Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Voters Ready to Dump Incumbents in Congress: Poll
Hooray!
They need to be dumped, or hung, whatever!
Voters Ready to Dump Incumbents in Congress: Poll:
American voters are as ready to dump incumbent lawmakers as they were just before they handed control of Congress to Republicans in 1994, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Monday.
Republicans, who control both houses of Congress, stand to lose the most in the November elections because of strong anti-incumbent sentiment and they trail Democrats in support among registered voters, the poll showed.
Fifty-three percent of those surveyed called themselves 'anti-incumbent' -- nearly the same as the 54 percent who identified themselves as such in the summer of 1994 when Congress was still under the Democrats' control.
While the percentage of anti-incumbent Republicans was lower in the poll than the percentage of anti-incumbent Democrats in 1994 (33 percent versus 46 percent), the share of anti-incumbent independents rose to 61 percent from 57 percent in 1994.
The telephone poll, which has a 3 percentage point margin of error, was taken between August 3 and August 6 among 1,002 adults.
Among registered voters, 52 percent said they would support the Democrat in their congressional district if the election were held today. Only 39 percent said they would vote for the Republican, the poll showed.
We suck!
The fucking Neocons and Theocons are going to push us towards armageddon no matter what it takes.
May they all burn in the worst recceses of hell
Consortiumnews.com:
Three days after the May 23 summit between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and U.S. President George W. Bush, a car bomb killed two officials of Islamic Jihad in the Lebanese city of Sidon.
Immediately, Lebanese officials, including Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, denounced the murder of brothers Nidal and Mahmoud Majzoub and pointed the finger at Israel as the prime suspect. On June 10, a man named Mahmoud Rafeh was arrested for the car bombing and, according to the Lebanese army, confessed that he was a Mossad agent.
Rafeh, a 59-year-old retired police officer, belonged to a �terror network working for the Israeli Mossad,� which had smuggled a booby-trapped door into Lebanon from Israel for use in the assassination, the Lebanese army said.
In retrospect, the Majzoub assassination looks to have been part of a larger U.S.-Israeli strategy, following the Olmert-Bush summit, to encourage a tit-for-tat escalation of violence that would ratchet up pressure on Palestinian and Lebanese militants, and through them their allies in Syria and Iran.
That violence also set the stage for the current Israeli-Lebanese war, which now has raged for almost one month and has claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 Lebanese and 100 Israelis.
Here comes recession
tbe Progressive American:
These are the dog days of summer, but there's a chill in the air. Suddenly, really just in the last few weeks, people have starting talking seriously about a possible recession. And it's not just economists who seem worried. Goldman Sachs recently reported that the confidence of chief executives at major corporations has plunged; a clear majority of C.E.O.'s now say that conditions in the world economy, and the U.S. economy in particular, are worsening rather than improving.
On the face of it, this loss of faith seems strange. Recent growth and jobs numbers have been disappointing, but not disastrous.
But economic numbers don't speak for themselves. They always have to be interpreted as part of a story. And the latest numbers, while not that bad taken out of context, seem inconsistent with the stories optimists were telling about the U.S. economy.
The key point is that the forces that caused a recession five years ago never went away. Business spending hasn't really recovered from the slump it went into after the technology bubble burst: nonresidential investment as a share of G.D.P., though up a bit from its low point, is still far below its levels in the late 1990's. Also, the trade deficit has doubled since 2000, diverting a lot of demand away from goods produced in the United States. "
These are the dog days of summer, but there's a chill in the air. Suddenly, really just in the last few weeks, people have starting talking seriously about a possible recession. And it's not just economists who seem worried. Goldman Sachs recently reported that the confidence of chief executives at major corporations has plunged; a clear majority of C.E.O.'s now say that conditions in the world economy, and the U.S. economy in particular, are worsening rather than improving.
On the face of it, this loss of faith seems strange. Recent growth and jobs numbers have been disappointing, but not disastrous.
But economic numbers don't speak for themselves. They always have to be interpreted as part of a story. And the latest numbers, while not that bad taken out of context, seem inconsistent with the stories optimists were telling about the U.S. economy.
The key point is that the forces that caused a recession five years ago never went away. Business spending hasn't really recovered from the slump it went into after the technology bubble burst: nonresidential investment as a share of G.D.P., though up a bit from its low point, is still far below its levels in the late 1990's. Also, the trade deficit has doubled since 2000, diverting a lot of demand away from goods produced in the United States. "
Cuba goes green
Sounds good to us.
Independent Online Edition > Americas:
Twenty years ago, following the collapse of the Soviet empire, Fidel Castro's small island faced a food crisis. Today, its network of small urban farmers is thriving, an organic success story that is feeding the nation.
Andrew Buncombe reports.
US brutal attack on Afghans captured on film
More goddamned outrage!
Independent Online Edition > Asia:
Claims that US troops shot dead up to six unarmed Afghan civilians two months ago in Kabul have been given added credibility with a series of photographs offering visual evidence of military misconduct.
The pictures were taken by an Afghan passer-by on 29 May in Khair Kane, a district of north Kabul. The 20 photographs appear to show a group of unarmed Afghan civilians being killed by gunfire from an American Humvee.
The allegations made in Kabul follow other recent incidents in which US troops are alleged to have used disproportionate or reckless force against civilians, most notably in Haditha, Iraq, on 19 November 2005 when US troops allegedly killed 15 civilians.
The Kabul pictures were taken as American vehicles fled the scene of an accident in which several Afghans were killed and injured after a US Army truck lost control and hit a number of civilian vehicles. Shot from a hillside above where the original accident took place, they show a crowd of Afghans throwing stones at the American vehicles.
Desperate Lebanese flee to Syria on foot - Yahoo! News
This is a freakin' outrage!
Desperate Lebanese flee to Syria on foot - Yahoo! News:
ON THE LEBANON-SYRIA BORDER - Carrying luggage and infants, a couple hundred Lebanese and foreigners stepped around craters left behind from Israeli airstrikes and debris from a destroyed immigration office as they fled war-torn Lebanon for Syria on Tuesday.
Katrina's Vanishing Victims
Who cares?
They are all poor and powerless, right, Rethugs, MSM?
This will come back to bite every last one of you in the ass, like a big Great White Shark.
Katrina's Vanishing Victims:
It happened on the afternoon of September 1, three days after Hurricane Katrina pushed a wall of water onto the city of New Orleans. CNN had been airing just-received videos of tens of thousands of people trapped at the Superdome and the New Orleans Convention Center, without food or supplies-scenes of elderly residents left to die by the roadside, of children chanting, 'We want help!' Anchor Wolf Blitzer turned to CNN commentator Jack Cafferty to ask how it could be that, with all the advance warnings of disaster bearing down on the city, so many people had still been left in harm's way.
Cafferty's reply was, to say the least, unexpected, especially coming from a man who'd once insisted (3/31/04) that the word 'liberal' was synonymous with 'communist.' 'There is a great big elephant in the living room that the media seems content to ignore,' Cafferty told Blitzer:
Slate.com's Jack Shafer wrote today in his column that television coverage has shied away from talking about race and class. . . . Almost every person we've seen, from the families stranded on their rooftops waiting to be rescued, to the looters, to the people holed up in the Superdome, are black and poor. Many of them didn't follow the evacuation orders because they didn't have the means to get out of town. They just couldn't do it. A lot of them are sick. A lot of them don't have cars. A lot of them just didn't have the means to leave the Big Easy. And they're still there.
Subverting, Not Preserving, Democracy
Liberals and preogressives who denouce those of us who know damn well the Rethugs have been using numerous startegies to steal elections are fools, period.
Subverting, Not Preserving, Democracy:
As the 2006 mid-term elections near, it is worth looking at the way the press handled the important claims of vote fraud in the last election. Extra! examined the 2004 post-election coverage of major news outlets, focusing on the New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today, along with network TV news coverage on ABC, CBS and NBC.
Extra! looked at this coverage in light of allegations detailed in Rep. John Conyers' report, 'Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio.' On January 5, 2005, the Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee, led by Conyers of Michigan, issued a report on the 'irregularities reported in the Ohio presidential election.' The report detailed 'numerous, serious election irregularities . . . which resulted in a significant disenfranchisement of voters,' casting 'grave doubts regarding whether it can be said the Ohio electors selected [in the 2004 election] were chosen in a manner that conforms to Ohio law, let alone federal requirements and constitutional standards.'
The report, later published in book form by Academy Chicago Publishers, stands as an official record detailing the ways that the 2004 election, like 2000 before it, fell short of democratic standards. Yet the malfeasance the report details was conspicuously absent from the mainstream media discourse around the election. Instead of investigating the issues later outlined by Conyers, the press preferred to emphasize Bush's winning strategy (focused on social issues like same-sex marriage) and on what he would do with his 'mandate' and 'political capital' during his second term.
Sidebar: The Internet Problem
Bullshit, about dangerous bloggers, by MSM, explained.
Sidebar: The Internet Problem:
Political reporters looking to identify a new obstacle standing in the way of Democratic electoral success often find it online, where party activists and progressives congregate around liberal blogs and websites. Writing under the headline 'Blogs Attack From Left as Democrats Reach for the Center'
(1/29/06), Washington Post reporter Jim VandeHei reported that 'Democrats are getting an early glimpse of an intraparty rift that could complicate efforts to win back the White House: fiery liberals raising their voices on Web sites and in interest groups vs. elected officials trying to appeal to a much broader audience.
Los Angeles Times reporter Ron Brownstein (6/11/06) emphasized the concern 'among Democratic centrists who fear that the new activists are pressuring the party toward liberal positions that will impede its ability to build a national electoral majority.' Washington Post political reporter Dan Balz (6/11/06) underlined a similar concern, suggesting that the growing influence of such websites raised 'questions about whether the often-angry rhetoric and uncompromising positions of the bloggers will drive the party too far left and endanger its chances of winning national elections.'
But the issues identified as being pushed by bloggers and Internet activists that might 'complicate' a Democrat's chances in 2008 were not actually unpopular. A more forceful critique of the Iraq War was one example, a position with majority support, if public opinion polls are any indication.
When a CNN poll (6/14-15/06) asked an unusually straightforward question, 'Do you favor or oppose the U.S. war with Iraq,' the response was 54 percent opposed and only 38 percent in favor.
The Four Post-Lieberman/Lamont Scripts - Yahoo! News
Perfection in analysis, Thanks David
David Sirota: The Four Post-Lieberman/Lamont Scripts - Yahoo! News:
The movie 'Clue' is one of my favorites, in part, because the viewer gets to see three possible endings all in a row. So in that same Clue-like vein, I want to offer my thoughts on the possible outcomes of the Lieberman-Lamont primary.
Though the election will take place tomorrow, it's obvious today what will take place under all of the possible outcomes (except, maybe for Florida 2000-style outcome - that's a real wildcard). So without further ado, I will lay out my predictions starting with Lieberman winning big and going to Lamont winning big. (Please read on ^)
Oh, Crap
There is only one thing worse thn a loon in full view, and that is one who is missing.
BellSouth - NEWS:
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il hasn't appeared in public since his country test-fired missiles that drew international condemnation, leading to speculation of a possible sense of crisis inside the reclusive nation.
Kim attended a Russian art performance and visited a tire factory July 4, a day before the missile launches, and he hasn't appeared publicly since, according to South Korea's spy agency.
The North's propaganda machine hasn't reported on Kim's activities since the missile launches, but last week the country's official news agency said Kim sent a consolation message to ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Kim usually visits military units a few times a month to bolster his 'songun,' or 'military-first,' policy that rewards the 1.1 million-member military with the country's scarce resources despite chronic food shortages.
The Iraq War Enablers
As my grandpa always said, he/she who sits on fences, gets splinters in his/her ass.
While I believe that a woman president would be great for America, it is imperative that she be honest and true to Americans.
The Iraq War Enablers:
So there was Hillary Rodham Clinton grandstanding for the television cameras last week, giving Donald Rumsfeld a carefully scripted chewing out for his role in the Bush administration's lunatic war in Iraq.
Casual viewers could have been forgiven for not realizing that Senator Clinton has long been a supporter of this war, and that even now, with the number of pointless American deaths moving toward 2,600, her primary goal apparently is not to find an end game, but to figure out the most expedient political position to adopt, the one that will do the least damage to her presidential ambitions.
Mrs. Clinton is trying to have it both ways. A couple of months ago, she told a gathering in Washington: 'I do not think it is a smart strategy either for the president to continue with his open-ended commitment, which I think does not put enough pressure on the new Iraqi government.' She then added, 'Nor do I think it is smart strategy to set a date certain.'
Slick Willie has morphed into Slick Hilly, as the carnival of death in Iraq goes on.
Mrs. Clinton is just one of the many supporters of the war who should have known better from the beginning, and who are now (with the wheels falling off the Iraqi cart and public support for the war plummeting) engaged in the tricky ritual of rationalization.
While I believe that a woman president would be great for America, it is imperative that she be honest and true to Americans.
The Iraq War Enablers:
So there was Hillary Rodham Clinton grandstanding for the television cameras last week, giving Donald Rumsfeld a carefully scripted chewing out for his role in the Bush administration's lunatic war in Iraq.
Casual viewers could have been forgiven for not realizing that Senator Clinton has long been a supporter of this war, and that even now, with the number of pointless American deaths moving toward 2,600, her primary goal apparently is not to find an end game, but to figure out the most expedient political position to adopt, the one that will do the least damage to her presidential ambitions.
Mrs. Clinton is trying to have it both ways. A couple of months ago, she told a gathering in Washington: 'I do not think it is a smart strategy either for the president to continue with his open-ended commitment, which I think does not put enough pressure on the new Iraqi government.' She then added, 'Nor do I think it is smart strategy to set a date certain.'
Slick Willie has morphed into Slick Hilly, as the carnival of death in Iraq goes on.
Mrs. Clinton is just one of the many supporters of the war who should have known better from the beginning, and who are now (with the wheels falling off the Iraqi cart and public support for the war plummeting) engaged in the tricky ritual of rationalization.
How the US Fired UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
How the US Fired UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw:
The Foreign Secretary spoke his mind on the Middle East, and became a target in Washington
WHEN JACK STRAW was replaced by Margaret Beckett as Foreign Secretary, it seemed an almost inexplicable event. Mr Straw had been very competent, experienced, serious, moderate and always well briefed. Margaret Beckett is embarrassingly inexperienced. I made inquiries in Washington and was told that Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, had taken exception to Mr Straw's statement that it would be 'nuts' to bomb Iran. The United States, it was said, had put pressure on Tony Blair to change his Foreign Secretary. Mr Straw had been fired at the request of the Bush Administration, particularly at the Pentagon.
Shortly before he was dismissed, Mr Straw went on his charming tour with Condoleezza Rice, in which they visited his Blackburn constituency. This had been given two explanations. One was that the US Secretary of State was hoping to protect Mr Straw, as a fellow foreign minister, against the undiplomatic attack from the Pentagon. She wanted to keep Mr Rumsfeld's tanks off her turf. She had found Mr Straw competent and effective. If that were so, Dr Rice lost that battle in the Washington turf war.
The alternative explanation was more recently given by Irwin Stelzer in The Spectator; he has remarkably good Washington contacts and is probably right. His account is that Mr Straw was indeed dismissed because of American anxieties, but that Dr Rice herself had become worried, on her visit to Blackburn, by Mr Straw's dependence on Muslim votes. About 20 per cent of the voters in Blackburn are Islamic; Mr Straw was dismissed only four weeks after Dr Rice's visit to his constituency. It may be that both explanations are correct.
The Foreign Secretary spoke his mind on the Middle East, and became a target in Washington
WHEN JACK STRAW was replaced by Margaret Beckett as Foreign Secretary, it seemed an almost inexplicable event. Mr Straw had been very competent, experienced, serious, moderate and always well briefed. Margaret Beckett is embarrassingly inexperienced. I made inquiries in Washington and was told that Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, had taken exception to Mr Straw's statement that it would be 'nuts' to bomb Iran. The United States, it was said, had put pressure on Tony Blair to change his Foreign Secretary. Mr Straw had been fired at the request of the Bush Administration, particularly at the Pentagon.
Shortly before he was dismissed, Mr Straw went on his charming tour with Condoleezza Rice, in which they visited his Blackburn constituency. This had been given two explanations. One was that the US Secretary of State was hoping to protect Mr Straw, as a fellow foreign minister, against the undiplomatic attack from the Pentagon. She wanted to keep Mr Rumsfeld's tanks off her turf. She had found Mr Straw competent and effective. If that were so, Dr Rice lost that battle in the Washington turf war.
The alternative explanation was more recently given by Irwin Stelzer in The Spectator; he has remarkably good Washington contacts and is probably right. His account is that Mr Straw was indeed dismissed because of American anxieties, but that Dr Rice herself had become worried, on her visit to Blackburn, by Mr Straw's dependence on Muslim votes. About 20 per cent of the voters in Blackburn are Islamic; Mr Straw was dismissed only four weeks after Dr Rice's visit to his constituency. It may be that both explanations are correct.
Democrats Who Oppose Illegal Wars and Torture Want to Reclaim the Party
May it happen, may it happen.........because if it doesn't, I shall miss my country.
Democrats Who Oppose Illegal Wars and Torture Want to Reclaim the Party:
A grassroots revolt by voters has sparked a struggle for the party's soul, and a New England senator is in the firing line
In 1998, Connecticut's senator, Joseph Lieberman, broke ranks with his Democratic colleagues and railed against the 'premeditated' deception of the commander-in-chief. Back then the enduring legacy of this presidential deceit could be found on the dress of a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. And Lieberman, who went on to be Al Gore's vice-presidential running mate, was hopping mad. 'Such behaviour is not just inappropriate,' he told the Senate, referring to Bill Clinton's affair. 'It is immoral.'
Recently, Lieberman has been struggling with some infidelity issues of his own. Last year, he was caught in a tender embrace with one other than his wife. Worse still for Lieberman, an opponent of gay marriage, it was another man - George Bush. Bush planted 'the kiss' as he worked the Congress floor after his state of the union address. But for Democratic voters of Connecticut it might as well have been the Garden of Gethsemane.
In tomorrow's Democratic primary, Lieberman may well pay for that kiss with his job. Polls suggest he will lose the fight against a previously unknown anti-war candidate, Ned Lamont. Last week's Quinnipiac survey showed Lamont drubbing him 54% to 41% with only 5% of voters undecided. It has been a dramatic turnaround. Just three months ago, 91% of Democrats did not know enough about Lamont to make up their mind.
The Nagasaki Principle
Yes, Watch Out!
The Nagasaki Principle:
Today is the anniversary of what did not happen. Sixty-one years ago yesterday, the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The scale of nuclear devastation was apparent at once. The next day, no decision was made to call off the bombing of Nagasaki. Why? Historians debate the justification of the Hiroshima attack, but there is consensus that Nagasaki, coming less than three days later, was tragically unnecessary. President Harry Truman's one order to use the atomic bomb, given on July 25, established a momentum that was not stopped.
`The 509 Composite Group, 20th Air Force, will deliver its first special bomb,' the order read, ``as soon as weather will permit visual bombing after about 3 August 1945 on one of the targets: Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata, and Nagasaki.' The order instructed the Air Force to deliver ``additional bombs . . . as soon as made ready by the project staff.' The second bomb was the only other one ready, and because it was ready, it was used. If others had been ready, pity Kokura and Niigata. Truman's order was written by the project director, General Leslie Groves, who compared the new president here to a man jumping on a toboggan that was already speeding downhill. Watch out!
"Civil War" Is Uttered, and White House's Iraq Strategy Is Dealt a Blow
Why the hell is everyone denying what is so obvious to the non-brain-dead?
The mid-term election, of course.
�Civil War� Is Uttered, and White House�s Iraq Strategy Is Dealt a Blow:
WASHINGTON - Late last year, during a major address in Annapolis, President Bush introduced a new phrase for his Iraq policy: 'Plan for Victory.' With those words emblazoned on a screen behind him, he laid out a possible exit path for American troops, who would gradually cede control to their Iraqi counterparts.
But that phrase has all but disappeared as scenes of horrific sectarian violence have streamed onto American television screens unabated. And when the United States commander for the Middle East, Gen. John P. Abizaid, addressed the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, his testimony that 'Iraq could move towards civil war' if the strife would not end overshadowed any talk of victory.
Israeli Orthodox call for ceasefire
We are with on this!
AlterNet: Blogs: PEEK: Israeli Orthodox call for ceasefire:
Some interesting developments in the Israeli anti-war movement. As Muslim protests erupt all over the world -- reaffirming the idiocy of Bush's and Israel's drunken rage tactics for the zillionth time -- a motley crew of anti war voices have assembled.
First, there's the insular and self-interested voices of the Orthodox Degel Hatorah political party and the ultra-Orthodox Lithuanian community in Israel, both of whom are calling for a ceasefire.
Sure, it's because 'Jewish blood is being spilled,' and not because it's stupid tactics mixed with an incredible irreverence for human life in general -- but whatever, it's for a ceasefire.
Then there's the 3-5000 strong protests in Tel Aviv; a mix of Arab Israelis and left wing Jews (See video, link)
AlterNet: Blog Menace
There is something, actualy, quite a few things that can be done about the fools who use the internets for purposes of information theft and snatching our first amendment speeech rights, but I won't publish them.
There comes a time to stop writing and start doing!
AlterNet: Blog Menace:
Last week at the infamous computer security conference Black Hat in Las Vegas, Bob Auger announced what should have already been obvious: reading blogs isn't safe.
A security engineer with SPI Labs, Auger quietly revealed that the mere act of checking out somebody's RSS feed could allow bad guys to steal money from your bank account, post Web spam from your computer, and snoop on everything you've written anonymously in that online porn community you secretly visit. This is the new dark side of all that nice free speech that's been enabled by bloggish technologies.
Generally, free expression advocates worry about how businesses and governments censor the confessional, unedited style of bloggers. And they're right to be concerned. People posting personal rants have gotten fired for writing mean things about their bosses and been sued for criticizing litigious maniacs. These bloggers are receiving traditional retributions for speaking openly: They say bad things about someone or some corporate entity, and that person or entity smacks them down.
War on Iraq: White House Wants A Wider Mid-East War
....and it may just work. If it does, it could mean the end of Israel, and the U.S, as far as being a world power. ( of course, that may not be all that bad, that the U.S. no longer has so much power on the world stage, when we consider what the Bushites have done with that power.)
AlterNet: War on Iraq: White House Wants A Wider Mid-East War:
George W. Bush and his neoconservative advisers saw the Israel-Hezbollah conflict as a chance to get the Israelis to spread the war to Syria and achieve the long-sought goal of 'regime change' in Damascus.
War on Iraq: Bush's Fiascos in Iraq
AlterNet: War on Iraq: Bush's Fiascos in Iraq:
The word does not require an 'E,' but the world desperately needs one-E for EXIT from the march of folly toward wider war brought on by plural US policy blunders: in Iraq, Israel, and Lebanon, for starters, and now threatening to spread to Syria and Iran. Fortunately, Webster's does allow the insertion of an 'E' and that's precisely what we must do now. We need to make a prompt exit from the policy fiascoes that have brought violence and chaos to the Middle East.
If we do not look beyond the carnage of the last few weeks, weigh the reaction of others in and outside the region, and reflect on Washington's role in precipitating the violence, I fear there will be no exit. A brief review may be instructive. Who led our march into this modern-day Valley of Death?
The word does not require an 'E,' but the world desperately needs one-E for EXIT from the march of folly toward wider war brought on by plural US policy blunders: in Iraq, Israel, and Lebanon, for starters, and now threatening to spread to Syria and Iran. Fortunately, Webster's does allow the insertion of an 'E' and that's precisely what we must do now. We need to make a prompt exit from the policy fiascoes that have brought violence and chaos to the Middle East.
If we do not look beyond the carnage of the last few weeks, weigh the reaction of others in and outside the region, and reflect on Washington's role in precipitating the violence, I fear there will be no exit. A brief review may be instructive. Who led our march into this modern-day Valley of Death?
AlterNet: MediaCulture: How 9/11 Could Have Been Prevented
9/11 could have been prevented the same way any hijacking is prevented, and we have ben dealig with high-jackings for years. (But then, there would have been no "new Pearl Harbor")
There were certainly more than enough warnings!
AlterNet: MediaCulture: How 9/11 Could Have Been Prevented:
"Wherever you are, death will find you/even in the looming tower.'--The Holy Q'ran
Was 9/11 preventable? Add New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright, author of 'The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11,' to the growing ranks of those answering a resounding 'Yes!' to that simple but highly-charged question.
The failures of the CIA, FBI, the National Security Agency and many other branches of government to share information -- and the concomitant failure to stop the 9/11 hijackers -- have already been well-documented by others, but few have offered Wright's coherent focus on what the New York Times accurately describes as 'the stupidity, hubris and dereliction of duty that occurred within the United States government.' In particular, Wright's relentlessly detailed account of the flawed investigation of the October 2000 bombing of the American destroyer USS Cole -- a seminal and largely misunderstood event in the run-up to the 9/11 attacks -- amply demonstrates how 'jealousy and turf wars' were used by U.S. intelligence operatives as 'an excuse to hide information that should have been shared.'
AlterNet: The Hiroshima Stories We Can't Tell
That we were the first and only country to use a nuclear weapon is bad enough.
That this adinistration would think of using another, is evil in the extreme.
AlterNet: The Hiroshima Stories We Can't Tell:
For all of us in a sense, the Earth was knocked off its axis on August 6, 1945. In that one moment, my father's war ended and my war -- the Cold War -- began. But in my terms, it seems so much messier than that. For we, and that boy, continued to live in the same world together for a long time, accepting and embroidering each other's silences.
The bomb still runs like a fissure, but also like an attracting current -- a secret unity -- through our lives. The rent it tore in history was deep and the generational divide, given the experiences of those growing up on either side of it, profound. But any story would also have to hold the ways, even deeper and harder to fathom, in which we lived through it all together in pain, hatred, love, and most of all silence.
In this sixty-first year after Hiroshima, a year charged with no special anniversary meaning at all, perhaps we will think a little about the stories we can't tell, and about the subterranean stream of emotional horror that unites us, that won't go away whether, as in 1995, we try to exhibit the Enola Gay as a glorious icon or bury it deep in the Earth with a stake through its metallic heart. For my particular story, the one I've never quite been able to tell, there is a Japanese boy who should not have been, but briefly was, with us; who perhaps lives today with his own memories of very different silences. When I think of him now, when I realize that he, my father, and I still can't inhabit the same story except in silence, a strange kind of emotion rushes up in me, which is hard to explain.
Could the neocons really be that evil?
In a word, YES!
The Last Chance Democracy Cafe � Blog Archive � Could the neocons really be that evil?:
Juan Cole's blog, Informed Comment, is on my short list of indispensable stops, but it's indispensable in the same way vegetables are to a child; they may be an essential part of a healthy diet, but they're not always that appetizing.
Don't get me wrong: Cole is a craftsmanlike writer, his prose dependably crisp. He is, after all, the person who originated the use of the phrase 'sometimes you are just screwed' as descriptive of the US's position in Iraq.
And you can't punch much more truth into five words than that.
Iraqi leader blasts U.S.
It just keeps getting worse!
Iraqi leader blasts U.S.:
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's prime minister sharply criticized a U.S.-Iraqi attack Monday on a Shiite militia stronghold in Baghdad, breaking with his American partners on security tactics as the United States launches a major operation to secure the capital.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's criticism followed a pre-dawn air and ground attack on an area of Sadr City, stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia.
Police said three people, including a woman and a child, were killed in the raid, which the U.S. command said was aimed at ''individuals involved in punishment and torture cell activities.''
One U.S. soldier was wounded, the U.S. said.
Al-Maliki, a Shiite, said he was ''very angered and pained'' by the operation, warning that it could undermine his efforts toward national reconciliation.
You know anybody who needs an "anti-stupid" pill? - Yahoo! News
Do the Germans have several truckloads of this stuff we can put in the D.C. water supply?
You know anybody who needs an "anti-stupid" pill? - Yahoo! News:
"BERLIN (Reuters) - A German scientist has been testing an 'anti-stupidity' pill with encouraging results on mice and fruit flies, Bild newspaper reported Saturday.
Joe Lieberman's Pathetic Hail Mary Pass on Iraq | The Huffington Post
Let's just hope it doesn't work.
The Blog Arianna Huffington: Joe Lieberman's Pathetic Hail Mary Pass on Iraq The Huffington Post:
Let's hope Joe Lieberman's Hail Mary toss on Iraq isn't the wave of the future for the Democratic Party.
In their story on Lieberman's desperate, clammy, last-ditch attempt to save his political hide, Times reporters Patrick Healy and Jennifer Medina called Lieberman's verbal retrenchment on Iraq -- a mea culpa without the culpa -- 'a new set of talking points for Democratic leaders who are struggling for the right words to reconcile their support for the war initially and the fiery antiwar stance of many Democratic voters today.'
Today, in CT., presages one hell of an electiion year!
Even if Lieberman wins, in a close vote, the message has been sent.
Will it be heard?
Pro-war stance hurts Lieberman:
HARTFORD, Conn. -- For an indication of how pivotal the war in Iraq may be in November elections across the country, take a look at Connecticut on Tuesday.
The question of what to do in Iraq is at the heart of a nasty primary battle between anti-war candidate Ned Lamont and three-term Sen. Joe Lieberman, who supported the war and favors a stay-the-course approach.
Voters' decision on whether to cast out Lieberman could have national implications for Democrats as a referendum on the war.
'If he is defeated, it may say that the grass-roots Demo-crats are not interested in centrists on the Iraq issue,'' said Andy Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center.
Critics taking aim at the Condi Rice show - World - Times Online
Condi should have stayed at Stanford, instead of allowing herself, and us, to become victims of the Peter Principle.
Critics taking aim at the Condi Rice show - World - Times Online:
CONDOLEEZZA RICE is coming under sustained criticism on several fronts.
Some, even within the White House, have started referring to the 'Condi Rice show, suggesting that the Secretary of State spends too much time on television talking to a domestic audience and not enough in international negotiations.
A senior Republican expressed unhappiness at the way that she was snubbed recently by Fouad Siniora, the Lebanese Prime Minister. 'Henry Kissinger would never have been turned away from any capital,' he told The Times.
Richard Armitage, who was deputy to her predecessor, Colin Powell, has publicly attacked her for ignoring opportunities to negotiate with Syria. 'We get a little lazy, I think, when we spend all our time as diplomats talking to our friends and not to our enemies,' he said.
Texas Republicans abandon DeLay fight - Yahoo! News
Apparently, some Rethugs think Delay can win another term, indictment and all.
If he does, Texas should be given back to Mexico, forthwith
Texas Republicans abandon DeLay fight - Yahoo! News:
WASHINGTON - Texas Republicans on Monday abandoned their court fight to replace former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on the November ballot after being turned back at the Supreme Court.
The decision came after Justice Antonin Scalia rejected Texas Republicans' request to block an appeals court ruling saying DeLay's name should remain on the ballot.
'I think all our legal avenues are exhausted in terms of affecting the ruling prior to the election,' said Jim Bopp Jr., the attorney who argued the Republican Party's case to allow party officials to substitute another candidate for DeLay.
Under indictment on money laundering charges in Texas, DeLay won a March primary election that made him the Republican nominee for Congress from his home district near Houston. In June, he resigned from Congress and said he would not seek re-election.
Classified intelligence bills often are unread - The Boston Globe
Congress, once again, not doing their damn jobs.
What the hell are we paying these fools for, anyhow?
Classified intelligence bills often are unread - The Boston Globe:
WASHINGTON -- Nearly all members of the House of Representatives opted out of a chance to read this year's classified intelligence bill, and then voted on secret provisions they knew almost nothing about.
Iraq gets ever closer to all-out civil war
Iraq is already in a civil war!
If we wait for Bush or Rice to call it that, we will be waiting until no one is left alive in that country.
FT.com / Comment & analysis / Editorial comment - Iraq gets ever closer to all-out civil war:
When the senior American commander for Iraq and Britain's leading diplomat in Baghdad both conclude the country is subsiding into civil war one should not automatically conclude that the architects of this disastrous adventure have at last been seized with realism.
From the vainglorious moment of President George W. Bush's 'Mission Accomplished' photo-op in May 2003 there can hardly have been a day when the reality in Iraq has not been worse than advertised and marketed by Washington and London - by several orders of magnitude.
Chilling threat as Syria offer to join with Hezbollah
Bush and his friends in the Apostolic Congress progress towards Armgeddon.
Scotsman.com News - Chilling threat as Syria offer to join with Hezbollah:
'If Israel attacks Syria by any means, on the ground, in the air, our leadership ordered the armed forces to reply immediately'
Walid Muallem, Syrian foreign minister
SYRIA'S foreign minister yesterday offered to join militant group Hezbollah in its fight against Israel and said a regional war would be 'most welcome' as more than 30 people in Israel and Lebanon were killed on one of the worst days since the conflict began.
Ending the neoconservative nightmare - Haaretz - Israel News
Ending this nightmare may be harder than you think.
Ending the neoconservative nightmare - Haaretz - Israel News:
Witnessing the near-perfect symmetry of Israeli and American policy has been one of the more noteworthy aspects of the latest Lebanon war. A true friend in the White House. No deescalate and stabilize, honest-broker, diplomatic jaw-jaw from this president. Great. Except that Israel was actually in need of an early exit strategy, had its diplomatic options narrowed by American weakness and marginalization in the region, and found itself ratcheting up aerial and ground operations in ways that largely worked to Hezbollah's advantage, the Qana tragedy included. The American ladder had gone AWOL.
More worrying, while everyone here can identify an Israeli interest in securing the northern border and the justification in responding to Hezbollah, the goal of saving Lebanon's fragile Cedar Revolution sounds less distinctly Israeli. Perhaps an agenda invented elsewhere. As hostilities intensified, the phrase 'proxy war' gained resonance.
Israelis have grown used to a different kind of American embrace - less instrumental, more emotional, but also responsible. A dependable friend, ready to lend a guiding hand back to the path of stabilization when necessary.
Monday, August 07, 2006
CIA operatives raise intel questions - Hardball with Chris Matthews - MSNBC.com
Gee, Chris, it couldn't have been the TeeVee news media freakin' cheerleading and swooning over G. Dumbya that had anying to do with it, eh?
How quickly they forget!
CIA operatives raise intel questions - Hardball with Chris Matthews - MSNBC.com: (full article)
Did President Bush lead our country to war based on faulty intelligence, or did his administration twist and cherry-pick the information for a war they had already decided to start?
Somebody is responsible for this war. Is it the president, the politicians in Congress who voted to authorize the war, the military who saluted Bush three years ago when the war was popular who are now calling for Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's resignation, or was it cooked intelligence from the administration?
Two high-ranking CIA operatives who were actively involved in the run-up to the war answered this question and more.
Tyler Drumheller was the CIA's chief of operations in Europe until he retired last year. He says that the White House ignored warnings that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction.
Iraq: Would U.S. Pull Out in Full Civil War? - Newsweek Periscope - MSNBC.com
...and give up those 14 permanent bases?
Iraq: Would U.S. Pull Out in Full Civil War? - Newsweek Periscope - MSNBC.com:
Aug. 14, 2006 issue - The Bush administration insists Iraq is a long way from civil war, but the contingency planning has already begun inside the White House and the Pentagon. President Bush will move U.S. troops out of Iraq if the country descends into civil war, according to one senior Bush aide who declined to be named while talking about internal strategy. 'If there's a full-blown civil war, the president isn't going to allow our forces to be caught in the crossfire,' the aide said. 'But institutionally, the government of Iraq isn't breaking down. It's still a unity government.' Bush's position on a pullout of U.S. troops emerged in response to news-week's questions about Sen. John Warner, chairman of the Armed Services Committee. Warner warned last week that the president might require a new vote from Congress to allow troops to stay in Iraq in what he called 'all-out civil war.' But the senior Bush aide said the White House would need no prompting from Congress to get troops out 'if the Iraqi government broke down completely along sectarian lines.'
International crime rings, not hackers, true Internet villains
Figures!
International crime rings, not hackers, true Internet villains - Yahoo! News:
LAS VEGAS (AFP) - Organized crime is winning the Internet security war, specialists warned at the world's foremost gathering of computer hackers in Las Vegas.
The online peril is no longer brilliant young social outcasts penetrating networks for notoriety; it is international crime rings swiping billions of dollars with keystrokes and malicious computer codes, cyber cops agreed.
Ironically, potential champions in the battle for Internet privacy were sought among the thousands of hackers that made pilgrimages to the US gambling center nicknamed 'Sin City' for the three-day DefCon 14 conference.
Online evil doers were crime rings working out of countries such as Russia, Romania and Brazil, and their nefarious technical skills were keeping ahead of computer security experts, veterans of the cyber-crime battle said.
'We are getting our butts kicked, there is no doubt about it,' said Dan Hubbard, vice president of security research at Websense. 'There is a lot more of a bond and a sharing of tools in their society than in ours.'
TWISTED CHRISTIANS...
We call them crusading-crackpots, because as far as we can see there is nothing Christian about them.
Daily Kos: TWISTED CHRISTIANS...:
...is what I've been calling them.
They're blind to the real teachings of Christ.
They're a dangerous group and Conservatives Without Conscience* have been playing them against progressives for years now - and winning.
The alarming thing about twisted Christians is their willingness to follow leaders without questioning.
Not surprisingly they believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible.
Neoconservatives are leading BushCo, the twisted Christians and the entire planet - into the apocalypse.
Corporate Fascists are stealing everything that isn't nailed down, as if they believe in the end times too.
I've never been so scared in all of my 66 years.
Daily Kos: John Bolton: Dead Lebanese worth less than dead Israelis
Get this jackass out of the U.N.
He is a disgrace to this country; wait, strike that...
he is a disgrace to the human race!
Somebody needs to kick his sorry ass up around his shoulder blades, right after they beat him senseless.
Daily Kos: John Bolton: Dead Lebanese worth less than dead Israelis:
The Bush people have never heard a shot fired in anger, and it's apparent,' an official in the UN Secretary General's Office noted. 'The French were quite fearful that one miscalculation, one stray rocket could set the region on fire. No one in Washington seemed willing to admit that as a possibility.'
Bolton's continued 'cheerleading for Israel' didn't help, according to this same official. 'It's a real row that started with Bolton's statement that you couldn't compare the deaths of Lebanese to the deaths of Israelis,' the official said. 'He implied that because Lebanon harbored Hezbollah, Lebanese lives were forfeit. It was a stupid thing to say. It tore the scab off the wound.'
In Israel, Questions About the Conflict
Losing trust in their governments judgement and their military's preparedness. (We know how they feel, at least, on the trust in leadership part.)
In Israel, Questions About the Conflict:
JERUSALEM, Aug. 4 -- With much of Israel's northern population huddling in underground shelters and Hezbollah proving more resilient than Israeli leaders had publicly predicted, Israel's news media, intellectual elite and public are starting to question the judgment of the country's political and military leadership.
After an extraordinary national surge of unanimity during the first days of the conflict, public support is starting to fray, with some of the nation's most influential voices criticizing political leaders and Israel Defense Forces generals for military strategies they say have failed to protect Israeli citizens
Coastal homeowners may feel heat of global warming - The Boston Globe
Oh Hell!
Coastal homeowners may feel heat of global warming - The Boston Globe:
An influential but little known segment of the insurance industry is considering whether climate change might be partly to blame for more intense hurricanes in the North Atlantic. The result of this examination, which comes as scientists debate the same question, could be skyrocketing insurance rates in coastal regions from Maine to Texas.
Already, one leading company that forecasts the risk of natural disasters for the insurance industry has revamped the computer model it uses to simulate future weather trends. The model, which looks five years out, now captures the possibility that global warming might be contributing to hurricane activity.
Risk Management Solutions released the new model in May, predicting that average annual insurance losses will increase 25 to 30 percent in the coastal Northeast because of increased hurricane activity.
36% say U.S. government complicit in 9/11
I would bet there are more than that!
Rocky Mountain News: Nation:
More than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East, according to a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll.
The national survey of 1,010 adults also found that anger against the federal government is at record levels, with 54 percent saying they 'personally are more angry' at the government than they used to be.
Widespread resentment and alienation toward the national government appears to be fueling a growing acceptance of conspiracy theories about the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Suspicions that the 9/11 attacks were 'an inside job' - the common phrase used by conspiracy theorists on the Internet - quickly have become nearly as popular as decades-old conspiracy theories that the federal government was responsible for President John F. Kennedy's assassination and that it has covered up proof of space aliens.
Thirty-six percent of respondents overall said it is 'very likely' or 'somewhat likely' that federal officials either participated in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or took no action to stop them 'because they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East.'
Rocky Mountain News: Nation:
More than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East, according to a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll.
The national survey of 1,010 adults also found that anger against the federal government is at record levels, with 54 percent saying they 'personally are more angry' at the government than they used to be.
Widespread resentment and alienation toward the national government appears to be fueling a growing acceptance of conspiracy theories about the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Suspicions that the 9/11 attacks were 'an inside job' - the common phrase used by conspiracy theorists on the Internet - quickly have become nearly as popular as decades-old conspiracy theories that the federal government was responsible for President John F. Kennedy's assassination and that it has covered up proof of space aliens.
Thirty-six percent of respondents overall said it is 'very likely' or 'somewhat likely' that federal officials either participated in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or took no action to stop them 'because they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East.'
Latest News | The Huffington Post#a026649
Gotta get those numbers up to a double digit lead or the Rethugs will steal the election, again.
Latest News The Huffington Post#a026649:
The latest independent statewide poll shows Democratic challenger Bob Casey with a slight lead over Republican incumbent Rick Santorum in their hotly contested Senate race.
The poll found 45 percent of the voters questioned supported Casey, the state treasurer, while 39 percent supported Santorum, the No. 3 Senate Republican.
Latest News The Huffington Post#a026649:
The latest independent statewide poll shows Democratic challenger Bob Casey with a slight lead over Republican incumbent Rick Santorum in their hotly contested Senate race.
The poll found 45 percent of the voters questioned supported Casey, the state treasurer, while 39 percent supported Santorum, the No. 3 Senate Republican.
Legalizing Marijuana - A New Republican Strategy? : Indybay
The dirty tricks have already started.
Legalizing Marijuana - A New Republican Strategy? : Indybay:
The Republican Party has a new voter registration project in Fresno. It involves luring people to sign a LEGALIZE MARIJUANA petition and then re-registering them as Republicans.
The Beginning of the End of the Adventure - New York Times
I wouldn't count on it. These idiots have been at this for over 20 years, I don't think they are through.
Their entire indentities are wrapped up in their ideology.
The Beginning of the End of the Adventure - New York Times:
Until the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah broke out on July 12, the foreign policy pursued by the Bush administration in its second term was a source of increasing consternation to those who had most fervently supported its aspirations to rid the world of evildoers, that is, the thinkers and policy analysts identified with muscular neoconservatism. Writing in The Weekly Standard, William Kristol, the magazine's editor, accused the administration of pursuing policies that had allowed North Korea to test missiles with impunity and that had left the regime in Tehran 'sitting pretty,' in short, of pursuing a 'Clintonian' foreign policy, which is about as severe a condemnation as any upstanding neoconservative can deploy.
For her part, Danielle Pletka, a Middle East expert at the American Enterprise Institute, recently told an interviewer, 'I don't have a friend in the administration, on Capitol Hill or in any part of the conservative foreign-policy establishment who is not beside themselves with fury at the administration.'
Why this Israel/Hizbollah war now?
And why was Condi so sure, from the first day, that this war was so important in briging on the "birth pangs" of a new middle east?
Informed Comment:
The wholesale destruction of all of Lebanon by Israel and the US Pentagon does not make any sense. Why bomb roads, bridges, ports, fuel depots in Sunni and Christian areas that have nothing to do with Shiite Hizbullah in the deep south? And, why was Hizbullah's rocket capability so crucial that it provoked Israel to this orgy of destruction? Most of the rockets were small katyushas with limited range and were highly inaccurate. They were an annoyance in the Occupied Golan Heights, especially the Lebanese-owned Shebaa Farms area. Hizbullah had killed 6 Israeli civilians since 2000. For this you would destroy a whole country?
It doesn't make any sense.
Moreover, the Lebanese government elected last year was pro-American! Why risk causing it to fall by hitting the whole country so hard?
What new Bush surveillance programs are causing the NSA to run out of electrical power? | CorrenteWire
Damn!
What in hell are they doing?
What new Bush surveillance programs are causing the NSA to run out of electrical power? CorrenteWire:
The NSA is Baltimore Gas & Electric's largest customer, using as much electricity as the city of Annapolis, according to James Bamford, an intelligence expert and author of two comprehensive books on the agency.
Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the NSA has ramped up its operations, and the electricity needed to sustain major projects, such as the warrantless surveillance program and technology modernization programs, has increased sharply.
The demand for electricity to operate its expanding intelligence systems has left the high-tech eavesdropping agency on the verge of exceeding its power supply, the lifeblood of its sprawling 350-acre Fort Meade headquarters, according to current and former intelligence officials.
Kinda makes you wonder what additional processing they've been doing since 2001, eh?
ABC's Roberts: "Disaster" for party if Democrats nominate candidate who agrees with Americans on Iraq
Since when is it a disaster for a political party to get hit over the head with a 2x4?
At least it gets their attention. Most of the time, it is the only thing that does,
Also, since when is opposing a war of aggression, an illegal war, which is a disasterous quagmire, a leftist position?
Media Matters - ABC's Roberts: "Disaster" for party if Democrats nominate candidate who agrees with Americans on Iraq:
Summary: On ABC's This Week, Cokie Roberts asserted that it would be 'a disaster for the Democratic Party' and would lead to 'chaos' if businessman Ned Lamont were to defeat Sen. Joseph Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic Senate primary on August 8, thereby 'pushing the party to the left' and sending a message to other senators that '[t]he only smart thing to do here is play to your base.' However, as Sam Donaldson noted, opposition to the war is not simply playing to the base, 'it's playing to the country,' since the majority of the American public opposes the war in Iraq.
Conn. Race Could Be Democratic Watershed
...and this is why we hope Lamont wins.
It will send a very strong message to Democrats across the nation, and may signal to the whole world that not all Americans are insane, blood-thirsty, war criminals.
Nevertheless, unlike some DC Dems, we absolutely leave it all up to CT. Dems. We fully understand that this is their state and their senator.
Conn. Race Could Be Democratic Watershed:
FARMINGTON, Conn., Aug. 5 -- The passion and energy fueling the antiwar challenge to Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman in Connecticut's Senate primary signal a power shift inside the Democratic Party that could reshape the politics of national security and dramatically alter the battle for the party's 2008 presidential nomination, according to strategists in both political parties.
A victory by businessman Ned Lamont on Tuesday would confirm the growing strength of the grass-roots and Internet activists who first emerged in Howard Dean's presidential campaign. Driven by intense anger at President Bush and fierce opposition to the Iraq war, they are on the brink of claiming their most significant political triumph, one that will reverberate far beyond the borders here if Lieberman loses.
Jomentum reaches a new low
Joe compares himself to Max Cleland!
This guy really is demented.
THE NEWS BLOG:
'Sadly, my opponent has done his best to distort my record, spending at least $4 million of his own money to mislead people into thinking that I am someone I am not. Not unlike what happened to Max Cleland four years ago.'
If a report falls in a forest......
I don't know why anyone is surprised by this.
Conyers could have photos of George Bush and Dick Cheney burying someone in the Rose garden, and the TeeVee News media wouldn't cover it.
Our suggestion: email them and ask them why they are not covering this?
Crooks and Liars � If a report falls in a forest�:
"It's been about 48 hours since Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee issued a sweeping indictment of the Bush administration's casual approach to law-breaking in a report called, 'The Constitution in Crisis.' How's the media reaction been?
Using Lexis-Nexis and Google News, it appears that the only mainstream media outlet, literally, the only one, to even mention the release of the report was CNN, when Jack Cafferty devoted 200 words to the subject late last week.
To be fair, the timing of the release wasn't ideal. A Friday afternoon in August was probably not the way to maximize exposure for the report.
Regardless, this is a well-documented, thoroughly-researched report from congressional Democrats about the Bush administration possibly violating over two dozen federal laws and regulations, some of them multiple times. And yet, nothing in the AP; nothing in any of the major dailies; nothing on ABC, CBS, or NBC. Not one word.
First, many of us frequently feel like congressional Democrats need to be aggressive and go on the offensive more, but let's not forget, even when they do, much the media blows off what Dems have to say.
And second, if Dems accuse the administration of criminal activity, and it's widely ignored, does it really make a sound?
by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report"
Defiant Iran threatens to use 'oil weapon' against sanctions - World - Times Online
Uh Oh....here we go.
Question of the day?
Will Bush nuke Iran if they the block oil flow throuhg the staright of Hormuz??
Defiant Iran threatens to use 'oil weapon' against sanctions - World - Times Online:
IRAN yesterday rejected a United Nations demand that it halt uranium enrichment work, vowing instead to expand its controversial nuclear programme and threatening to block oil exports to the West if sanctions are imposed.
In a blunt response to international concern about Iran's nuclear ambitions, Ali Larijani, the chief negotiator on atomic issues, said that Tehran was ready for a showdown with world powers when the matter was taken up by the UN Security Council this month.
'We will expand nuclear technology at whatever stage it may be necessary and all of Iran's nuclear technology including the [centrifuge] cascades will be expanded,' he said in Tehran.
The announcement was regarded not simply as another rhetorical outburst from Tehran but rather the precursor of a formal reply to the West which will be delivered in full on August 22. "
Sunday, August 06, 2006
LEBANON AND THE NEO-CON ENDGAME | World War 4 Report
LEBANON AND THE NEO-CON ENDGAME | World War 4 Report:
There have been signs over the past three years, as the debacle in Iraq has gone from bad to worse, that the so-called 'neo-cons'—the Pentagon-connected policy wonks with traditional ties to the Israeli right and ultra-ambitious schemes to remake the entire order of the Middle East—have been taken down a peg. With the US actually in danger of losing control of Iraq, the notion of attacking Iran, or even plotting against supposed allies like Saudi Arabia, is starting to look more dangerous than attractive to Washington pragmatists.
The turning point would seem to have been in March 2003, when US troops were still advancing on Baghdad. At this decisive moment, Pentagon official Richard Perle resigned as chairman of the Defense Policy Board, a high-level group that advises Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on policy issues. On March 27, the same day he resigned, Perle told BBC: 'This will be the short war I and others predicted... I don't believe it will be months. I believed all along that it will be a quick war, and I continue to believe that.'
Stepping down as chair, Perle would remain on the board until 2004. Also serving on the Defense Policy Board at this time were former CIA director James Woolsey, former Vice President Dan Quayle, and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger."
There have been signs over the past three years, as the debacle in Iraq has gone from bad to worse, that the so-called 'neo-cons'—the Pentagon-connected policy wonks with traditional ties to the Israeli right and ultra-ambitious schemes to remake the entire order of the Middle East—have been taken down a peg. With the US actually in danger of losing control of Iraq, the notion of attacking Iran, or even plotting against supposed allies like Saudi Arabia, is starting to look more dangerous than attractive to Washington pragmatists.
The turning point would seem to have been in March 2003, when US troops were still advancing on Baghdad. At this decisive moment, Pentagon official Richard Perle resigned as chairman of the Defense Policy Board, a high-level group that advises Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on policy issues. On March 27, the same day he resigned, Perle told BBC: 'This will be the short war I and others predicted... I don't believe it will be months. I believed all along that it will be a quick war, and I continue to believe that.'
Stepping down as chair, Perle would remain on the board until 2004. Also serving on the Defense Policy Board at this time were former CIA director James Woolsey, former Vice President Dan Quayle, and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger."
Indigenous Middle Eastern Jews condemn Israeli aggression | World War 4 Report
Not all that surprising, when you realize that Jews lived in peace with Christians and Muslims, before the state of Israel existed.
I do not support religious states in general, so why should I support a Jewish state?
Indigenous Middle Eastern Jews condemn Israeli aggression | World War 4 Report:
Indigenous Middle Eastern Jewry, from Lebanon, Morocco, and Iran, have issued recent condemnations of the Israeli assaults on Lebanon and Palestine.
The first here is from the Jews of Lebanon website. Lebanese Jewry goes back to 1000 B.C., and did not empty out in 1948, as many Middle Eastern Jewish populations did, most emigrating to Israel. The bulk of Lebanese Jewry left during the Lebanese civil wars from 1975-92. There are some 100 members of the community remaining today.
According to Ed Corrigan in the Journal of the Middle East Policy Council, Winter 1990-91, Number 35, Beirut Jewry had close ties with the Palestinian community:
Israel does not act or speak for every Jew
The author has a point...
Israel does not act or speak for every Jew:
08/05/06 'SMH' ---I WRITE as a Jew and as a synagogue member. I write as one whose academic work continues to move through questions of Jewish identity and the legacy of the Holocaust. Yet, I write with a growing sense of shame. The source of the feeling is simple: Israel claims that it continues to act in my name.
The Jewish community in Sydney and elsewhere insists on identifying themselves with Israeli actions. These acts are part of a tradition in which the state of Israel has set the measure for being Jewish.
The proof of this is the perverse logic in which responses to the politics of Israel - a politics that manifests itself in the bulldozing of houses in Gaza and the bombing of civilians in Qana - take the form of attacks on synagogues, Jewish cultural centres and Jewish cemeteries. Each time Israel acts in a certain way, security measures around synagogues are doubled.
Why? The straightforward answer attests to the victory of those who have linked and continue to link being a Jew to Israel and thus to those who conflate Judaism and Zionism.
The consequence of this is that a critique of Zionism or a disagreement over the policies of Israel are taken at best as a criticism of Jews and, at worst, as anti-Semitic. The evidence is clear. Attacks on synagogues in Seattle and Parramatta underscore the results of this.These attacks are the result of the politics of a nation state.
Israeli pilots 'deliberately miss' targets
The Observer | World | Israeli pilots 'deliberately miss' targets: "
Fliers admit aborting raids on civilian targets as concern grows over the reliability of intelligence.
At least two Israeli fighter pilots have deliberately missed civilian targets in Lebanon as disquiet grows in the military about flawed intelligence, The Observer has learnt. Sources say the pilots were worried that targets had been wrongly identified as Hizbollah facilities.
Voices expressing concern over the armed forces' failures are getting louder. One Israeli cabinet minister said last week: 'We gave the army so much money. Why are we getting these results?' Last week saw Hizbollah's guerrilla force, dismissed by senior Israeli military officials as 'ragtag', inflict further casualties on one of the world's most powerful armies in southern Lebanon. At least 12 elite troops, the equivalent of Britain's SAS, have already been killed, and by yesterday afternoon Israel's military death toll had climbed to 45.
Fliers admit aborting raids on civilian targets as concern grows over the reliability of intelligence.
At least two Israeli fighter pilots have deliberately missed civilian targets in Lebanon as disquiet grows in the military about flawed intelligence, The Observer has learnt. Sources say the pilots were worried that targets had been wrongly identified as Hizbollah facilities.
Voices expressing concern over the armed forces' failures are getting louder. One Israeli cabinet minister said last week: 'We gave the army so much money. Why are we getting these results?' Last week saw Hizbollah's guerrilla force, dismissed by senior Israeli military officials as 'ragtag', inflict further casualties on one of the world's most powerful armies in southern Lebanon. At least 12 elite troops, the equivalent of Britain's SAS, have already been killed, and by yesterday afternoon Israel's military death toll had climbed to 45.
Wew hope this is one time Atrios is wrong
Who knows, maybe there will be a miracle, and it will cause great enlightenment among Democrats
Well, it'll be a miracle if Lamont pulls it off on Tuesday. Yes, 3 polls in a row have him up substantially, but no one really knows who the hell is going to go to the polls on Tuesday.
I'd like to think that if Lamont loses something will still have been gained, though I'm not sure I can actually make that case. I do think this campaign has helped to shift CW somewhat on certain issues, but a Lamont loss will probably snap it right back to where it was.
If you can, get to CT and help.
Group of 9/11 widows 'question the veracity of the entire Commission's report'
Who can blame them? (Besides Ann Cuntler, of course).
We, the people, need to demnd another 9/11 investigation, and this time, people with NO conflicts of interest should do the investigating.
The Raw Story Group of 9/11 widows 'question the veracity of the entire Commission�s report':
Four widows instrumental in getting Congress to push President Bush to create the 9/11 Independent Commission are insisting that it 'failed in its duties' on the heels of two recent news reports which allege that some commissioners knew they were being 'deceived' by NORAD officials, and the widows are now questioning 'the veracity of the entire Commission's report,' RAW STORY has found.
In a statement released today by Patty Casazza, Monica Gabrielle, Mindy Kleinberg, and Lorie Van Auken - 1/3 of the Family Steering Committee for the 9/11 Independent Commission - the widows refer to the commission's mandate (Section 602 of Public Law 107-306).
Two of the five 'purposes of the Commission' were to 'ascertain, evaluate, and report on the evidence developed by all relevant governmental agencies regarding the facts and circumstances surrounding the attacks' and 'make a full and complete accounting of the circumstances surrounding the attacks, and the extent of the United States' preparedness for, and immediate response to, the attacks.'
Eric Alterman: Bush Bounces, Reporters Follow
We love Alterman; he so nails it!
Eat The Press Eric Alterman: Bush Bounces, Reporters Follow The Huffington Post:
Bob Woodward has made a career out of trolling the halls of power for the packaged (but not always on-message) scoop. His measured, non-judgmental style and marquee name have kept politicians and their embittered minions coming back for their respective close-ups for several decades now.
But as Woodward's own blinkered account of the alleged heroism of the Bush team's response to 9/11 demonstrates as clearly as is humanly possible, access isn't everything. It certainly isn't the only thing. Take a look, for instance, at Newsweek's cover story this week, where reporter Richard Wolffe was allowed to trail President Bush as he traveled to Russia for the G8 summit last week. The ghost of Woodwardian access haunts the piece, as does logical contradiction after logical contradiction. Describing the conference itself, we discover that 'Bush huddles with presidents and prime ministers, showing how far he has traveled since 9/11--and also how little he has changed. Bush thinks the new war vindicates his early vision of the region's struggle: of good versus evil, civilization versus terrorism, freedom versus Islamic fascism.' Well, which is it? Has Bush changed or has he stayed the same? Time, no pun intended, will have to tell. Later, we learn: 'Circumstances have taught him to speak the language of diplomacy more fluently. Yet he still trusts his gut to tell him what's right, and he still expects others to follow his lead. For Bush, diplomacy is not the art of a negotiated compromise. It's a smoother way to get where he wants to go.'"
The Missing Point of "Yo, Blair!"
Bush is a disgrace.
Why won't he just stay the hell home?
Is there aome way that, we, the people, can ground him?
Eat The Press Harry Shearer: The Missing Point of "Yo, Blair!" The Huffington Post:
"LONDON--Everybody's seen the footage and/or read the transcripts on both sides of the Atlantic by now, and everybody seems to have buried the lede. The third word of the President's sentence that ends with 'shit' is 'irony'.
'See, the irony is...' He does irony.
Tony Snow's refusal to discuss the profanity--'unless you have a history of never having used the word'--of course is a resort to the 'everybody does it' defense that Republicans used to denounce with grand theatricality. But somebody should ask Tony whether he's ever before noticed the President's keen sense of irony.
U.S. military on the ground say Civil War already in full swing
Is there anyone who does not know this, besides the pin-heads in D.C.?
Latest News The Huffington Post#a026612:
While American politicians and generals in Washington debate the possibility of civil war in Iraq, many U.S. officers and enlisted men who patrol Baghdad say it has already begun.
Army troops in and around the capital interviewed in the last week cite a long list of evidence that the center of the nation is coming undone: Villages have been abandoned by Sunni and Shiite Muslims; Sunni insurgents have killed thousands of Shiites in car bombings and assassinations; Shiite militia death squads have tortured and killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Sunnis; and when night falls, neighborhoods become open battlegrounds.
No room for moderates in GOP
Uhmmm...do you suppose there were moderate Nazis or Communists in the Soviet Union?
Latest News The Huffington Post#a026612:
Republican state Sen. Nancy Riley, complaining there is no room in her party for moderates, switched to the Democratic Party Thursday and threw a new obstacle at GOP hopes of taking control of the Senate for the first time in state history.
Riley, flanked by a half dozen Democratic Senate leaders, announced her change in party allegiance while criticizing Senate Republicans for what she said was their 'lack of compassion for people' and for ignoring her and other political moderates.
Latest News The Huffington Post#a026612:
Republican state Sen. Nancy Riley, complaining there is no room in her party for moderates, switched to the Democratic Party Thursday and threw a new obstacle at GOP hopes of taking control of the Senate for the first time in state history.
Riley, flanked by a half dozen Democratic Senate leaders, announced her change in party allegiance while criticizing Senate Republicans for what she said was their 'lack of compassion for people' and for ignoring her and other political moderates.
Gary Hart: An October Surprise
Even if everyone of our troops exited today, there is still war-profiteering, massive debt, and high fuel prices, which most American cities are not prepared to deal with.
The Blog Gary Hart: An October Surprise The Huffington Post:
Depending on the fate of Senator Joe Lieberman on Tuesday, it should come as no surprise to anyone when (not if) the Bush administration announces a dramatic plan to exit Iraq sometime before the Congressional elections this fall.
As an increasing number of Republican Members of Congress confront unhappy, sometimes angry, constituents finally fed up with the absence of purpose in the continued U.S. occupation and the death and dismemberment of young American troops for no purpose having to do either with combating the jihad or making the U.S. secure, they will demand White House rescue for their political careers.
Since, with precious few exceptions, political careers trump principle, and since the cabal of neoconservatives and the religious right intend to govern forever, the genius Karl Rove will concoct a patently phony Iraq exit strategy.
But even as President Bush rolls out the bogus plan in the Rose Garden, surrounded by trembling Congressmen, and claims 'victory' in Iraq, work will continue around the clock on the American fortress in central Baghdad and on the permanent military garrisons in the countryside.
It was all forecast years ago in the final scene of the movie Three Days of the Condor when the CIA official Higgins explains to the naive CIA research character portrayed by Robert Redford: 'Of course it's about the oil. Do you think the American people care how we get it? They just want us to get it.'
Lieberman Abandons "Get Out The Vote" Ground Operations... | The Huffington Post
Liberman may be not thinking too straight...
Lieberman Abandons "Get Out The Vote" Ground Operations... The Huffington Post:
With only three days left to reverse the course of the Democratic primary race, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman is scaling back on the ambitious ground operation that his supporters had hoped would pull him past his challenger, Ned Lamont, in Tuesday's election, people affiliated with the campaign said.
Mr. Lieberman, slipping badly in recent polls, still has solid organizational support. Major unions are planning phone banks on his behalf. Firefighters are taking the day off to drive older voters to polling stations. Black churches are distributing literature focusing on some of the historically most reliable Lieberman supporters, in the belief that the more Democrats show up to vote, the better his chances are.
More Bad News For Mel From Down Under: Turns Out Gibson Had Previous Ties To Aussie Anti-Semite Group
We won't be watching anymore Mel Gibson films. He is wealthy enough for 4 lifetimes. No need to suppot this hypocrite
Eat The Press More Bad News For Mel From Down Under: Turns Out Gibson Had Previous Ties To Aussie Anti-Semite Group The Huffington Post:
In the 24-hour news cycle, tomorrow's bad news for Mel Gibson hits today: according to tomorrow's Sunday Herald Sun, Mel Gibson once had ties to the Australian League of Rights, a right-wing group well-known in Australia for anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial. Says the Herald Sun: 'The league claims the world is run by a secret society of Jews.' (Who, presumably, are responsible for all the wars in the world.)
Eat The Press More Bad News For Mel From Down Under: Turns Out Gibson Had Previous Ties To Aussie Anti-Semite Group The Huffington Post:
In the 24-hour news cycle, tomorrow's bad news for Mel Gibson hits today: according to tomorrow's Sunday Herald Sun, Mel Gibson once had ties to the Australian League of Rights, a right-wing group well-known in Australia for anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial. Says the Herald Sun: 'The league claims the world is run by a secret society of Jews.' (Who, presumably, are responsible for all the wars in the world.)
Latest Jailing of Journalist Sending A Message to Bloggers?
Seems the Feds are interested in Bloggers as well ass regular Journos.
Latest Jailing of Journalist Sending A Message to Bloggers?:
Carolan, who has represented The Associated Press in the past, said the government is increasingly becoming more aggressive 'in going after reporters in the grand jury context.'
Freelance video journalist and blogger Joshua Wolf was jailed Tuesday for refusing to hand over his unaired footage from a July 2005 protest.
Wolf does not fit the classic profile of a reporter trying to protect a source. He describes himself as an activist and journalist, a freelance cameraman who also runs a blog.
He videotaped a protest in which anarchists were suspected of vandalizing a city police car. One San Francisco police officer was struck during the rally against the G-8 economic summit last year and sustained a fractured skull.
Wolf refused to turn over complete tapes of the demonstration, which federal authorities said might help them identify people who committed crimes.
Lucy A. Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said the case demonstrates that the federal government is willing to cast a wider net in seeking information from the media.
(Message, destroy all film you don't use.)
Strange Times: Key GOP Senator Backs Iraq Pullout -- 'NYT' Opposes
Strange Times: Key GOP Senator Backs Iraq Pullout -- 'NYT' Opposes:
NEW YORK - Two days after Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) called for a phasedwithdrawal from Iraq beginning within six months, a New York Times editorial came out against any such plan, calling Democratic moves in this direction 'realithy avoidance....It involves pretending that the nightmare can be ended by adopting a timetable for a phased withdrawal of American troops.'
President Bush's policies encourage 'the illusion that it is just a matter of time and American support before Iraq evolves into a stable democracy,' the Times editorial on Sunday declares. 'The Democratic timetable spins a different fantasy: that if the Iraqis are told that American troops will be leaving in stages, at specific dates, their government will rise to the occasion and create its own security forces to maintain order.
'The Iraqi government has not failed to develop adequate police and military forces of its own because it lacks the incentive. It has failed to do so because it is weak and divided, because its people are frightened and because the strongest leaders in the country are the men who control sectarian militias. A phased withdrawal by itself would simply leave the American soldiers who remain behind in graver danger, and hasten what looks like an inevitable descent into civil war.
NEW YORK - Two days after Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) called for a phasedwithdrawal from Iraq beginning within six months, a New York Times editorial came out against any such plan, calling Democratic moves in this direction 'realithy avoidance....It involves pretending that the nightmare can be ended by adopting a timetable for a phased withdrawal of American troops.'
President Bush's policies encourage 'the illusion that it is just a matter of time and American support before Iraq evolves into a stable democracy,' the Times editorial on Sunday declares. 'The Democratic timetable spins a different fantasy: that if the Iraqis are told that American troops will be leaving in stages, at specific dates, their government will rise to the occasion and create its own security forces to maintain order.
'The Iraqi government has not failed to develop adequate police and military forces of its own because it lacks the incentive. It has failed to do so because it is weak and divided, because its people are frightened and because the strongest leaders in the country are the men who control sectarian militias. A phased withdrawal by itself would simply leave the American soldiers who remain behind in graver danger, and hasten what looks like an inevitable descent into civil war.
Gallup: Lieberman Now More Popular With Republicans Than Democrats
Well, that's no surprise. Lieberamn is more of a Rethug than Chuck Hagel.
Gallup: Lieberman Now More Popular With Republicans Than Democrats:
NEW YORK - The much-watched Democratic primary election in Connecticut is just four days away, and today Gallup has come out with a poll that finds incumbent Sen. Joseph Lieberman with his lowest ratings ever. 'As a result,' a Gallup report released this morning relates, 'he is now more popular with Republicans than with supporters of his own party,' surely not a good sign.
Latest polls in Connecticut show that Lieberman now trails his opponent, Ned Lamont, who has charged that the senator is too close to the Bush administration on several issues, most notably the Iraq war.
The latest Gallup poll finds that among Republicans and Republican 'leaners,' 46% view Lieberman favorably, while 27% view him unfavorably. Democrats are more evenly divided in their attitudes, with 38% viewing him favorably and 32% unfavorably. Currently, his support among Republicans is on the upswing. However, this is from a national sample and may not suggest a likely outcome next Tuesday.
Also today, Gallup cited the results of its poll earlier in the summer which found that 55% of Republicans and Democrats called Iraq 'extremely important' in considering their vote for Congress this year. Gallup noted, 'It is clear that Lieberman is at odds with the vast majority of Democrats, who overwhelmingly oppose the war -- 82% say it was a mistake for the United States to send troops, according to the latest Gallup Poll. However, there are no precise data that verify that Democrats nationally are lukewarm on Lieberman specifically because of his unflinching support for the Iraq war.'
Gallup: Lieberman Now More Popular With Republicans Than Democrats:
NEW YORK - The much-watched Democratic primary election in Connecticut is just four days away, and today Gallup has come out with a poll that finds incumbent Sen. Joseph Lieberman with his lowest ratings ever. 'As a result,' a Gallup report released this morning relates, 'he is now more popular with Republicans than with supporters of his own party,' surely not a good sign.
Latest polls in Connecticut show that Lieberman now trails his opponent, Ned Lamont, who has charged that the senator is too close to the Bush administration on several issues, most notably the Iraq war.
The latest Gallup poll finds that among Republicans and Republican 'leaners,' 46% view Lieberman favorably, while 27% view him unfavorably. Democrats are more evenly divided in their attitudes, with 38% viewing him favorably and 32% unfavorably. Currently, his support among Republicans is on the upswing. However, this is from a national sample and may not suggest a likely outcome next Tuesday.
Also today, Gallup cited the results of its poll earlier in the summer which found that 55% of Republicans and Democrats called Iraq 'extremely important' in considering their vote for Congress this year. Gallup noted, 'It is clear that Lieberman is at odds with the vast majority of Democrats, who overwhelmingly oppose the war -- 82% say it was a mistake for the United States to send troops, according to the latest Gallup Poll. However, there are no precise data that verify that Democrats nationally are lukewarm on Lieberman specifically because of his unflinching support for the Iraq war.'
Terrorism is rotting the Islamic revolution it craves - Sunday Times - Times Online
Terrorism is rotting the Islamic revolution it craves - Sunday Times - Times Online:
Hezbollah's men of terror are both the strength and the Achilles heel of a movement that seeks to spread Islamic states, says Amir Taheri
The scene is Beirut, some years on, when Hezbollah has driven out the 'Crusader-Zionists' and begun building the model Islamic state it has promised since the 1980s.
The rallying cry of Tony Blair, for western democracies to remain united in the global war against terror and engage in a battle of values, has not been heeded. The western powers, led by the United States, have run away from the Middle East, allowing the Islamic republic and its newly acquired allies in Al-Qaeda to set the agenda.
The former American University of Beirut has been replaced by the Iranian-sponsored Islamic University. As teenage volunteers for martyrdom, chant 'Allah, Koran, Khomeini', the new chancellor of the Islamic University prepares to read a message from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president.
Hezbollah's men of terror are both the strength and the Achilles heel of a movement that seeks to spread Islamic states, says Amir Taheri
The scene is Beirut, some years on, when Hezbollah has driven out the 'Crusader-Zionists' and begun building the model Islamic state it has promised since the 1980s.
The rallying cry of Tony Blair, for western democracies to remain united in the global war against terror and engage in a battle of values, has not been heeded. The western powers, led by the United States, have run away from the Middle East, allowing the Islamic republic and its newly acquired allies in Al-Qaeda to set the agenda.
The former American University of Beirut has been replaced by the Iranian-sponsored Islamic University. As teenage volunteers for martyrdom, chant 'Allah, Koran, Khomeini', the new chancellor of the Islamic University prepares to read a message from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president.
Iran's plot to mine uranium in Africa
...and where have we heard this before?
Iran's plot to mine uranium in Africa - Sunday Times - Times Online:
IRAN is seeking to import large consignments of bomb-making uranium from the African mining area that produced the Hiroshima bomb, an investigation has revealed.
A United Nations report, dated July 18, said there was 'no doubt' that a huge shipment of smuggled uranium 238, uncovered by customs officials in Tanzania, was transported from the Lubumbashi mines in the Congo.
Tanzanian customs officials told The Sunday Times it was destined for the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, and was stopped on October 22 last year during a routine check.
DenverPost.com - All 6 in GOP primary back U.S. efforts in Iraq
Electing fools like this will make the job of our men and women in the military much more difficult, as it only goes to prove what bin Laden has been saying; that this is a war between Islam and Christianity, which it is not!
DenverPost.com - All 6 in GOP primary back U.S. efforts in Iraq:
Bremer, a former El Paso County commissioner, said the war against fanatical fundamentalist Islam should be fought on two fronts: militarily and religiously.
'There's an aspect of it that people are not willing to talk about, and I am - its religious basis. ... Our best hope is that we actually convert them away from their religious fanatical basis,' Bremer said.
He said that would best be accomplished by missionaries of various faiths.
'I'd prefer that they get converted to evangelical Christianity, but my point is that there is a religious battleground and our government is disabled from fighting on that battleground,' Bremer said.
The odds of economic meltdown | Salon.com
Three factors:
The Fed finds itself with less inflation-fighting credibility than it though it had.
Upward pressure on inflation from rising energy prices and, perhaps, import prices.
Millions of middle-class homeowners who, for too long, have treated their houses like giant ATM machines.
The odds of economic meltdown Salon.com:
Aug. 3, 2006 Forecasting recessions is a fool's game. If there is enough solid economic information to make it appear highly likely that a recession is coming -- that production, employment and consumer demand will actually fall -- then it is highly likely that there already is a recession. Businesses are not stupid, and they don't have to wait for economists to tell them what they already know. By the time a gloomy forecast has been issued they've probably already noticed a drop in consumer demand and responded by firing workers and reducing production.
So: Never say that a recession is coming. Say only that a recession is here, or that there might be a recession on the way. Which, in fact, is what I'm saying today. As of the beginning of August 2006, a recession is not here, and I'm not going to violate my own rule by saying one is coming. But there is a good chance -- for the first time since 2003 -- that there might be a recession in progress six months from now.
The Fed finds itself with less inflation-fighting credibility than it though it had.
Upward pressure on inflation from rising energy prices and, perhaps, import prices.
Millions of middle-class homeowners who, for too long, have treated their houses like giant ATM machines.
The odds of economic meltdown Salon.com:
Aug. 3, 2006 Forecasting recessions is a fool's game. If there is enough solid economic information to make it appear highly likely that a recession is coming -- that production, employment and consumer demand will actually fall -- then it is highly likely that there already is a recession. Businesses are not stupid, and they don't have to wait for economists to tell them what they already know. By the time a gloomy forecast has been issued they've probably already noticed a drop in consumer demand and responded by firing workers and reducing production.
So: Never say that a recession is coming. Say only that a recession is here, or that there might be a recession on the way. Which, in fact, is what I'm saying today. As of the beginning of August 2006, a recession is not here, and I'm not going to violate my own rule by saying one is coming. But there is a good chance -- for the first time since 2003 -- that there might be a recession in progress six months from now.
When cowards attack
All of former people in uniform ought to go after the Chickenhawks,, and see just how brave they are when confronted with people who have actually served.
I, for one, amd sick and tired of the swiftboating of people who actually served.
When cowards attack Salon:
For a political operative of such skill and smarts, Karl Rove is surprisingly predictable. Since Rove entered the White House and took control of the Republican Party, there are two things he has done in every election. He goes directly after his adversary's greatest perceived strength -- and he reveals his game plan in advance.
As this year's midterm elections approach, threatening his party's majority in both houses and possibly leaving his boss the lamest of ducks, Rove remains on the same course he charted last winter. Indeed, he announced his plan of attack in January, when he told the Republican National Committee that the 'failed resolve' of Democrats who seek to withdraw from Iraq is 'worthy of public debate,' and vowed that 'this president and this party' would not allow America to 'retreat before victory.'
Custom-Built Pathogens Raise Bioterror Fears
Oh, Fine!
This all we need.
Talk about crowd control; this could sure do it.
Custom-Built Pathogens Raise Bioterror Fears:
Eckard Wimmer knows of a shortcut terrorists could someday use to get their hands on the lethal viruses that cause Ebola and smallpox. He knows it exceptionally well, because he discovered it himself.
This all we need.
Talk about crowd control; this could sure do it.
Custom-Built Pathogens Raise Bioterror Fears:
Eckard Wimmer knows of a shortcut terrorists could someday use to get their hands on the lethal viruses that cause Ebola and smallpox. He knows it exceptionally well, because he discovered it himself.
Officials Didn't Lie to Sept. 11 Panel, Pentagon Says
Sure they didn't, an pigs fly.
Officials Didn't Lie to Sept. 11 Panel, Pentagon Says:
There is no evidence that Pentagon officials intentionally misled the Sept. 11 commission when they gave inaccurate accounts about actions at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks, a Defense Department spokesman said yesterday.
A forthcoming report from the Pentagon's inspector general will address the question of whether military commanders intentionally misled the commission, said the spokesman, Lt. Col. Brian Maka.
Deal Maker Details the Art of Greasing the Palm - New York Times
It is time to outlaw lobbyist, and for states to recall any of their elected officials who are caught excepting money from scumbags like this guy.
Deal Maker Details the Art of Greasing the Palm - New York Times:
"WASHINGTON - In 1992, Brent R. Wilkes rented a suite at the Hyatt Hotel a few blocks from the Capitol. In his briefcase was a stack of envelopes for a half-dozen congressmen, each packet containing up to $10,000 in checks.
Mr. Wilkes had set up separate meetings with the lawmakers hoping to win a government contract, and he planned to punctuate each pitch with a campaign donation. But his hometown congressman, Representative Bill Lowery of San Diego, a Republican, told him that presenting the checks during the sessions was not how things were done, Mr. Wilkes recalled.
Instead, Mr. Wilkes said, Mr. Lowery taught him the right way to do it: hand over the envelope in the hallway outside the suite, at least a few feet away.
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