesses testified in federal court here over the last two weeks, a question is emerging: Given all the time and attention the White House devoted in 2003 to CIA operative Valerie Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, how credible is Libby's claim of forgetfulness?

Libby, 56, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, is charged with obstructing a federal investigation into how the identity of Plame became public in the summer of 2003.

Wilson's public criticism of the reasons for the Iraq war spawned what the trial has shown to be a concerted effort by Cheney's office to discredit him. Prosecutors allege that as the administration pushed back, Plame became caught in the crossfire and was exposed.

What If Vice Pres. Gore Had Outed a Covert CIA Specialist in Terror Weapons?

Nobody I know is anywhere near through with Mr. Cheney.

He hasn't gotten away with anything yet!

Pensito Review » What If Vice Pres. Gore Had Outed a Covert CIA Specialist in Terror Weapons?:

Imagine the reaction from the media and the Republican Party if this story had been in the news ten years ago:

Sworn testimony has revealed that Vice Pres. Al Gore masterminded the unmasking of a covert CIA agent who specialized in the terrorist black-market for weapons of mass destruction — and that Gore’s motive was to exact political retribution against the agent’s husband, an outspoken critic of Clinton-Gore policies.

It is hardly an exaggeration to suggest that Vice Pres. Gore would have been hounded from office within weeks of such headlines — as Vice Pres. Mondale or any other Democratic vice president would have been.

And yet we now know from testimony by an FBI agent and others at Scooter Libby’s perjury trial in the CIA Leak scandal that it was not Karl Rove who masterminded the campaign to reveal agent Valerie Plame’s identity, as most of us assumed — it was Libby’s boss, Dick Cheney, the vice president of the United States.

Soldiers in Iraq view troop surge as a lost cause

Well, of course it is. The only people who believe otherwise are the ones safely far from the fighting.

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 02/03/2007 | Soldiers in Iraq view troop surge as a lost cause:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Army 1st Lt. Antonio Hardy took a slow look around the east Baghdad neighborhood that he and his men were patrolling. He grimaced at the sound of gunshots in the distance. A machine gunner on top of a Humvee scanned the rooftops for snipers. Some of Hardy's men wondered aloud if they'd get hit by a roadside bomb on the way back to their base.

'To be honest, it's going to be like this for a long time to come, no matter what we do,' said Hardy, 25, of Atlanta. 'I think some people in America don't want to know about all this violence, about all the killings. The people back home are shielded from it; they get it sugar-coated.'

While senior military officials and the Bush administration say the president's decision to send more American troops to pacify Baghdad will succeed, many of the soldiers who're already there say it's a lost cause.

- U.S. hell-bent for Iran war

Don't say that our neighbors to the north didn't warn us!

edmontonsun.com - Opinion/Comment - U.S. hell-bent for Iran war:

TORONTO -- The Bush-Cheney administration seems hell-bent on provoking war with Iran, and the U.S.-Iran confrontation is getting very dangerous. The heaviest concentration of U.S. naval strike forces since the 2003 war against Iraq is concentrating off Iran.

In a disturbing replay of that conflict, CIA drones and U.S. Air Force recon aircraft - along with U.S. and British Special Forces - are overflying Iran and probing its nuclear and military installations. The CIA and Britain's MI6 are stirring unrest among Iran's Kurds and Azerbaijanis, and arming Iranian Marxist and royalist exiles.

A belligerent U.S. President George Bush ordered U.S. forces in Iraq to 'kill' Iranian agents or diplomats who appear threatening.

U.S. troops in northern Iraq broke into an Iranian liaison office and arrested its military staff. Bush unblushingly warns Iran, not to 'meddle' in neighbouring Iraq.

Pentagon sources accused Iran of smuggling weapons and explosives to 'Iraqi insurgents' - though the 'insurgents' are, in fact, Shia militiamen allied to the U.S.-installed Baghdad regime. Half of the 21,000 additional U.S. troops headed to Iraq are being positioned to cover the Iranian border and block an Iranian threat to the main U.S. Kuwait-Baghdad supply line.

US preparing 'biggest ever' security crackdown

Here we go; an even bigger mess!

US preparing 'biggest ever' security crackdown | NEWS.com.au:

A US-IRAQI campaign to stabilise Baghdad will begin soon and the offensive against militants will be on a scale never seen during four years of war, American officers said today.

Briefing a small group of foreign reporters, three American colonels who are senior advisers to the Iraqi army and police in Baghdad said a command centre overseeing the crackdown would be activated tomorrow.

'The expectation is the plan will be implemented soon thereafter,' Colonel Doug Heckman, senior adviser to the 9th Iraqi Army division, said at a US military base in Baghdad.

'It's going to be an operation unlike anything this city has seen. It's a multiple order magnitude of difference, not just a 30 per cent, I mean a couple hundred per cent,' he added, referring to previous offensives that failed to stem bloodshed.

Israel's Bomb, Iran's Pursuit of the Bomb and U.S. War Preparations (Part One)

"The sins pf America are quite well known......

Walter C. Uhler.com--Israel's Bomb, Iran's Pursuit of the Bomb and U.S. War Preparations (Part One):

Four years ago today, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell played a major role in persuading a gullible, stupefied and craven American news media and public - but not a cynical world - to support the Bush administration's illegal, immoral invasion of Iraq. He did so by presenting a panoply of lies, false statements and exaggerations about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and ties to al Qaeda terrorists.

Four years later, as both United States and Israel prepare their populations for an illegal, immoral preventive war against Iran -- allegedly to disrupt, if not destroy, the secret nuclear weapons program that both insist (without evidence) is well under way there -- Americans might do well to avoid being duped again. Thus, they might contemplate not only the allegations against Iran, but also the sins of the United States and Israel when it comes to developing, using and brandishing their own nuclear weapons.

The sins of the United States are quite well known. Acting on the advice of Albert Einstein, who feared that Nazi Germany might obtain nuclear weapons, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt authorized a crash program, the Manhattan Project, to develop the bombs that would be dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Nancy's plans for George

A "No Confidence Vote" in the House regarding the "Surge." Unfortunately we are not England and, in case no one has noticed, the "surge" has already begun.

Nice effort, but it is all for naught.

This administration IS the problem. Until we deal with that, directly, not much else will matter. George will do as he (or Cheney) damn well pleases, one way or the other. That, Friends, is the terrible truth that the Democrats still don't get, for the most part.

George is not like Saddam in one crucial aspect. He cannot be contained for another two years.

Pelosi says that the House will move to pass a resolution, or do something, I'm still not clear just what, to prevent Bush from attacking Iran, if it seems apparent that that is his plan.

Madam Speaker! What exactly do you need to know, for it to apparent that that is exactly what he intends to do?

Admiral in command = Iran

Huge Naval armada in the Persian Gulf and patriot missiles bristling all over the Gulf States.

Air Force build up all around the Black Sea, with anti-aircraft and missile systems as far north as Poland.

Unless all of the above comprise some kind of Psy-ops program, on Iran and the people of this country, Bush is planning to attack Iran.

How much more obvious does it have to get?

At Democrats' Meeting, Bush Appeals for Cooperation - washingtonpost.com:

Deep divisions remain, especially on the war, and despite the talk of bipartisan goodwill, Pelosi was already making plans Saturday morning for symbolic showdowns with the White House on international affairs. Before Bush arrived at the Kingsmill Resort for the House members' strategy session, she told her caucus that they will be voting on a no-confidence resolution on the president's plan to send additional troops to Iraq.

Moreover, Pelosi told her colleagues that if it appears likely that Bush wants to take the country to war against Iran, the House would take up a bill to deny him the authority to do so, according to Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly.

Still, both sides may have incentives to cooperate in the next year or so. If Bush has any hope of domestic achievements in the remainder of his term, he must find Democratic votes, while many top Democrats concede they are under some pressure to show that they can be more than just an opposition party.

Seriously, Is Cheney The Real POTUS?

It is high time we find out!

To make finding the answer to that question a priority, for the Congress and the people, is not about idle curiosity or left wing conspiracy theories (no matter how correct many such theories are turning out to be); it is about national security, Democracy and the Constitution.

This is a must read article"

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall February 4, 2007 09:01 AM:

I will confess to having been extremely skeptical in the early years of the Bush Presidency that Cheney was really running the show. It seemed too facile an explanation for what I was convinced was a far more complicated situation. Until the 9/11 Commission report came out.

Even the watered-down version of events in the Commission's report made it absolutely clear that Cheney, ensconced in the White House bunker on the morning of the attacks, had issued shootdown orders outside of the chain of command and then conspired with the President to conceal this fact from the Commission.

Since then, I've gone from being open to the idea of an Imperial Vice Presidency to being convinced that historians will debate whether something approaching a Cheney-led coup d'etat has occurred, in which some of the powers of the Executive were extra-constitutionally usurped by the Office of the Vice President.

Feinstein warns Republicans not to stop Iraq debate

Since when have Republicans listened to anything?

Seems they are prepared to sacrifice their party, if not the country, for this pathological administration.

Feinstein warns Republicans not to stop Iraq debate - Yahoo! News:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Sunday warned Republicans not to block consideration of a measure opposing President Bush's troop increase in
Iraq, saying it would be a 'terrible mistake' to prevent debate on the top issue in America.

With a Senate vote set for Monday on whether to consider the bipartisan resolution, Feinstein warned that if the nonbinding measure is blocked, even tougher proposals against the president's Iraq policy will surface before long.

'It's obstructionism,' the California senator fumed about Senate Republican leaders' strategy to prevent debate on the resolution by Sens. John Warner (news, bio, voting record), a Virginia Republican, and Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), a Michigan Democrat.

The proposal by Warner and Levin says lawmakers 'disagree' with Bush's decision last month to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq, although it would not force the president's hand.

Analysis: Bush's Iran stance echoes Iraq

Everyone sees it coming, but no one seems to be prepared to do anything about it.

Analysis: Bush's Iran stance echoes Iraq - Yahoo! News