[i]"Hello, darkness, my old friend I've come to talk with you again Because a vision softly creeping Left its seeds while I was sleeping And the vision That was planted in my brain Still remains Within the sound of silence"[/i]
The Bush Regime's silence is deafening ... they are refusing to co-operate with the investigation conducted into their pre-9/11 intelligence regarding the attack upon America on September 11, 2001. In order to fully comprehend what went wrong ... it is imperative for the White House to disclose information relevant to [b]What the Bushies Knew, and When They Knew It [/b]... Tragically, the Bushies are stonewalling, and it is outrageous, since they are accountable to the citizens of the United States of America.
"We the People" should be calling for the relevant documents to be turned-over to the 9/11-investigative committee, as there are many outstanding questions regarding that horrific tragedy that must be answered ... and a cover-up of the unsavory details does not do justice to the vital transparency of government, crucial for the very survival of our democracy. [ "What You Think You Know About Sept. 11 … … but don't." on http://slate.msn.com/id/20880... and "Bush & Bin Laden - George W. Bush Had Ties to Billionaire bin Laden Brood" on http://www.americanfreepress.... ]
[b]You should contact Congress urgently to demand that they support the 9/11-investigative committee in their efforts to discover the truth and report back to the American people, on http://www.congress.org .[/b]
"[i]And in the naked light I saw Ten thousand people, maybe more People talking without speaking People hearing without listening People writing songs that voices never share... And no one dare Disturb the sound of silence[/i]."
"Last December, when President Bush named Tom Kean, the mild-mannered Republican former governor of New Jersey, to lead the commission investigating the September 11 attacks, critics scoffed that Kean would be an administration patsy. But the White House's resistance to releasing crucial information about the attacks has stirred him to anger. "I will not stand for it," Kean fumed last week. "Anything that has to do with 9/11, we have to see it -- anything." Kean has complained for several weeks about executive branch foot-dragging and has suggested the administration may be trying to run out the clock on the committee's mandate, which expires in May.
Kean's not the only one who's upset. Other Republican members of the committee, including former Sen. Slade Gorton, a stalwart conservative, have echoed his complaints. And, given that the commission's mandate is to determine how the attacks happened and to make recommendations about stopping another one, these complaints are serious business.
Any lack of cooperation from the White House is troubling, but one key point of contention is especially disturbing: whether the commission will have access to daily intelligence briefings given to the president in the weeks before September 11, 2001. Particularly in light of revelations that at least one of these reports indicated that al Qaeda was planning to hijack U.S. airliners, these briefings are clearly relevant. Studying them might help the commission recommend ways of prioritizing future briefings more effectively.
But the White House is blocking the commission from seeing the briefings. The administration claims they contain sensitive information that, if made public, could compromise national security. But so does limiting our understanding of the terrorist attacks. And there's little reason to think that a panel of seasoned statesmen like former Indiana Representative Lee Hamilton, the commission's co-chair, would expose classified intelligence. The same goes for their professional staff, overseen by Phillip Zelikow, a professor at the University of Virginia, who is chummy with the GOP national security establishment and who co-authored a book with national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. In fact, the 9/11 commission has vowed to take utmost care to protect the intelligence it receives.
The other key White House argument is that the release of past daily intelligence briefings will distort future ones. The White House argues that government officials might shape their advisories differently -- cover their asses, to put it bluntly -- if they have reason to think the briefings could become public someday. The Bush administration has repeatedly invoked this reasoning to defend "deliberative" internal documents on subjects as varied as Justice Department investigations, internal memos written by stymied judicial nominee Miguel Estrada, and Dick Cheney's secret energy policy sessions. While there may be theoretical merit to this argument, it is certainly less compelling than the need to fully account for a terrorist catastrophe and prevent another one. And it is badly undermined by the White House's tendency to invoke it only in cases when the administration may have something to hide. Consider, by contrast, the fact that Bob Woodward was readily shown hundreds of secret National Security Council documents revealing vast amounts of deliberative information for his hagiographic book, "Bush at War."
Another reason to distrust the White House's motives is its obvious, and loathsome, hostility to the commission itself. For months after September 11, the White House and its congressional allies blocked the creation of an independent panel. Last October, in fact, John McCain and Joe Lieberman complained to "The New York Times" that the Bush administration was "deliberately sabotaging their efforts to create an independent investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks." Even after Bush yielded to pressure from 9/11 survivors and allowed a commission, he failed to fund it in his budget request this year, forcing Congress to come to its rescue again. These crude White House tactics seem more than a little self-defeating. Because Congress can extend the commission's life, delays will only push any possibly embarrassing revelations closer to the 2004 election. [b]Surely the White House realizes that the perception of a cover-up is more politically damaging than turning over a few intelligence reports. Unless, of course, it really does have something scandalous to hide[/b]."
Hmmm ... I don't think the Bushies care ... They intend to highjack the 2004 election with another banana republican coup d'etat, rigged as per the 2000 election ... The principal question remains on just how they intend to rig the election: another terrorist attack, election shenanigans, or, declaring marshall law???
[i]""Fools," said I, "you do not know Silence like a cancer grows." "Hear my words that I might teach you, Take my arms that I might reach you." But my words like silent raindrops fell, And echoed in the wells of silence[/i]." - [b][i]Simon & Garfunkel[/i][/b]
GDP Growth Tiny Sign of Progress ... It Doesn't Neutralize the 228 Year Record-Level Deficit Fiasco
The rise in GDP of 7.2% represents the fastest economic growth in a single quarter since 1984, and marks a very, very small sign of progress ... however, it does not neutralize a much larger economic problem looming on the horizon: The effects of Bush's historically record-level deficit of over $560 Billion for 2003 ($1.9 Trillion for Bush's term in office) ... the highest in our nation's 228 year history.
Financial experts and economists around the world, are very concerned at the [b]dire consequences of Bush's [/b]excessively corrupt "[b]borrowing and spending[/b]" at record-level rates, resulting in:
1) Largest re-distribution of wealth to the top 5% richest in our nation's history, that will result in dire hardships for the majority of Americans in the long-term, thus creating social unrest, and it's consequential increase in violence and crime;
2) Debt to pay for a hugely expensive war (Iraq & Afghanistan) and the reconstruction, with no significant contributions from other nations ($13 Billion in Donor's pledges are largely loans) ... resulting in over $166 Billion through 2004 alone, and no end in sight; Moreover, this cost to the American taxpayer provides no substantive benefits at home, as (a) Arab terrorism has increased (not diminished) as a result of Bush's invasion of Iraq; (b) large sums are diverted to the Bush's corporate cronies & war-profiteers-- not jobs for Americans; and, (c) costs at home are rising as the dollar plunges & the wealthy price-gouge our citizens;
3) Lack of investment in our nation's infrastructure, jobs, health care, education and other social services, needed for a civilized and advanced society ... leaving our citizens bereft of a healthy and prosperous environment, socially, financially & physically.
This will ultimately take a heavy toll, and if not reversed, could place us (U.S.A.) in financial peril. Our nation is literally "hocked" ... and the only reason we remain solvent is international confidence in our government to be able to pay-back the over $6.8+ Trillion (National Debt) in outstanding loans. If that confidence was to falter, then lending would stop-- banks would demand repayment-- and, we would be thrust into a major recession -- and perhaps, a tragic depression.
"We the People" are currently riding rough waters, and it is extremely unlikely that Bush's "Ship of 'Titanic' Fools" Economics, based upon an immoral and bankrupt philosophy of "corporate-take-all", and the wealthy & powerful paying an unjustly miniscule share of taxes, as compared with the population-at-large, (Bush Doctrine: [i]Only the Little People Pay Taxes & Bear Burdens[/i]), will be beneficial for America. The highly probable result of Bush's economically disastrous policies is hardship and misery for the majority of our citizens.
Indeed, the Nobel Prize Laureate for Economics, Dr. George Akerlof , said recently, of George W. Bush:
“I think this is the worst government the U.S. has ever had in its more than 200 years of history. It has engaged in extraordinarily irresponsible policies not only in foreign and economic but also in social and environmental policy. This is not normal governmental policy. Now is the time for people to engage in civil disobedience (Dollars and Sense magazine, September/October 2003, page 4).
Clearly, this isn’t the usual stuff one expects from Nobel Prize-winning economists. It is extraordinary. But the essential message from Professor Akerlof was unmistakable: protest. When asked what kind, he replied, “I don’t know yet. But I think it’s time to protest - as much as possible.” " ["Bush 2: the worst ever?" on http://www.sfbayview.com/1022... ]
At mid-afternoon (30th October 2003), the stock market records:
This slight rise, does not reflect a major boost in confidence by investors in the stock-market. In "Dow Up 35, Nasdaq Gains 7 on GDP Report" on http://www.springfieldnewssun...;COXnetJSessionID=1hvF4oe RxQmoKdm17TbSXpGruov4r5Gi 6yfM9itJa6EO2vLRmbND!1740 268641?urac=n&urvf=106754 43897790.5327236090061694 :
")--Wall Street moved moderately higher Thursday as investors applauded a surprisingly strong third-quarter gross domestic product but nonetheless worried that the increase could not be maintained.
Analysts said the GDP report did not have more of a market impact because it reflected past economic performance, and investors were not certain future growth would be as robust.
``The sustainability is the biggest question,'' said Brian G. Belski, fundamental market strategist at US Bancorp Piper Jaffray. ``The question is what is the current GDP and what will the growth be over the next three quarters?''
By midafternoon, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 34.59, or 0.4 percent, at 9,809.12, following a three-day gain of 192 points.
The broader market was also higher. The Nasdaq composite index gained 7.36, or 0.4 percent, to 1,943.92. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.75, or 0.1 percent, to 1,048.86.
The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the nation's gross domestic product grew at a 7.2 percent annual rate in the third quarter. It was the strongest pace since the first quarter of 1984; it also beat analysts' estimates for a 6 percent growth rate.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported that new jobless claims last week declined by 5,000 to 386,000, signaling a slowdown in layoffs.
``Certainly the GDP number was good and the market celebrated that,'' said Barry Berman, head trader for Robert W. Baird & Co. in Milwaukee. ``But no one expects this number to continue at this rate, and they do expect the numbers'' to be eventually revised lower, he said.
Stocks have climbed since mid-March on investor expectations of a strong economic rebound. While gains have been more modest in recent weeks, analysts say investors are still looking for reasons to buy despite some concerns that stock prices might be too high."
"U.S. Economy: Long-Term Recovery or Short-Term Blip?" by Frederick L. Joutz, Associate Professor of Economics, The George Washington University, on http://www.washingtonpost.com...
"COMMENT: Bring the president's nerds back in from the cold" on http://search.ft.com/search/a...+economic+policies&vsc_ap pId=totalSearch&state=For m" :
"During the Clinton years, Congress tried to get rid of the president's Council of Economic Advisers the old-fashioned way: by cutting its already modest budget. The Bush administration seems to have figured out a more effective way to rid the White House of those pesky economists: taking away their offices.
According to the age-old adage, the three most important attributes of property are location, location and location. This is doubly true for the White House, where proximity to the president says everything about your place in the political pecking order. Unfortunately, the CEA has recently been exiled to the Washington equivalent of Siberia.
This exile came in two stages. Shortly after September 11 2001 the economists were moved from their offices in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the West Wing to some interior offices with easy access to a ventilation shaft. Then, after the departure of Glenn Hubbard, President George W. Bush's initial choice to head the CEA, things really went downhill. The economists were banished to offices three blocks and a bevy of security checkpoints away from the Oval Office.
Why are we whining on behalf of the president's "nerdiest" employees, as Greg Mankiw, the new CEA chairman, recently called them? Perhaps because we both worked at CEA in the good old days, when economists hardly had to fight for access to the boss. But the real reason for telling the tale is that we believe the demotion will lead to a decline in the quality of economic advice given to the president.
Granted, Mr Bush has other sources of such advice. The Treasury secretary has assumed the role in some administrations. And the president can always turn to his National Economic Council. But these advisers have explicitly political portfolios and their views reflect the push and pull of pressure groups.
The CEA, by contrast, has generally stuck to the high ground. Its elite staff members, typically recruited from the rising stars of academia, have generally defined their jobs as bringing economic truth to the policy table. And while it would be naive to think of them as utterly objective, they have usually fought for policies that serve the common good rather than the special interests of the day, be they corporate America, the legal profession or lobbyists for pensioners.
Economists at the top of the profession have happily left their regular jobs to work at the CEA for substantially lower pay because they believe in the value of economic expertise in shaping public policy. Many are now household names, such as Larry Summers, the Harvard president, and Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan.
But few good economists are likely to supply their services virtually pro bono if they have to toil away in offices far from the seat of power. Would you leave a cushy job at Princeton for that?
Critics might claim that proximity to the president does not necessarily equate to influence. After all, Robert Rubin never had difficulty influencing President Bill Clinton from down the street in the US Treasury building. And we assume that Donald Rumsfeld has the president's ear from across the river.
However, the Treasury and Defence Department have enormous influence by virtue of their control of huge programmes. The tiny CEA, by contrast, has no real mandated task other than to advise the president and senior White House staff. With the CEA on site, it is relatively easy for its economists to be invited to impromptu meetings and find out what is happening before the officials get locked into bad policy positions. Out of sight, the CEA is more likely to be out of mind.
How much will it really matter if this elite cadre of economists goes back to the ivory tower? Potentially, quite a lot. The difference between solid advice provided by the world's best economic thinkers and the gospel according to lobbyists could translate into tax policies and regulation that clip tens of billions from gross domestic product.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution: give the CEA back enough space in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to house its small staff. Yes, space near the Oval Office is scarce, Mr President, but so is good, fair-minded economic advice. And you never know when you might need it."
Robert Hahn, executive director of the AEI-Brookings Joint Centre, and Scott Wallsten, a centre fellow, are resident scholars at the American Enterprise Institute
Rumsfeld's Memo Under Glass: Is It "The Harder We Work The Behinder We Get"???
Rummy Rumsfeld's now infamous memo [ http://www.townhall.com/news/... ], resulted in the revelation to some and confirmation to others, that the war-turned-bloody-guerril la-quagmire, is not the successful "Mission Accomplished", as portrayed by the dishonest Happy Talk crowd in the Bush Regime, who would prefer that we all join in their Kumbaya song-fest, and ignore the "unpleasant" realities of the heart-breaking fiasco in Iraq.
Rummy's observations are coming under increasing scrutiny by serious thinkers and legislators who wonder how the USA can extricate itself from the mess that the neo-con Bush Regime has stumbled and bungled us into:
"[i]The U.S. is putting relatively little effort into a long-range plan, but we are putting a great deal of effort into trying to stop terrorists. The cost-benefit ratio is against us! Our cost is billions against the terrorists' costs of millions. Do we need a new organization? How do we stop those who are financing the radical madrassa schools? Is our current situation such that "the harder we work, the behinder we get"?
It is pretty clear that the coalition can win in Afghanistan and Iraq in one way or another, but it will be a long, hard slog. Does CIA need a new finding? Should we create a private foundation to entice radical madradssas to a more moderate course? What else should we be considering?[/i]" [Source: http://www.townhall.com/news/... ]
Bush is too weak to control the internal power-struggles and power-games, between his henchmen (Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell, etc.) in the current regime, and although Rummy wanted to make his position clear, none of them are going to escape from the damning judgment of history ... This corrupt regime has massacred over 350 US servicemen & women, injured over 2070, as well as, perhaps 15,000 Iraqis, with no end in sight. [Sources: http://www.antiwar.com/ewens/... , http://www.commondreams.org/h... ]
Moreover, Rumsfeld and the rest of the Bush cabal, arrogantly ignored warnings from Middle East & US Military Experts, prior to their illegal and immoral incursion into Iraq (based upon a plethora of lies and deceptions), and, have only started to re-fabricate new rationalizations-- and new "leaks" to "save their sorry skins", after their own strategy failed ... failed miserably. So, despite Rummy's desperate attempt to re-habilitate himself ... methinks he will (and should) suffer the same condemnation as the rest of the thugs in the Bush Regime.
[image]WinstonSmith_12757 82697.gif[/image]
[b]"We the People" should be asking our Congressmen and women ( http://www.congress.org ), whether or not, the Bush Regime, has led us down a horribly tragic and disastrous path, and to take steps necessary to put a stop to this insanity before more innocent lives are massacred.[/b]
Two excellent articles commenting upon Rummy's "long, hard slog" are worth reading:
"Today," writes Rumsfeld, "we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror. Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists than ... the radical clerics are recruiting, training and deploying against us?"
"Is our current situation such that the 'harder we work, the behinder we get'?"
These questions should have been asked before, not after, Rumsfeld prodded the president to send an army into Mesopotamia.
And the memo lacks reflection, imagination, vision.
Can the secretary not see that it is the U.S. presence itself in Iraq that recruits "terrorists"? Can he not see that it may not be our tactics that are faulty, but our policy? Did he not know that invading an Islamic country could create more Islamic enemies than we kill? Has the Pentagon never studied Israel's invasion of Lebanon, and her subsequent expulsion by the Hezbollah guerrillas who were tots and sub-teens when Sharon's Merkava tanks first came storming in?
Has the secretary not read history? Post-1945, every single Western imperial power has been expelled from the Arab world. Why did we think we could go back, set up an imperial outpost in an ancient Arab capital that was the seat of the caliphate for 500 years, and be welcomed by flower-tossing Baghdadis and Tikritis as liberators?
In 1945, no people were more admired in the Arab world than we Americans. Yet, no Western nation is now more reviled. A question for the secretary: Might it not be that we have behaved in the Middle East so as to be perceived by the Arabs as the British came to be perceived by our founding fathers, as blustering and arrogant imperialists?
Would one be surprised to discover in British archives a memo from Lord North to King George saying, in the vernacular of the time, "[i]Sire, the harder we work, the behinder we get[/i]"?" - [i]Excerpt [/i]-
"Considering that Rumsfeld has been virtually a one man band dragging a frequently kicking and screaming Pentagon towards the promised land, ie, the bright, shiny, "Revolution in Military Affairs" which advocates claim will enable the US, with a transformed, "net-centric" military, to defeat opponents with little fuss or muss. These are remarkable questions; both for their candor and the tacit acknowledgement that perhaps there are other, better ways to do things.
A case in point is Rumsfeld's almost plaintive question, "Are the changes we have and are making too modest and incremental? My impression is that we have not yet made truly bold moves, although we have made many sensible, logical moves in the right direction, but are they enough?"
As many commentators have noted, if former defense secretary Robert McNamara had asked similar questions back in the 1960s, the US war in Vietnam might have ended far differently. For example, by 1967 McNamara believed that the US would not win in Vietnam, yet he said nothing. The war lasted eight more years and cost tens of thousands more lives. It was not until 1995 that he admitted that his public certitude was a veneer, that architects of the war policy "were wrong, terribly wrong". " - [i]Excerpt[/i] -
Majority of US Independents & Iraqis Disapprove of Bush's Handling of Iraq Guerrilla Quagmire
The majority of independent voters disapprove of Bush's handling of his Iraq guerrilla quagmire ... and support continues to slip both here at home and in Iraq. It is clear that the poisonous mixture of corruption and incompetence displayed by the insane neo-con Bush Regime, is a lethal combination for anyone who happens to be caught in their web of massacres, vengeance and mayhem.
It is becoming obvious to Republicans, Democrats, Independents and Iraqis, alike (the rest of the world caught on a long time ago), that the Bush Regime's vested interest in "corporate-take-all" cronyism is not a recipe for success in Iraq. Indeed, the opposite is visibly true, as it was difficult for the USA to obtain aide from other nations who don't choose to wantonly exploit their citizens as Bush's cannon-fodder & ruthlessly rape their treasuries ... The majority of the world community lacks confidence in the Bushies' judgment (seen as poor, ignorant, cowboy style macho-man buffoonery), integrity (seen as dishonest & corrupt) and capability (seen as arrogant & incompetent).
[It turns out that the Madrid Donors' Conference only produced $13 Billion in loans (almost nothing in grants), and only on condition that the US not be allowed to touch the funds-- other nations demanded that funds be managed by the UN & World Bank ... to avoid theft by Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle Group & other Bush & Cheney obscene war-profiteers, thieves and robber-barons.]
"We the People" now face the challenging burden of being saddled with the exorbitant price-tag of re-building Iraq, while witnessing our own infrastructure crumble, and a lack of services needed by our own citizens-- which the Bushies claim (sic) to be providing to the Iraqi citizenry.
Meanwhile, Bush gave his corrupt corporate cronies & richest-of-the-rich obscene "welfare-for-the-rich" tax cuts (the rich are shielded from all sacrifice & burdens as they live imperial lives), while the lower-income, middle-class & fixed-income retirees have been swindled out of the lives of our boys & girls used as cannon-fodder, and monies needed to provide jobs, education, health care and other basic necessities of life. Apparently, in the [b]Doctrine According to Bush[/b]: [i]Only The Little People Pay Taxes & Bear Burdens![/i]
[b]Bush's miserable track-record [/b]may be summarized as follows:
1) Our unemployment rate stands at 9 million (Bush wiped out 3 million jobs),
2) Bush created the highest deficit in US history at $560 Billion for 2003 alone, and a staggering $1.9 Trillion for his corrupt time in office,
3) No health care coverage for over 45 million US citizens, and Bush hasn't taken any action to alleviate the misery of millions who can't afford care if taken ill,
4) Education is deteriorating because the Bushies intend to create a slave-class (by privatizing education so that the rich are well-served, and the rest of us are scammed & dumbed-down) to follow blindly what we're told by the neo-cons to think, say, and act,
5) Bush has the worst environmental record since prior to Theodore Roosevelt (Republican) who created national parks and believed in preservation of our lands,
6) Bush's Death Toll in Iraq stands at 349 American Soldiers killed and over 2014 injured & maimed ... and over 7768-9578 innocent Iraqi civilians massacred to-date and thousands injured & maimed,
7) Bush has squandered over $81.8 Billion thus far on his illegal & immoral bloody adventure in Iraq, and asked for an additional $87 Billion from Congress in the form of a "gift" (paid for by the lower-income, middle-class & fixed-income retirees-- the rich will effectively pay zip, zero, nada, since they've already been awarded immoral (and possibly illegal) "gifts" via Bush Debts for the rest of us to pay-off),
Bush has lied, deceived and falsified information, "smirked" to lead us into a war-- a crime under the US Constitution, and refuses to co-operate in investigations into his regime's many corruptions (etc. 9/11 - felony exposing a CIA agent - Iraq phony intelligence - kickbacks to corporate cronies paying bribes to Bushies),
[b]Bush is a national disgrace, and it is time for citizens to contract Congress and demand that Bush's insane tax cuts for the rich be repealed, before this nation is bankrupt and Bush transforms us into a 3rd world country.[/b] [[b]Contact Congress on [/b] http://www.congress.org ]
"Independent voters, who some say are key to President Bush's re-election hopes next year, are losing confidence in his leadership in Iraq as attacks there continue, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll has found. [ http://www.usatoday.com/news/... ]
In the poll, 39% of independents approve of the way the Bush administration has handled things in Iraq since Bush declared an end to major combat six months ago; 57% of independents disapprove. In the public overall, the poll found, 47% approve.
That is a substantial deterioration from late April, when it was assumed that U.S. troops had secured the country. At that time, when 80% of the public approved of the conduct of the war, 73% of independents approved." - [i]Excerpt[/i] -
In "[b]Still Waiting for the Euphoria - A Poll Among Iraqis Indicates the Bush Team Was Wrong in Foreseeing a Warm Welcome for the Occupiers [Zogby] [/b]" on http://www.commondreams.org/v... : - [i]Excerpt[/i] -
"What we found is that Iraqis, like people all around the world, hold nuanced views. They are glad to see Saddam Hussein gone — as shown by their desire to punish members of the old regime — but they don't really trust the Americans who drove him out.
They are intrigued by democracy but worry that it may not be compatible with their culture. They object to being occupied and are eager to take the reins of government themselves. But those in the minority are a little more nervous at the prospect of democracy than those in the majority.
Here are some specifics:
• Seven in 10 told us that Iraq would be a better country and that they themselves would be better off in five years.
• Only two in five (39%) said that "democracy can work in Iraq," while a majority (51%) agreed that "democracy is a Western way of doing things and will not work here." Shiites — who suffered the most under Hussein and who make up the majority in Iraq — are more evenly split about democracy (45%-46%), while Sunnis are far less favorable.
• Asked about the kind of government that would be best for Iraq, half of all respondents (49%) said they preferred "a democracy with elected representatives guided by Sharia (Islamic law)." Twenty-four percent prefer an "Islamic state ruled by clerics based on Sharia." Only one in five (21%) preferred a "secular democracy with elected representatives."
• Three out of five made it clear that they wanted Iraqis left alone to work out a government for themselves, while only one in three want the United States and Britain to "help make sure a fair government is set up." Two out of three Iraqis — and seven in 10 Sunnis — want U.S. and British forces out of Iraq in a year.
• Three out of four Iraqis want the leaders of Hussein's Baath Party punished. Osama bin Laden is viewed favorably by 36% and unfavorably by 47%.
• Half of all Iraqis interviewed say the United States will hurt Iraq over the next five years. Only 36% say the U.S. will help.
One thing is clear: The predicted euphoria of Iraqis has not materialized.
Months after the U.S. military victory, American policymakers and troops are left not only with the daunting task of nation-building and restoring the country's devastated infrastructure but also with having to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis who are not keen on the U.S. occupation.
Iraqis, like their fellow Arabs, feel victimized by a history of betrayal and humiliation at the hands of Western powers. It appears that U.S. policymakers overlooked or misread this sentiment." - [i]Excerpt[/i] -
Ne'er-Do-Well Bush Is In Deep, Deep Waters ... Way, Way In Over His "Dumb-Skull" Head!
Ne'er-Do-Well Bush is in deep, deep waters ... way, way in over his "dumb-skull" head ... and continues to spew his imbecilic propaganda screed, that simply doesn't make sense, when assessed against the back-drop of the actual bloody guerrilla quagmire in Iraq.
Apparently, Karl (Bush's Brain & America's Joseph Goebbles) Rove, along with Dick (Anal-Retentive) Cheney and Condi (Mother Hen) Rice, have as yet to come-up with a new, neo-orwellian script that Bush will smirk, fumble & bumble through ... The existing idiocy of "Kumbaya" Happy Talk is contradicted on a daily basis, by the tragic and bloody events, on the ground, as well as, Dummy Rummy's observations of a "long, hard slog" in Iraq and Afghanistan. [ http://www.townhall.com/news/... ]
Bush seems totally oblivious to the "unpleasant realities" in Iraq (and here at home) ... and indeed, prides himself on knowing nothing, reading nothing, and, mis-pronouncing & mis-speaking-- Bush is a national embarrassment! The three stooges, Rove, Cheney & Rice, try to protect and safeguard and shield him (like the Kid in the Plastic Bubble) from press conferences and any occasion where he is required to speak extemporaneously, because Bush is "unable to think-on-his-feet".
In a recent visit to Australia, Bush snubbed protocol for state visits, and refused to participate in a joint press conference with Prime Minister Howard ... since Bush is shabby, squalid & stupid next to any other World Leader, by comparison. Moreover, Prime Minister Howard had to apologize for Bush's outrageously insensitive ceremonial photo-op, whereupon laying a wreath on a soldier's grave, the Bushies didn't even bother to invite the grieving spouse -- It was a rush job for the cynical Bush gang to take a photo! Not a surprising mean-spirited blunder, from the callous, petty, party-boy Bush, who is the only president never to have attended a single funeral of a service man or woman killed in action, in his insane wars (to bolster his popularity ratings, enrich his corporate-take-all cronies & pander to the neo-con, neo-fascist PNAC groupies) ... Bush is a pathetic miserable excuse for a "human being" and a loser & bum for president.
Bush is squandering the lives and the treasure of our people ... " Every penny of the $87 billion requested by the president -- and the $79 billion already spent for Iraq -- is borrowed money.
The president has called on the country to pay any price to defeat the scourge of terrorism, but he apparently means everyone except the wealthiest Americans. While the Bush administration has asked our troops and their families to make the ultimate sacrifice, the president has given the richest 1 percent of Americans a huge tax cut. It is wrong to ask the younger generation, including our troops and their children, to bear the burden alone."
""Car bombers struck the international Red Cross headquarters and three police stations across Baghdad on Monday, killing about 40 people and wounding more than 200 in a spree of destruction that terrorized the Iraqi capital on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan," reports AP. In the last 24 hours, 4 U.S. soldiers have been killed.
President Bush said U.S. progress in Iraq is making insurgents more "desperate" and fueling attacks, but there was no indication if he had any idea what he was talking about.
More from AP: "The string of bombings, all within less than an hour, was the bloodiest attack yet in the city of 5 million by insurgents targeting the American-led occupation and those perceived as working with it. It also appeared like a dramatic escalation in tactics -- in past weeks, bombers have carried out heavy suicide bombings, but in single strikes.
"One American soldier was killed in one of the police station attacks and six U.S. troops were wounded, the military said. Iraqi police Brig. Gen. Ahmed Ibrahim, the deputy interior minister, put the Iraqi death toll at 34, including 26 civilians and eight police but not the suicide bombers.
"The bombings came hours after clashes in the Baghdad area killed three U.S. soldiers overnight, and a day after insurgents hit a hotel full of U.S. occupation officials with a barrage of rockets, killing a U.S. colonel and wounding 18 other people. U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was in the hotel, but was unhurt.
"'We feel helpless when see this,' a distraught Iraqi doctor said at the devastated Red Cross offices. The Red Cross said 12 Iraqis were killed at its office, including two of its own employees.""
[b]"We the People" must express our outrage to Congress [ http://www.congress.org ], and demand an investigation into the lies, deceptions and falsehoods to perpetuate the Crimes Against Humanity, committed by the corrupt Bush Regime. Moreover, let us work together to declare our independence from the Mad King George in 2004![/b]
The Bush Regime has so many cover-ups to keep-track-of ... It boggles the mind! (One could be forgiven for wondering how many shares Bush and Cheney have purchased in Shredding Machine stocks, since they highjacked the White House) ... How many interns has Karl Rove hired (at taxpayer expense) to destroy and/or hide the "chain-of-evidence" related to:
* Their coercion of the CIA to fabricate phony intelligence, upon which the Bushies misled us into their ghoulish, bloody war-turned-guerilla-quagm ire [another US soldier killed today ... Bush's Death Toll now stands at 345 Americans & 1995 Americans reported maimed & injured, and thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians massacred & wounded http://www.antiwar.com/ewens/... ] ... and now they are making the CIA the whipping boy & scapegoat for their own sordid crimes ... Bush's credo: "The Buck Stops Over There - Way, Way Over There" ...
* Their mean, petty & vengeful felony exposing an under-cover CIA operative, the wife (Valerie Plame) of ex-Ambassador Joseph Wilson who disclosed the Bush's bogus lie regarding phony sales of uranium yellow-cake by Niger to Iraq ... the Bushies have placed the USA in greater danger of terrorist attacks & put the lives of CIA operatives & overseas sources in jeopardy ... loyalty to America is no longer permitted ... only loyalty to the corrupt, neo-imperial Emperor Bush is allowed ...
* Their secret energy meetings held by the anal-retentive Veep Cheney in the summer of 2000 (before 9/11), [with criminal Kenny-boy (Enron) Lay], promising their corporate robber-barons a de-regulated rape of American consumers (and, an Iraqi war to control Middle East Oil?) ... the Bush's "corporate-take-all" swindle takes a heavy toll on the lives and treasure of innocent people ...
And today, "We the People" learn that a Republican disgusted with the Bushies' plethora of lies, deceptions and falsehoods ... will subpoena the Bush Regime to hand-over documents that provide insight into What The Bushies Knew & When They Knew It, Prior to the 9/11 Attacks Upon America. It is already acknowledged that incompetent Condi Rice (who loves watching football games with Bushy-boy) had memos on her desk (that apparently she didn't have the time to read) warning of imminent attacks by Al Qaida (not Iraq) prior to 9/11, including highjackings ... But then Condi prefers to "play" with Bushy-boy ...
"The chairman of the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks said that the White House was continuing to withhold several highly classified intelligence documents from the panel and that he was prepared to subpoena the documents if they were not turned over within weeks.
The chairman, Thomas H. Kean, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, also said in an interview that he believed the bipartisan 10-member commission would soon be forced to issue subpoenas to other executive branch agencies because of continuing delays by the Bush administration in providing documents and other evidence needed by the panel.
"Any document that has to do with this investigation cannot be beyond our reach," Mr. Kean said on Friday in his first explicit public warning to the White House that it risked a subpoena and a politically damaging courtroom showdown with the commission over access to the documents, including Oval Office intelligence reports that reached President Bush (news - web sites)'s desk in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks.
"I will not stand for it," Mr. Kean said in the interview in his offices here at Drew University, where he has been president since 1990.
"That means that we will use every tool at our command to get hold of every document."
He said that while he had not directly threatened a subpoena in his recent conversations with the White House legal counsel, Alberto R. Gonzales, "it's always on the table, because they know that Congress in their wisdom gave us the power to subpoena, to use it if necessary."
A White House spokeswoman, Ashley Snee, said that the White House believed it was being fully cooperative with the commission, which is known formally as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. She said that it hoped to meet all of the panel's demands for documents.
Mr. Kean suggested that he understood the concerns of the White House about the sensitivity of the documents at issue, saying that they were the sort of Oval Office intelligence reports that were so sensitive and highly classified that they had never been provided to Congress or to other outside investigators.
"These are documents that only two or three people would normally have access to," he said. "To make those available to an outside group is something that no other president has done in our history.
"But I've argued very strongly with the White House that we are unique, that we are not the Congress, that these arguments about presidential privilege do not apply in the case of our commission," he said.
"Anything that has to do with 9/11, we have to see it — anything. There are a lot of theories about 9/11, and as long as there is any document out there that bears on any of those theories, we're going to leave questions unanswered. And we cannot leave questions unanswered."
While Mr. Kean said he was barred by an agreement with the White House from describing the Oval Office documents at issue in any detail — he said the White House was "quite nervous" about any public hint at their contents — other commission officials said they included the detailed daily intelligence reports that were provided to Mr. Bush in the weeks leading up to Sept. 11. The reports are known within the White House as the Presidential Daily Briefing.
Despite the threat of a subpoena and his warning of the possibility of a court battle over the documents, Mr. Kean said he maintained a good relationship with Mr. Gonzales and others at the White House, and that he was still hopeful that the White House would produce all of the classified material demanded by the panel without a subpoena.
"We've been very successful in getting a lot of materials that I don't think anybody has ever seen before," he said of his earlier dealings with the White House. "Within the legal constraints that they seem to have, they've been fully cooperative. But we're not going to be satisfied until we get every document that we need."
Last year, the White House confirmed news reports that President Bush received a written intelligence report in August 2001, the month before the attacks, that Al Qaeda might try to hijack American passenger planes.
Ms. Snee, the White House spokeswoman, said, "The president has stated a clear policy of support for the commission's work and, at the direction of the president, the executive branch has dedicated tremendous resources to support the commission, including providing over two million pages of documents."
After months of stating that it believed subpoenas to the executive branch would not be necessary, the commission voted unanimously this month to issue its first subpoena to the Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites) after determining that the F.A.A. had withheld dozens of boxes of documents involving the Sept. 11 attacks.
The subpoena appeared to be a turning point for the commission and for Mr. Kean, a moderate Republican known for his independence. In a statement on Oct. 15, the commission said it was re-examining "its general policy of relying on document requests rather than subpoenas" as a result of the issues with the F.A.A.
The commission, which has a membership that is equally divided among Republicans and Democrats, was created by Congress last year over the initial opposition of the White House. The law creating the panel requires that it complete its work by next May, a deadline that commission members say may be impossible to meet because of the Bush administration's delays in turning over many documents.
Mr. Kean's comments on Friday came as another member of the commission, Max Cleland, the former Democratic senator from Georgia, became the first panel member to say publicly that the commission could not complete its work by its May 2004 deadline and the first to accuse the White House of withholding classified information from the panel for purely political reasons.
"It's obvious that the White House wants to run out the clock here," he said in an interview in Washington. "It's Halloween, and we're still in negotiations with some assistant White House counsel about getting these documents — it's disgusting."
He said that the White House and President Bush's re-election campaign had reason to fear what the commission was uncovering in its investigation of intelligence and law enforcement failures before Sept. 11. "As each day goes by, we learn that this government knew a whole lot more about these terrorists before Sept. 11 than it has ever admitted."
Interviews with several other members of the commission show that Mr. Kean's concerns are widely shared on the panel, and that the concern is bipartisan.
Slade Gorton, a Republican member of the panel who served in the Senate from Washington from 1982 to 2000, said that he was startled by the "indifference" of some executive branch agencies in making material available to the commission. "This lack of cooperation, if it extends anywhere else, is going to make it very difficult" for the commission to finish its work by next May, he said.
Timothy J. Roemer, president of the Center for National Policy in Washington and a former Democratic member of the House from Indiana, said that "our May deadline may, in fact, be jeopardized — many of us are frustrated that we're still dealing with questions about document access when we should be sinking our teeth into hearings and to making recommendations for the future."
Congress would need to approve an extension if the panel requested one, a potentially difficult proposition given the reluctance of the White House and many senior Republican lawmakers to see the commission created in the first place.
"If the families of the victims weighed in — and heavily, as they did before — then we'd have a chance of succeeding," said Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who was an important sponsor of the legislation creating the commission. He said that, given the "obfuscation" of the administration in meeting document requests, he was ready to pursue an extension "if the commission feels it can't get its work done."
Arrogant Bush Regime Imposes Its Will On Unwilling Iraqi People
The arrogant Bush Regime imposes its will on unwilling Iraqi people, the majority of whom no longer want us to occupy their country. The Bushies appointed their own US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) (who apparently have "lost" $4 Billion ... it's not surprising that Donor Nations insist that their contributions be managed by an independent U.N. & World Bank, and not be handed-over to Bremer to go "missing"), and do not want Iraq to hold elections, as the Iraqi people might not "select" corrupt puppets amenable to the Bushies' medieval notion of "corporate-take-all" government. [ http://www.tblog.com/template... , http://www.tblog.com/template... ]
In a new poll, most Iraqis express their dissatisfaction with the U.S. Coalition forces and this catastrophic occupation. The Iraqi people no longer trust the U.S.A. to provide security or re-build their country. Nor, do they trust Bush's motives. Neither do many conscientious and well-informed Americans.
How would Americans feel if France (hypothetically) invaded the U.S.A. and deposed the Bush Regime, observing that the "selected" tyrant, imposed a neo-fascist Patriot Act designed to unravel our rights under the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights; launched immoral & illegal "pre-emptive" aggressions (aka neo-hitlerian); and, re-distributed our nation's treasure to the richest-of-the-rich, corporate robber-barons & the powerful oligarchy? What if France then sent in troops, set-up their own French-style CPA (e.g. with self-appointed goons like embezzler Kenny-boy (Enron) Lay -- e.g. our thief Ahmad Chalabi), and man-handled our citizens, massacring thousands in the process? [b]Frankly, no citizens like foreign forces to occupy their country.[/b] The Bushies, as occupiers, are principally interested in ensuring that their corporate cronies rape and loot, America and Iraq, for all we're collectively worth.
The people of Iraq have expressed : "Asked to rate various countries as their favorite political model for a future Iraq, 13.7 percent chose Iran while only 9.6 percent chose the United States." -- The Iraqi people have the right to determine their own future, and not have it imposed by the neo-imperial Bush "corporate-take-all" neo-con Global Empire, according to the insane Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
"We the People" have an obligation to re-assess the Bush Regime's justification for occupying Iraq-- as it is clear their motives had absolutely nothing to do with the so-called "war on terror", phony WMDs, nor, the liberation of the Iraqi people. Please contact your Congressmen and women on http://www.congress.org , and demand public hearings be conducted in order to ascertain the best way forward-- in order to free our US Soldiers being slaughtered almost every day, and to free the Iraqi people from further massacres, looting and economic rape by the corrupt Bush Regime.
"BAGHDAD, Iraq - Most Iraqis feel unsafe in their neighborhoods, think the local Iraqi police can protect them better than coalition forces and increasingly view Americans as occupiers rather than liberators, according to a poll released Thursday by the independent, privately funded Iraq Center for Research & Strategic Studies in Baghdad.
Coalition forces have squandered the goodwill that resulted from removing Saddam Hussein from power, with nearly 43 percent of Iraqis viewing them as liberators six months ago but only 14.8 percent feeling the same way now.
More than 60 percent of Iraqis have little or no confidence that coalition forces will improve safety, but at least half (50.1 percent) support the coalition presence in Iraq, compared with 33.1 percent who would like to kick them out.
The sample of 1,620 people in Baghdad, Basra, Najaf, Ramadi, Fallujah, Erbil and Suliamaniyah, interviewed between Sept. 28 and Oct. 10, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 points. The results are the third installment in a monthly polling operation run by Sadoun al Dulame, director of the research center.
The survey comes amid increasing attacks on U.S. soldiers in the past couple of weeks. While U.S. officials insist postwar Iraq is improving, there have been more attacks from roadside and homemade bombs as well as an increase in suicide bombings.
The results reflect the challenges of handing over authority to the Iraqis, which Americans say they want to do as quickly as possible, but at a pace most Iraqis think isn't fast enough.
"We expect after three or six months if the same problems continue to exist in Iraq, the coalition forces are going to suffer a lot," said Dulame.
Most Iraqi respondents said there were no current political leaders they could trust. They rated members of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council, most of whom fared poorly.
Asked which political system they favored, 33.7 percent of the randomly picked respondents said an Islamic government would be best, compared with 30.5 percent who favored democracy and 24 percent who favored a combination of democracy and an Islamic system.
Asked to rate various countries as their favorite political model for a future Iraq, 13.7 percent chose Iran while only 9.6 percent chose the United States.
Dulame said the results didn't mean a majority of Iraqis want hardline clerics to rule them. In fact, religious leaders ranked behind lawyers, writers and other professionals as the best people to lead postwar Iraq.
"Most of the respondents don't know enough to know the nature of such systems so they chose that regime or this regime because they feel or think it is better than the other," said Nabeel al Ani, a professor at Baghdad University's International Studies Center.
"Some of the people have no idea, for example, about the political system in France or Britain or even the United States, but they have at least some knowledge about the political system in Iran, so most of them choose it." "
Donors Pledge $15-$20 Billion in Aide for Iraq ... Under Control of U.N. & World Bank
The Donors Conference has resulted in nations pledging between $15-$20 Billion in aide (loans & grants), in addition to the $20 Billion stolen from U.S. taxpayers for the re-building of Iraq. Initially, the world community spurned the Bush Regime's requests-- but significant pressure was brought to bear upon nations to give money (What will this cost the American taxpayer?).
The donor nations' contributions will be managed through a trust fund, independent of the U.S.A., and under the control of the United Nations and the World Bank. Hopefully, this will ensure that the resources are used to aide the horrific humanitarian crisis in Iraq, resulting from the Bush Regime's illegal and immoral incursion and the disastrous aftermath, and not squandered on "corporate-take-all" robber-barons, as is the case with our U.S.A. taxpayer's funding.
The total contributions of $40 Billion by the USA and other nations still fall short of the $56 Billion required according to the World Bank, for reconstruction of Iraq. Perhaps, if the Bushies and their corporate war-profiteers would charge normal prices, instead of price-gouge to swill on riches-- this might help-out the Iraqi people.
"We the People" look forward to reviewing the spread of donations by country; the consequential aide by the U.S.A. to each country in return for their assistance; and, how much of the monies are loans versus grants. Let us hope that America's low-income, middle-class and fixed-income retirees, who have been swindled and looted by Bush to enrich the fabulously wealthy, will not also be making massive bribes to other nations in return for some sort of propaganda victory for Bush. Hasn't Bush already squandered us into enough record-level deficits & debts that will bankrupt our future?
The world community has spurned Emperor Bush's demand for billions to clean-up his war-turned-bloody-guerill a-quagmire nightmare in Iraq ... Is it any wonder? ... Given the following:
1) Bush's lack of diplomatic skills, temper tantrums, and brutish behaviour, in treating all who disagree with him in a bully-boy manner, is disgusting to all civilized peoples abroad (and also at home, where even Republican Senators are appalled as his neo-imperial "table-banging" and his squalid refusal to answer questions). [ http://www.washingtonpost.com... ]
2) Bush's corruption and renown reputation for swindling, looting and bilking his own (American) people for the benefit of "corporate-take-all" war-profiteers, crooks & rapists ... including Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle Group, Shell Oil, DynaCorp, Embezzler Ahmad Chalabi, Crony Joe Allbaugh, etc. etc. etc. ... campaign contributors thrilled to have a puppet-president willing to let them rape and pillage America and Iraq. [ http://www.alternet.org/story... , http://www.worldpolicy.org/pr... , http://www.newbridgestrategie... ]
3) US-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) suddenly "loses" $4 Billion (taxpayer) dollars intended for aide to Iraq in the aftermath of Bush's fiasco (Ha ha ha ... Aide? It's really intended to be pocketed by the "price-gouging" Bush cronies) ... Billions go missing!?@#$%?! [ http://www.unobserver.com/lay... ]
It is absolutely criminal that no-bid, no-cap, no-audit contracts were immorally (and possibly illegally) awarded to profit the Bushies, Cheneys and their cronies. Since the Bushies obviously haven't installed the audit controls and independent auditors to oversee the expenditure of American taxpayer dollars, then those in charge (i.e. Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, etc.) should be fired for incompetence and investigated for corruption (potential embezzlement).
"We the People" have been scammed and raped by a corrupt cabal who have given massive "welfare for the rich" gifts, tax cuts, tax loopholes and boondoggles-- to the rich, on a scale un-seen since prior to the Great Depression, when Herbert Hoover allowed the "capitalists" to ruthlessly rape America. Bush has run-up a record-level deficit in 2003 of $560 Billion resulting in $1.9 Trillion (2000-2004 Bush's term in office), in his despicable re-distribution of wealth to the powerful oligarchy & richest-of-the-rich. Who do you think will be forced to pay-off this debt (with interest)? [ http://www.tblog.com/template... ]
Today, another US Soldier was murdered in this "Mission Accomplished!" squalid fiasco, making Bush's Death Toll 341 American soldiers, 53 British soldiers, 17 journalists and 7757-9565 innocent Iraqi civilians, and over 1938 US soldiers injured, maimed and wounded. Whose kids do you think are asked to risk their lives and limbs? [ http://www.antiwar.com/ewens/... ]
"A staggering US$4 billion in oil revenues and other Iraqi funds earmarked for the reconstruction of the country has disappeared into opaque bank accounts administered by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the US-controlled body that rules Iraq. By the end of the year, if nothing changes in the way this cash is accounted for, that figure will double.
The fact that no independent body knows where this cash has gone is in direct violation of the UN resolution that released much of it for the rebuilding of Iraq's shattered infrastructure. The agency that is supposed to oversee these funds has not even been set up yet.
Christian Aid is calling for the full and immediate disclosure of how this money has been spent, and for urgent moves to establish a proper means of regulation. For the future, the British government should seek to ensure that a proportion of all Iraqi oil revenues are earmarked for the country's development - as a binding condition on future oil exploitation.
"This is Iraqi money. The people of Iraq must know where it is going and it should be used for the benefit of all the country's people - particularly the poorest,' said Roger Riddell, Christian Aid's international director.
The current situation goes to the heart of claims and counter-claims about how Iraqi oil revenue should be used. It can only fuel the serious suspicion in Iraq that a disproportionate amount of cash is being creamed off for the benefit of US companies - money that should be spent on alleviating the chronic unemployment and other serious problems faced by Iraqis, including the poorest and most vulnerable." - [i]Excerpt[/i] -
Yeah, right!!! ... Do you really believe that the Bushies give a damn about the poor and vulnerable of the world? (Ha ha ha) ... The corrupt Bushies only care about themselves and their greedy, rich cronies. Would you want your hard-earned money given with your best intentions to benefit those in dire circumstances, to suddenly "disappear"?
In "World spurns US appeal for $30bn to rebuild Iraq" by Stephen Castle in Brussels on http://news.independent.co.uk... : - [i]Excerpt [/i]-
"At the start of the fund-raising conference in Madrid its Spanish hosts lowered expectations by setting a $6bn (£3.5bn) target for the gathering, which is being held against the backdrop of divisions over the US-led occupation. Pledges are certain to fall short of the $30bn sought by Washington, with Europe expected to stump up about €700m (£487m) from EU and national coffers for 2004.
Moufawak al-Rabii, a member of Iraq's US-appointed Governing Council, stepped up pressure for a big cash injection by describing the deprivation in Iraq to delegates from 77 nations. Mr Rabii said more than two-thirds of Iraqis depend on food rations, less than half have access to clean drinking water and one in five children under the age of five is malnourished. Health conditions are deteriorating with maternal mortality quadrupling and diseases such as malaria returning to Iraq.
"We are thinking now of the basic needs, such as providing food and health services and fighting unemployment, which creates the environment for terrorism and which feeds terrorism," he said.
Iraq's Minister of Immigration and Refugees, Mohammed Jassem Khudair, said he needed to accommodate an estimated 4 million Iraqis displaced or driven out of the country.
President George Bush plans to set aside $20bn for Iraqi reconstruction over 18 months, although the US Senate voted to convert $10bn of the package into loans to be repaid with Iraq's oil revenues. Yesterday Washington made it clear that its aid will be paid bilaterally and not through an international trust fund administered by the UN, the World Bank and a committee of Iraqis.
With agreement having been reached on a new UN resolution, the climate of the conference is better than many expected. Japan has pledged $1.5bn for 2004, South Korea has agreed to pay $200m, and Canada has offered $150m. The World Bank has said it will lend Iraq $3bn to $5bn over the next five years. Spain has pledged a total of €300m from 2003-07, although that sum includes loans, and Britain has promised £260m in 2005-05.
Nevertheless several countries have noted a World Bank and UN estimate that Iraq could absorb no more than $5.2bn dollars in aid in 2004. And, despite agreement on the new UN resolution, countries such as France, Germany and Russia, which opposed the war, have already said they will not provide any more money. Worries about security in Iraq and the capacity of the economy to absorb large-scale aid have prompted some potential donors to delay commitments." - [i]Excerpt[/i] -
[b]Now is the time for all good men to "connect the dots" ... [/b]
The Wall-Street Robber-Barons & Crooks Raping America are Bush's Biggest Fans!
The Wall-Street robber-barons, war-profiteers and corporate rapists, who have swindled billions from pension funds, stock-market investors, and, the poor, dumb American public with fantasies of "get-rich-quick-schemes", are Bush's biggest fans!
This can only come as a surprise to hermits living in caves with no internet connections to the outside world. Bush's buddy, Kenny-boy (Enron) Lay, who stole hundreds of millions from pension funds and employees-- has been let-off the "hook" by John (Robespierre) Ashcroft-- Kenny-boy is Bush's good buddy, and enjoys his Emperor-and-Liege's patronage, since he contributed tens of thousands to install the mediocre crook Bush as Governor of Texas and then President-- and Kenny-boy has been repaid by Emperor Bush's largesse, many times over.
Meanwhile, the richest-of-the-rich and corporations are awarded massive tax cuts, tax loopholes & boondoggles-- that are draining the life-blood from the economy and placing a back-breaking burden on the lower-income, middle-class and fixed-income retirees. The American worker is turned into a slave struggling to make ends meet and pay-off Bush's record-level debts, while the Bushies and their cronies are living an obese neo-imperial life-style that the corrupt Emperors of Rome only dreamt of, in their wildest dreams.
Nobel prize winning economists and economic experts all agree that Bush's "welfare for the rich" policies are a disaster for America-- they are not stimulating the economy-- they are not creating more jobs-- they are not improving the lives of our citizenry ... instead they resemble the very "Saddam-Hussein-built-pal aces-for-himself,-and-lea ves-his-people-bereft-of- services" that the hypocritical swindler Bush & Cheney Inc. condemns, as the Bushies smirk at us. Indeed, Saddam Hussein was MORE generous to his people than Bush & Cheney are: the Iraqi people enjoyed National Health Care and State Funded Education through university (which is why they aren't easily bamboozled by the corrupt Bushies).
Please read Robert Freeman's excellent article entitled: "Bush's Tax Cuts - A Form of National Insanity" on http://www.counterpunch.org/f... : - [i]Excerpt[/i] -
"Between 1992 and 2000, the U.S. economy produced the longest sustained economic expansion in U.S. history. It created more than 18 million new jobs, the highest level of job creation ever recorded. Inflation fell to 2.5% per year compared to the 4.7% average over the prior 12 years.
Bush inherited from Clinton a fiscal surplus of $127 billion. In his first year he turned that into a deficit of $158 billion. In this, his second year, he will run a deficit of over $400 billion-a swing to the worse of over $600 billion in only two years.
Now Bush has sold us on still another megadose of this same Supply Side voodoo. Two thirds of his new $350 billion tax cut will go to the top 10% of income earners. Bush's Congressional ally, Tom DeLay, promises more such cuts for every year Bush is in office.
The long term effects of these policies are profoundly damaging. When Bush took office, the government's ten year surplus was forecast to total $5.6 trillion. This was critical to building fiscal soundness as the Baby Boomers begin to retire.
Now, the ten year forecast projects a cumulative deficit of $1.1 trillion, a net loss of $6.7 trillion in only two years. With the exception of World Wars, this is the greatest, most rapid destruction of public wealth in the history of the world." - [i]Excerpt[/i] -
Bush is the only president to cut taxes during "war-time" ... and thus has thrust the USA into dire economic peril. With over 3 million jobs destroyed by Bush-y-nomics, and a total of 9 million unemployed-- and a skyrocketing national debt of over $6.8 Trillion, of which Bush has contributed over $1.9 Trillion-- we face a recession in which the filthy rich, given lavish gifts are able to afford skyrocketing costs & debts without flinching-- but a family of four making $30,000/annum will find $5/gallon gas (for example) a miserable burden to bear.
The corrupt Bush & Cheney Inc. are the darlings of Wall Street, because not only do they refuse to prosecute corporate rapists (with a few token exceptions cynically designed to squash critics)-- they also refuse to make the systemic changes required to regulate corporate accounting and auditing, in order that these goons can't "cook-the-books" ... Nor will the corrupt Bushies insist on limits to the legalized embezzlement of corporate assets by executives who "take-the-money-and-run": One reason why Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin took all his money out of the stock-market-- only the rich (who can afford to lose money), crooks and fools are investing money in today's stock-market swindle.
In "Why Bush's Tax Cut Won't Help the Economy" on http://www.alternet.org/story... , David Martin, Chris Hartman and Ben Robinson, report on the inequity and foolhardiness of the Bushies' corrupt tax cuts:
The top 1% make-out like bandits ... and rape our economy of over $726 billion over 10 years (Bush refuses to repeal any of his "welfare for the rich" gifts to pay for his debacle in Iraq-- $166 billion that American tax-payers are saddled with ... and no end in sight)!. In fact, Warren Buffet estimates that he'll enjoy an additional $300 million per year, from the dividend tax cuts alone-- that he doesn't need ... He was opposed to Bush's obscene swindle.
- [i]Excerpt[/i] - "Two-thirds of the dividend tax cut benefit will go to the top 5 percent. More than $4 out of $10 will go to the top 1 percent, people making more than $330,000 a year.
One quarter of the benefit will go to the top 0.2 percent, people making more than $1 million a year. That's as much as the bottom 90 percent combined will get from the dividend tax cut.
Tax filers making more than $1 million a year will get $27,100 a year. Tax filers making between $30,000 and $40,000 will get only $42 a year." - [i]Excerpt[/i] -
[b]Item 10-year cost in $billions: [/b]
* Eliminate tax on dividends $396 * Increase child tax credit from $600 to $1,000 $90 * Accelerate income tax cuts for the top 4 brackets $74 * End "marriage penalty" $55 * Expand 10% Tax Bracket $45 * Increase alternative minimum tax threshold $37 * Increase tax breaks for small business equipment purchases $29
What does this mean??? That the rich get richer ... and the rest of us are denied services and programs desperately needed to provide a decent life and conditions for the American people!!!
"We the People" must awaken from our collective fantasy that all taxation is "bad" ... taxation permits us collectively the ability for all citizens (not only the rich) to live with clean water, sewer systems, police, firemen, education, parks, etc.-- and should provide health care for all. The insane and stupid notion that only those with lots & lots of money should be permitted the basics needed to live decently, is obscene, uncivilized, and down-right barbaric. Those greedy and self-interested troglodytes who spout such medieval notions, should go back and read a little history of the world.
So, the Wall Street thugs are funding the corrupt Bushies ... no wonder, they were also behind the crook Herbert Hoover, who sold this nation to the "corporate-take-all" rapists. In "Once at Arm's Length, Wall Street Is Bush's Biggest Donor" by Glen Justice on http://www.commondreams.org/h... : - [i]Excerpt[/i] -
" day after a chilly reception at the United Nations last month, President Bush received a warmer greeting from a New York group that he had been keeping at arm's length: about a dozen leaders of the biggest firms on Wall Street.
That private meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria, to discuss the economy, is just one illustration of how the president and Wall Street seem to have grown on each other.
Mr. O'Neal of Merrill Lynch sent a series of letters to the homes of a few hundred of the firm's most senior executives in June, asking them to contribute to a fund-raising dinner in support of Mr. Bush. James E. Cayne, chairman and chief executive of Bear Stearns & Company, also sent a letter asking his executives to donate to the campaign.
Joseph J. Grano, who runs the brokerage operations of UBS, the Swiss bank, has been an avid backer of President Bush and the Republican convention. Mr. Grano promised to raise at least $200,000 for the re-election campaign and to gather money for the convention, said executives at the firm, formerly known as UBS PaineWebber.
Mr. Paulson, of Goldman Sachs, was recruited by Gov. George E. Pataki of New York to collect cash from the Wall Street firms to finance the convention, an official at the firm said, and has gathered $5 million so far.
Part of Mr. Bush's fund-raising success on Wall Street can be attributed to the new campaign-finance law that doubled, to $2,000, the amount an individual can give to a primary campaign. Several industries have already matched what they gave in 2000.
Mr. Bush plans to raise a record-setting $170 million for next year's race. His largest fund-raisers are grouped as Pioneers, who raise at least $100,000, and Rangers, who raise at least $200,000. An increasing number in both programs are from the financial sector." - [i]Excerpt[/i] -
So it costs close to $170 million to buy the White House ... hmmm ... a good return-on-investment, for the corporate rapists and crooks who are awarded billions in return for campaign bribes (ooopppsss ... contributions?), by swindling the American people.
Who is Really Running American Foreign Policy? Ariel Sharon or Veep Cheney ... It Ain't Bush!
Who is really running our disastrous American Foreign Policy?
Is it the Likud extremist and right-winger, Ariel Sharon?
Is it the neo-con, neo-fascist, Veep Cheney?
An analysis of the insane events that have created mayhem and chaos around the world, resulting in the massacre of tens of thousands (Iraq and Afghanistan), and the subsequent increase in terrorism (not the diminution of terror as proclaimed by the liars in the Bush Regime)-- it must be either Sharon and/or Cheney ... It sure as hell "ain't" Bush ... a party-boy that they've got running-around the world "hat-in-hand" to raise money (apparently fund-raising is something Bush likes to do, and claims he's good at ... unlike leading this nation: something he's appallingly bad at ...).
Meanwhile, Rummy Rumsfeld's grim view on the so-called "War on Terror" (i.e. divert American taxpayer monies to the fat-cats & top-dogs ... Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle Group, etc.), squares with the disastrous and bloody fiasco in Iraq. In Iraq, the war-turned-guerrilla-quag mire is mired in unabated attacks [Source: "U.S. Reports Increase in Daily Attacks in Iraq" on http://www.nytimes.com/aponli... , US Commander, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez reports: "We've had an average number of engagements from 20 to 25 (daily). We've seen a spike up to 35 in last three weeks.''] Bush's Death Toll stands at 390 US (337) & British (53) soldiers, 17 journalists & 7757-9565 innocent Iraqi civilians ... as well as 1934 soldiers reported wounded, injured, or maimed along with thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians.
While the Bushies give Condi Rice the refurbished job of fabricating orwellian propaganda, in liaison with Veep Cheney & Karl Rove, to sell us all on the phony notion that all is rosy in Iraq and that the Iraqis are tickled-pink with the US Occupation, it appears that Rummy Rumsfeld doesn't share in their "Kumbaya" Song Fest & Happy Talk:
In "Defense Memo: A Grim Outlook" on http://www.commondreams.org/h... , Dave Moniz and Tom Squitieri, provide an assessment of the inconsistencies between the Bushies' neo-fascist propaganda and the horrific nightmarish reality on-the-ground ... (Also, read the copy of Rummy's infantile memorandum, akin to something written by a freshman taking Business Management 101 at the Open University-- and disappointing for a Senior Cabinet Secretary of Defense!):
"Among Rumsfeld's observations in the two-page memo:
• The United States is "just getting started" in fighting the Iraq-based terror group Ansar Al-Islam.
• The war is hugely expensive. "The cost-benefit ratio is against us! Our cost is billions against the terrorists' cost of millions."
• Postwar stabilization efforts are very difficult. "It is pretty clear the coalition can win in Afghanistan and Iraq in one way or another, but it will be a long, hard slog."
Apparently Rummy is trying to "keep a sense of urgency alive" ... Hmmm ... that's nice! How thoughtful of Rummy to maintain "a sense of urgency", with so many of our troops in harm's way, in order to enrich the Bush Regime's war-profiteers, corporate cronies & robber-barons. We certainly don't want too much blood-letting before the Bushies' campaign contributors have their "shot" at bilking, plundering and looting America and Iraq.
Bush seems oblivious to the disaster and bungled fiasco, of his own making (Bush prides himself on his own ignorance and refuses to read newspapers). It is obvious that Bush is in reality, a weak and petty man, pretending to lead, but in deep, deep waters-- way, way over-his-head. So Bush slams his fist on the table and shouts imperial-style (or hitlerian-style) at those posing questions and keeps Condi, his "Mother Hen", close at hand, where they can hold onto each other like life-preservers, to avoid drowning.
In "Cheney's grip tight on foreign policy reins" by Jim Lobe on http://www.atimes.com/atimes/... , the bizarre and dangerously stupid modus operandi of the corrupt Bush Regime is exposed:
"The image was not an edifying one: the president of the United States a horse, his vice president, the rider.
But that is the picture Senator Joseph Biden, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, used to describe the power relationship between US President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in a recent interview with the National Journal.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, according to Biden's account, sometimes talks Bush into pursuing a more conciliatory foreign policy line, as he has done with North Korea or the United Nations from time to time.
"Like with a horse, Powell is always able to lead Bush to the water. But just as he is about to put his head down, Cheney up in the saddle says, 'Un-uh', and yanks up the reins before Bush can drink the water. That's my image of how it goes," Biden said.
That is also the image which is gaining currency in power circles in Washington. When it comes to foreign policy, Cheney is increasingly seen as holding the reins.
While the mainstream media continue to refer to Bush as the captain of his own foreign policy ship, hints that Cheney - a Republican right-winger surrounded by neo-conservatives, many with close ties to Israel's Likud Party - is the dominant figure in Washington's diplomacy have become too plentiful to ignore.
The most stunning example was disclosed in a recent Washington Post article that assessed Condoleezza Rice's performance as national security adviser. The authors reported that Bush had ordered cabinet officials not to give any preferential treatment to Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress (INC) as US forces moved into Iraq in the spring.
Imagine the shock felt by the State Department when, shortly after Bush gave the order, the Pentagon flew Chalabi and 600 of his armed followers into southern Iraq in early April "with the approval of the vice president".
Enforcing policy discipline, especially in a divided administration, is ordinarily the task of the national security adviser. But Rice, an academic whose substantive knowledge of foreign policy is largely confined to her expertise, the Soviet Union and Russia, has not been equal to the task.
Her failure in that regard, as well as Bush's own passivity and inexperience, is precisely what has enabled Cheney to dominate the policy process, particularly with respect to the Middle East, where Cheney's views are almost entirely consistent with those of the neo-cons close to Likud and Israeli premier Ariel Sharon.
Even before September 11, Cheney had endorsed Israel's selective assassination policy, even as the State Department was denouncing it. One year later, Cheney told Israel's defense minister, albeit privately, that he thought Palestinian President Yasser Arafat "should be hanged".
That Cheney should assume such a dominant role is not surprising given the degree to which Bush depended on him during his presidential campaign and in the administration's early days. And the fact that Cheney, who was asked by Bush to recommend his running mate in 2000, chose himself suggested that he felt confident that Bush would give him extraordinary powers if he won.
Similarly, Cheney played a much more important role than Rice, despite Rice's much closer personal relationship with Bush, in the appointment of both cabinet and sub-cabinet national security officials, beginning with Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon helm.
Not only did Cheney personally intervene to ensure that Powell's best friend, Richard Armitage, was denied the deputy defense secretary position, but he also played a key role in securing the post for Paul Wolfowitz.
Moreover, it was Cheney who insisted that ultra-unilateralist John Bolton be placed in a top State Department arms position, from which he has pursued policies that run counter to Powell's own preferences.
Cheney's own chief of staff and national security adviser, I Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a Washington lawyer and Wolfowitz protege, is considered a far more skilled and experienced bureaucratic and political operator than Rice.
Moreover, his own national security staff, the largest ever employed by a vice president, has largely been chosen for both their ideological affinity with their boss and proven Washington experience. "They play to win," said one State Department official.
With several of his political allies, including deputy national security adviser Stephen Hadley and Middle East director Elliott Abrams, on Rice's larger but more diverse staff, Libby "is able to run circles around Condi", a former senior official told IPS earlier this year.
Thus, Cheney played a key role in assigning responsibility for post-war reconstruction to the Pentagon, a major departure from past experience when the State Department was given the lead.
Similarly, Cheney backed the Pentagon's exclusion of State Department officials, including Tom Warrick, a highly regarded Iraq specialist who oversaw the mammoth "Future of Iraq Project" that involved hundreds of Iraqi expatriates and other experts, in the post-war administration.
It was also Cheney and Libby whose frequent trips to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the runup to the Iraq war played the decisive role in distorting the intelligence process, in part by pressing on CIA analysts questionable evidence supplied by the INC and Pentagon hawks under Rumsfeld, according to retired intelligence officers.
More recently, it was Cheney who led the effort to deny Powell the authority to negotiate a new UN Security Council resolution that could have reduced the Pentagon's control over the political transition in Iraq, even after the president had initially approved such a deal.
Even now, according to some sources, Cheney is actively trying to blunt Congressional pressure to reduce the Pentagon's control over Iraq policy and fire several senior Pentagon hawks, beginning with Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, who are believed to have misled Congress about both the evidence used to justify the war and the post-war situation.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Richard Lugar and Biden, the committee's ranking Democrat, explicitly mentioned Cheney in what amounted to a bipartisan appeal on NBC's "Meet the Press" television program on October 12 for Bush to assert his control over foreign policy.
Biden said, "I would say, 'Mr President, take charge. Take charge - let your secretary of defense, state, and your vice president know this is my policy, any one of you that divert from the policy is off the team'."
Lugar, a staunch, albeit moderate Republican, said he agreed with Biden, adding, "The president has to be president. That means the president over the vice president and over these secretaries."
The past month's announcements that Rice had hired Robert Blackwill, Bush's former ambassador to India and reputedly a skilled bureaucratic and Republican infighter himself, as a top deputy and that she is heading up a new, inter-agency Iraq stabilization group appeared designed to create the appearance that she was at last taking the reins.
So far, however, there is little evidence that Cheney is prepared to dismount."
"We the People" are watching the embarrassing phenomena of the Mad King George and his corrupt regime imploding ... and it sure as hell "ain't" a pretty sight, since we'll ultimately be forced to clean-up his nasty messes!
The Bush Regime Filters the Unpleasant Reality of their Bloody Guerrilla Quagmire in Iraq
The Bush Regime is filtering the unpleasant reality of their bloody guerrilla quagmire in Iraq. These cowardly arm-chair chicken-hawks only want rosy pictures showing Iraqis tickled-pink with the US occupation!
In "Ignoring Unpleasant Truths" on http://www.aljazeerah.info/Op...%20editorials/2003%20Opin ion%20Editorials/October/ 21o/Ignoring%20Unpleasant %20Truths,%20Arab%20News.htm : - [i]Excerpt [/i]-
"The Bush administration is ignoring some unpleasant truths about its occupation of Iraq. US generals and administrators say that the morale of its troops in Iraq is high and that they are fully motivated and determined to get on with the job of bringing order and security to the Iraqi people. A survey however, just done for the military’s own newspaper, the Stars and Stripes, suggests that 49 percent of personnel serving in Iraq were disillusioned and did not plan to re-enlist. Worse, 31 percent believed that there was little or no point in the tasks they were being asked to do in the country.
That is deeply disturbing. It means that they are going to be less and less able to carry out their duties, because around a third of most units is going to be made up of men fed up with the danger and difficulties to which they are exposed ...
It is now clear that if it has planned at all, Washington has misplanned the peace in Iraq. The reason for those miscalculations is common to both Pentagon strategists and the GI patrolling the streets of Baghdad. It is a fundamental ignorance of the world beyond the United States and a deep lack of appreciation of the mores and sensitivities of other societies. This may seem odd from citizens of a country that has drawn its lifeblood from immigrants. Nevertheless, it is there in the frustrated incomprehension of officials who cannot fathom why the violence will not stop and in the angry bemusement of US soldiers who cannot understand why Iraqis regard them with such suspicion." - [i]Excerpt[/i] -
In this neo-orwellian world of ours, where our leaders use [i]newspeak[/i] to tell us whom to love and whom to hate -- what is truth and what is un-truth -- and, how to think and how not to think, the terrifying realities are being papered-over and covered-up, in collusion with the corporate-owned media who now choose to play the role of the Bushies' cheer-leaders.
The Bush Regime has ruled that the pictures of coffins draped with the US flag brought home containing the corpses of our dead men and women, not be given to the press. These neo-fascists have banned the media from publishing their images. Can they do that? Apparently, so ...
"Chronicling the daily outrages committed by our current political leaders is like performing battlefield triage at a M*A*S*H unit. Not every candidate deserving of attention is going to get it.
So when Washington Post city columnist Courtland Millowy reported in September that President Bush was AWOL again -- too busy to attend the funeral of a fallen DC National Guardsman -- I let it slide. Yes, President Bush serves as commander in chief of the DC National Guard the way governors do in their states. Yes, Darryl T. Dent was just 21 when he lost his life in Iraq, in the service of George Bush's war. Yes, DC National Guard chief Bush was out fund-raising at fancy dinners instead of honoring the loss of one of his own men. No, he never called, or had an assistant drop off flowers or a card.
But as I triaged the outrages of the week, the day, even the hour, this one fell by the wayside. I reasoned, eh, it's possible Bush was simply not informed of it. And if Milloy also told a harrowing story of Bush's visit to Water Reed Medical Center this year -- when he invited a platoon sergeant who'd stepped on a land mine in Afghanistan to go jogging once he received his prosthetic -- well, I wasn't there, and I know people with prosthetics who do jog, and I could imagine how such an invitation could have been offered in dignity and accepted in that same spirit. (It's a different matter that President Bush is simultaneously cutting health-care benefits for the veterans injured or maimed on his watch. Get your prosthetics while they last, guys.)
But what possible excuse can there be for bringing dead American heroes back into the country guiltily, sneakily, under cover of press blackout?
"Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of US soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped caskets," The Post reports. "To this problem, the Bush administration has found a simple solution: It has ended the public dissemination of such images by banning news coverage and photography of dead soldiers' homecomings on all military bases."
That report also confirms that President Bush -- unlike presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush the first and Clinton -- has not attended any memorials or funerals for soldiers killed in action. Supposedly this indicates some sort of perverse respect for the families, by not politicizing the deaths of men who served their country. But as Newsweek observes, "When CIA operative Johnny 'Mike' Spann was killed in Afghanistan in December 2001, the DOD had no problem letting the media in to witness the return of his remains to Andrews Air Force Base. But then, his death only stoked support for the war in Afghanistan."
Which takes us full circle to Milloy's indignant column about AWOL DC National Guard commander Bush. "Perhaps Bush could not figure out a way to make political hay out of Dent's funeral," Milloy wrote, and, "Bush appears to treat the loss of human life like a lost pawn on a chess board." It seemed a tad over-the-top and unfair to me back as I triaged September. Today, in mid-October, it looks spot on."
Even GOP Republican Senator Chuck Hagel admits that the Congress gave Bush too much latitude in conducting foreign policy in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. In "Republican Senator Says Congress Gave Bush Too Much Leeway in Foreign Policy" on http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking... :
""When the security of this nation is threatened, Congress and the American people give the president great latitude," he said. "We probably have given this president more flexibility, more latitude, more range, unquestioned, than any president since Franklin Roosevelt - probably too much. The Congress, in my opinion, really abrogated much of its responsibility."
Hagel, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, voted last year to give the president the authority to attack Iraq but has frequently criticized Bush's execution of the war. He has been especially critical of the lack of allies and U.N. support.
Most people in other countries are too young to remember the good done by the United States in World War II and the Korean War, he said.
"The great reservoir of pro-American good will that has existed in the world since World War II . . . that reservoir is now down very low."
The Vietnam War veteran compared the United States' lack of international support in the Iraq war with what happened in Southeast Asia.
"The one great mistake that America made in those 58 years (since World War II) ... was we tried to do something alone. That was Vietnam," Hagel said."
"We the People" must recognize that Sen. Hagel is right ... and now we have Emperor Bush and his greedy "corporate-take-all" "crazies" who have thrust us into a bloody guerrilla-quagmire that has taken a heavy toll of human lives (390 US & British Soldiers, 17 Journalists & 7757-9565 innocent Iraqi civilians) and treasure ($166 billion through mid-2004, $80.6 billion squandered thus far at $1 billion/week)-- and No End in Sight.
The Corrupt Bush Regime's Massive LIES, War-Profiteering-So-Not-LOANS & Criminal LEAKS
The corrupt Bush Regime should be under investigation by Congress for spreading massive [b]Lies[/b], war-profiteering for their cronies (i.e. [b]no Loans[/b]-- but instead they continue to swindle the American people using their "bait-and-switch" scam), and, criminal [b]Leaks[/b].
[b]Massive Lies, Deceptions, Falsehoods[/b]
The Bushies have lied to us, deceived us, and perpetrated falsehoods regarding the threat posed by Iraq. There were no WMDs ... and those responsible for coercing and pressuring the CIA including Cheney, Bolton, Feith, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle should be fired. Rice also is a liar and abdicated her responsibility and should be dismissed. Finally, Bush should be under investigation for his regime's Crimes Against Humanity, and leading our country into war based upon lies-- illegal under the U.S. Constitution.
"Part of the answer lies in decisions made early in the Bush Administration, before the events of September 11, 2001. In interviews with present and former intelligence officials, I was told that some senior Administration people, soon after coming to power, had bypassed the government’s customary procedures for vetting intelligence.
The President’s response raises the question of what, if anything, the Administration learned from the failure, so far, to find significant quantities of W.M.D.s in Iraq. Any President depends heavily on his staff for the vetting of intelligence and a reasonable summary and analysis of the world’s day-to-day events. The ultimate authority in the White House for such issues lies with the President’s national-security adviser—in this case,Condoleezza Rice. The former White House official told me, “Maybe the Secretary of Defense and his people are short-circuiting the process, and creating a separate channel to the Vice-President. Still, at the end of the day all the policies have to be hashed out in the interagency process, led by the national-security adviser.” What happened instead, he said, “was a real abdication of responsibility by Condi.”"
Hersh's report outlines a serious of egregious and corrupt actions by the neo-cons in the Bush Regime, who chose to bypass proper procedures and cherry-picked fabricated information (that was not vetted) in order to wage their dirty war. They lusted for war and consequently created fantasies of "mushroom clouds" from "smoking guns" ... but instead there were no "mushroom clouds", no "smoking guns", no WMDs ... zip, zero, nada!
1) Where is Osama bin Laden, whom Bush promised to "get 'em Dead or Alive?"
2) Where is Saddam Hussein?
3) Where are all of those massive WMDs that the UN Inspectors weren't allowed to search for-- and in the aftermath of Bush's fiasco in Iraq, lackey-David Kay (with ties to the arms industry) is awarded over 5 times the number of inspectors (over 1200 - Hans Blix only had 120-220 & 5 months), 5 months squandered thus far & awarded another 6-9 months, and will have spent nearly $1 billion to "find" (or plant?) WMDs to save Bush's mess.
[b]War-Profiteering, So No Loans-- Just Scam American Taxpayers[/b]
The Bushies treat their "rubber-stamp" Congress just as they treat "Old Europe": with contempt and like slaves who better genuflect or accept the punishment doled out by Emperor Bush and his gang of thugs. When Senators attempted to question Bush regarding his regime's planning and disbursement of the $20.3 billion (reconstruction costs out of the $87 billion request), Emperor Bush slams his hand on the table and shouts "'It's not negotiable, and I don't want to debate it." ... [Source: "$87 Billion, Final Offer" on http://www.washingtonpost.com... ]
Meanwhile, we've lost 390 American (337) & British (53) Soldiers, 17 Journalists, and slaughtered between 7757 & 9565 innocent Iraqi civilians [Source: http://www.antiwar.com/ewens/... ] ... and spent over $80.6 billion, thus far at $1 billion per week ... with Congress approving an additional $87 billion, making the tab for this insane war-turned-guerrilla-quag mire over $166 billion, and no end in sight, since the World Bank has confirmed that billions more ($55B) is required to re-build Iraq.
The Bushies neo-fascist propaganda machine brags about re-building the Iraqi infrastructure, schools, hospitals and other services. The only problem with this "bait-and-switch" scam (their "war on terror" has CREATED more terror-- and enriched them while impoverishing the rest of us and placing us in greater danger) "picture" is:
1) Bush & Cheney corporate rapists are plundering & looting American taxpayers and Iraq, by over-charging on a massive scale & no audits or controls keep the price-gouging from occurring.
2) Bush & Cheney are denying any improvements to Americans, who must suffer under crumbling infrastructure, lack of funding for education, health care, and other badly needed services.
3) Bush & Cheney have amassed the largest deficit in our nation's history (Big Spending Republicans on Welfare-for-the-Rich) of $560 billion-- and simultaneously awarded their campaign contributors gluttonous tax cuts, tax loopholes & boondoggles, unseen since the halcyon days of Herbert Hoover's "corporate-take-all" rape of this nation.
[b]Criminal Leaks[/b]
The corrupt Bush Regime have used illegal means to intimidate whistle-blowers able to expose their massive lies and crimes. Arrogant Bush himself, smirks that no one will find out who the felon in the White House is, who exposed an under-cover CIA Operative's identity to Robert Novak (Karl Rove's Lackey) and other reporters, in retaliation for her husband's (ex-Ambassador Joseph P. Wilson) disclosure that the Bushies lied about phony uranium sales by Niger to Iraq-- a bogus lie told to frighten the American people.
Instead of appointing an independent special counsel, the Bushies let their attack-dog and loon, John (Robespierre) Ashcroft assist the 3 stooges (Cheney, Rice & Rove) in covering-up the White House crimes.
"We the People" should call upon Congress to be accountable for the following:
1) Bush has threatened to veto Congress if they dare to convert a small proportion of the monies into loans ($10 billion in loans out of the $87 billion) swindled and stolen from the average American taxpayers, to enrich Bush's corporate thugs-- [Source: "Bush Admin. Threatens to Veto Iraq Aid" on http://story.news.yahoo.com/n... ]
Shouldn't all Congressmen and women who are simply puppets of the Bush Regime be "recalled" in 2004?
2) Bush refuses to repeal some of the immoral (and possibly illegal) monies stolen from the average American taxpayer and awarded to the richest-of-the-rich, corporations and wealthiest oligarchy, in the form of "tax cuts", "tax loopholes" and boondoggles.
Apparently the richest amongst us aren't required to make any sacrifice-- only the poor, lower-income, middle-class and fixed-income retirees, will be asked to spill the blood of their children and pay-off Bushies' obscene debts.
Shouldn't all Congressmen and women who do not call for repealing these tax "welfare-for-the-rich" gifts and confiscating war-profits, be "recalled" in 2004?
3) Shouldn't an investigation into the crimes committed by the Bush Regime's thugs be called for by Congress? Why haven't Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, Bolton, Feith, Rove and the other White House criminals, incompetents and goons been asked to resign (and possibly charged with crimes)?
Shouldn't all Congressmen and women who refuse to condemn the illegal and immoral acts committed by the Bush Regime be "recalled" in 2004?
Our nation deserves men and women loyal to the United States of America-- instead we've got a corrupt cabal only loyal to their own selfish, greedy interests ... and who punish anyone who doesn't worship at the altar of Emperor Bush, their symbol of the Global Corporate Empire in their insane doctrine according to the Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
All men and women of conscience, irrespective of their political persuasions, should be asking themselves these questions, for the sake of our nation ... for the sake of our honour and integrity ... and for the sake of their own private souls.
A Conservative's Review of Al Franken's "Lies and the Lying Liars" ...
"It's official ... watching Fox News makes you ignorant!", according to Shaun Waterman in "Misleading America" on http://www.commondreams.org/v... : 80% of those who watch Fox News, the neo-con, neo-fascist news channel get their facts wrong!
Remember, Fox News is the proto-hitlerian propaganda channel that [i]cheer-leads [/i]for the corrupt Bush Regime. Recently they instigated an imbecilic law suit against Al Franken for mocking and criticizing their hypocritical orwellian motto "fair and balanced" ... when in reality, Fox News is unfair and imbalanced! Refer to "Laugh at Fox News, the Neo-Con's Neo-Fascist Network!" on http://www.tblog.com/template... . Fox News was ultimately forced to drop their insane law-suit, since Ashcroft probably told 'em he was too busy persecuting Arabs (and anyone else who doesn't genuflect in front of the imperial Bush Regime) to be bothered ...
It is time for the Bushies to begin to worry, as "We the People" comprising decent, hard-working citizens across the entire political spectrum, are disenchanted with the despicable Crimes Against Humanity committed by this insane neo-con regime to enrich the Bush & Cheney Inc. corporate cronies, robber-barons and war-profiteers. Even Robert (Rove's Lackey) Novak admits that "War Worried Republicans" are disappointed in Bush's poor (non-existent) leadership skills and ineptitude on http://www.townhall.com/colum... .
Increasingly, even honest conservatives with integrity are coming forward to express their dismay, disgust and disassociation with the corrupt Bush Regime. Refer to "A conservative's review of Al Franken's 'Lies and the Lying Liars'" by Becky Miller on http://www.oregonlive.com/com... :
"I must say that only once before in my life have I ever felt as utterly shocked as I am at this moment. The time before was when I first realized that my boss at the time, Bill Sizemore, was greedy and dishonest. The foundations of my universe shook. What has utterly shocked me today is Al Franken's latest book, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right."
I read the book in one sitting. It is an amazing book, and -- if you're a decent, honest, hard-working, patriotic, true-blue conservative who listens to Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly and watches Fox News -- an earth-shattering book.
To be aboveboard, I must tell you that Franken and I are friends. Well, OK, the truth is I made a wisecrack to him at a book signing, and he looked at me. (Read the book -- the part about Ann Coulter -- and you'll get it.)
Until I read this book, I believed the Bill Sizemore/Oregon Taxpayers United mess was a bit of a fluke. (In 2002 I testified against him in a civil trial in which a Multnomah County jury found that his charitable foundation and political action committee had committed fraud and forgery, and that Oregon Taxpayers United had engaged in a pattern of racketeering to obtain signatures on initiative petitions for tax measures drafted by Sizemore.) The spin, the lies, the greed, the disregard for the everyday person -- I thought it was all just a fluke and really limited to this one little pustule of filth that had festered in a little storefront in Clackamas, Oregon. Boy, was I wrong.
I believe Franken is telling the truth in his book because it meshes perfectly with what I personally have observed. And I think every decent, honest, hard-working, patriotic, true-blue conservative owes it to himself to read it. Hold your nose if you must -- Franken is as foul-mouthed and crass as his reputation would lead you to believe (and quite mistakenly believes Christians love Israel because it is the center of prophecies that include the fiery deaths of all Jews) -- but read it anyway.
The other day on talk radio, I heard a guy tell an incredulous Lars Larson that he wouldn't believe Rush Limbaugh was a drug addict involved in a drug ring even if Limbaugh himself admitted it. If you're that guy, don't bother reading Franken's book. You will really just drive yourself even more crazy.
The leaders we conservatives have trusted have taken advantage of our trust to line the pockets of the wealthy and powerful, and it's time we rose up and drove out these greedy liars. They've hijacked and distorted our belief system for their own gain, and in doing so are destroying our credibility.
And if we decent, honest, hard-working, patriotic, true-blue conservatives of this country neglect the duty we have to our children and grandchildren, we will never be able to work with those decent, honest, hard-working, patriotic, true-blue liberal Americans that these lying creeps have taught us to despise. We will never be safe to debate them or, when warranted, to listen to them and maybe even agree with them. We will never be safe to work out our differences or to work together. And we will never be able to build on the all-American sense of unity that burst forth following 9/11, only to disappear shortly thereafter in a cloud of lying, greedy partisan politics.
I'm still a decent, honest, hard-working, patriotic, true-blue conservative. But Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and the rest of you lying liars -- I'm through with you! (Read the book, and you'll get that one, too.)"
Becky Miller of Woodburn is former senior aide to Bill Sizemore, president of Oregon Taxpayers United.
Hypocritical Bush Condemns Bigotry Except When It Serves His Agenda & It's From His Goons
Bush and his entire regime are dangerously hypocritical as well as ignorant of history, and the horrific consequences ensuing from their insane policies and decisions. The corrupt Bushies condemn bigotry except when it serves their own sinister motives, furthers their own blood-thirsty agenda, and, it comes from one of their own goons.
The Bush Regime are incompetent as well as liars ... and are unfit to serve this great nation. It is time that "We the People" recognize that the regime change we should concern ourselves with is here at home, in 2004.
Even the GOP is starting to worry about the ineptitude and downright dishonesty that could affect their party's fortunes next year. [Source: "Bush Troubles Some in GOP- To Some in GOP, Bush's Troubles Become a Liability" on http://www.washingtonpost.com... ]
For the record, three excellent articles that demonstrate a few of the many, many examples of the Bush Regime's hypocrisy are as follows:
[b]1. Remember when Bush bragged that he was "famous (sic)" for bringing Republicans and Democrats together in a spirit of compromise and creating a climate of civility? ... Ha Ha Ha![/b]
"When it comes to bringing peace and democracy to Iraq, President Bush is determined to do it his way -- and only his way. He doesn't much care what Congress or, God forbid, the Democrats think.
One of the most striking stories of the past week was Sen. Mary Landrieu's account of her meeting with Bush before Congress approved the $87 billion military and reconstruction package for Iraq.
"He said, 'I'm here to tell you this is what we have to do and this is how we have to do it,' " Landrieu quoted the president as saying. Landrieu, who was not contradicted by anyone else at the meeting, told the New York Times that when she raised a question, "He looked at me and said, 'It's not negotiable, and I don't want to debate it.' " The imperial presidency is back.
At every point in the Iraq debate, Bush has framed the choices in a way guaranteed to stir partisan division.
Bush's father postponed a vote on the Persian Gulf War until after the 1990 midterm elections because he didn't want Iraq mixed in with partisan politics. This President Bush insisted that the vote on his war be held before the 2002 elections, which guaranteed that it was mixed in with partisan politics.
At the time of the vote, this Bush was negotiating for support from the United Nations, but he also insisted that Congress pass a resolution authorizing him to go to war. Those who voted "no" on the resolution -- to nudge Bush into trying tough sanctions first as a way of gathering allies -- would be accused of weakening the president's bargaining hand. Those who voted "yes" were giving Bush a blank check. Surprise: He got the blank check.
And so it is now with the money for our troops and Iraqi reconstruction. Most Democrats and Republicans agree that the United States cannot walk away from Iraq. Despite a lot of muttering, most agree that reconstructing Iraq is part of the price that must be paid for security.
But most Democrats and many Republicans are also appalled at the failure of the administration's planning for the postwar period, at the prewar claims the administration made that were not borne out, at an open-ended commitment of $87 billion in the face of enormous budget deficits.
Reasonable compromises could have built broad support for the president's request. Bush could have agreed to forgo a smidgen of his big tax cut for the wealthy to pay for the cost of his Iraq policy. He refused.
He could have worked more closely with Congress to assemble the $87 billion package. Many in both parties cannot understand why Bush favors big-spending New Dealism in Iraq -- building schools, roads, transmission lines and creating jobs -- even as he resists comparable expenditures at home.
Conservatives asked: Why should we spend money on projects in Iraq that we would oppose at home? Liberals asked: Why vote this money for Iraq when we can't do comparable things for our own constituents?
These twin sentiments were behind the crazy-quilt coalition that produced a Senate majority in favor of turning $10 billion of the reconstruction spending into a "loan" for Iraq. The vote was a cry of protest against the administration's "it's not negotiable" approach. It was Bush's first congressional defeat on Iraq. It will not be the last if he persists in turning a complicated foreign policy problem into one game of political hardball after another.
It may make little sense to turn this aid into a loan (the House version of the bill doesn't) when Iraq is on its back and already faces mountains of debt. But it makes no more sense to pay for the Iraq policy through deficits -- which amount to a loan from the American people to our own government.
This spending bill was the one moment when Congress had the power to demand accountability from Bush. But by wrapping the reconstruction aid together with military spending, the president's supporters created another of those political boxes. "Those who vote against this bill will be voting against supporting our men and women in the field," thundered Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska.
The argument worked, even though it was untrue. If this version of the aid package had failed, another would have been passed eventually. But in an age of no negotiations and no debate, foreign policy is now a take-it-or-leave-it affair. It's no way to build support for a difficult undertaking. The president is asking everyone else to do hard things. How long does he expect people to do them just because he says so?"
[b]2. Remember when Bush bragged that we need a climate of religious tolerance for all ... and that no one should be persecuted for their own individual beliefs? ... Ha Ha Ha![/b]
"PRESIDENT BUSH rightly took issue yesterday with the anti-Semitic comments of Malaysia's prime minister. Mr. Bush took Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad aside during the economic summit in Bangkok "and told him that what he said was 'wrong and divisive,' " according to White House press secretary Scott McClellan. "It stands squarely against what I believe in," Mr. McClellan quoted the president as saying. Mr. Mahathir had told an Islamic conference last week that "the Jews rule the world by proxy" and urged Islamic nations to unite against being "defeated by a few million Jews." He received a standing ovation from his colleagues -- making Mr. Bush's expression of disapproval all the more necessary.
Would that Mr. Bush's sense of outrage at religiously inflammatory remarks was so finely tuned when it comes to members of his own administration. Thus far he has found nothing to criticize in remarks disparaging of Islam by Lt. Gen. William G. "Jerry" Boykin, his deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence. In videotapes of appearances before church groups -- obtained by military analyst William N. Arkin and first described on NBC and in the Los Angeles Times -- Gen. Boykin, in Army uniform, describes the United States as a "Christian nation" and says he knew he would capture a Somali warlord because "I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol." Gen. Boykin casts the war against terrorism as a "spiritual battle," saying that "Satan wants to destroy this nation, he wants to destroy us as a nation, and he wants to destroy us as a Christian army."
Gen. Boykin now argues that his "idol" reference was to the worship of money and power, not Allah. But a review of the full text of his remarks cannot support this reading. In fact, the full text only adds to the questions about his suitability. At the Good Shepherd Community Church in Sandy, Ore., last June, just after he received his third star and was named to his Pentagon post, Gen. Boykin said, "Don't you worry about what these courts say. Our God reigns supreme."
Some of his comments also raise questions about Gen. Boykin's fitness to oversee military intelligence, questions of religious bigotry aside. He describes taking photographs during a helicopter tour before leaving Mogadishu, Somalia, and then finding an unexplained black mark on the developed pictures, which he explains as a manifestation of evil. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your enemy," he tells the Good Shepherd audience. "It is not Osama bin Laden, it is the principalities of darkness. It is a spiritual enemy that will only be defeated if we come against them in the name of Jesus and pray for this nation and for our leaders." He also offers this take on Sept. 11: "Whether you realize it or not, I believe there were at least two more airplanes that were headed for major installations in this country. I believe that there was one headed for the White House, and there was one headed for the Capitol, but they were thwarted by the hand of God."
Gen. Boykin's comments have already become political fodder -- for those who push the belief that the United States is waging war on Islam, not on terrorism, and for those who would excuse other forms of religious intolerance. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, praising Mr. Mahathir's speech, said, "We hope that those who condemned Mahathir's speech lend more attention to the words of the American general . . . who demonstrated hostility toward Islam and Muslims."
But from the Bush administration, there has not been a syllable of criticism. Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that it didn't seem Gen. Boykin had violated any rules. "We're a free people," said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. On ABC's "This Week" Sunday, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice ducked the question -- twice. The president ought to be forthright about comments that are wrong and divisive -- whether they're uttered by a foreign leader or by one of his own generals."
[b]3. Remember when Bush bragged about bringing a humble approach to the world and restoring dignity, integrity and honour to the White House? ... Ha Ha Ha![/b]
"The liberal media is in a furor over remarks by Lt. Gen. William "Jerry Boykin," recently made undersecretary of defense for intelligence.
Over the past couple of years, Boykin, a self-described "born-again" Christian, has promoted "his" God over anybody else's "God" (particularly the Muslim God), said that George Bush was put in the White House to lead the global fight against Satan disguised as Islam, and gave God the credit for protecting him and his troops in a bloody battle in Somalia in 1993 known as "Black Hawk Down." That battle was, he said, a fight between "the principalities of darkness" led by him and his soldiers at God's direction.
I say keep Boykin, and keep him talking. Why? Because his comments are the unvarnished versions of the beliefs held by George Bush, Paul Wolfowitz, John Ashcroft, Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, and others in the administration who hold extremist religiopolitical views. For instance, Boykin's statement that the roots of his faith and "America's" faith is Judaism, and thus Islamic radicals will "hate us forever" is precisely the mindset of the leaders of this country, who for years have supported the terrorist state of Israel in its efforts to destroy Palestine.
The problem with this world view, this religious and political fanaticism, is that ordinary Americans don't hear enough of it. Save for the extreme religious right, this crusading, hate-everyone-but-white-C hristians-and Jews-like-me is not the attitude of most Americans, including most Republicans.
Remember how Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, those paragons of religious virtue, started calling for war against Islam right after September 11? And remember how the administration tried to distance itself from that? Why did the White House want to shut them up? Because they don't want Americans to know that this is precisely the Administration agenda. In fact, I would not be surprised if Falwell and Robertson had been "planted" to make those remarks as a concession to the religious right, with the understanding that in public the Administration would distance itself from them.
If you doubt that is what the Administration believes or has as its agenda start, start reading and otherwise paying attention. In the course of writing my upcoming book, "The Other War," it has become clear to me that the war against Islam began in earnest 10 or more years ago, and September 11 gave the government the excuse to go after Islamic charities and to target Arabs and Muslims for surveillance and prosecution. Read the transcript or view online ( http://www.pbs.org ) the excellent "Frontline" report on the prosecution of six young American-Yemeni men in Lackawanna, New York. Read the articles by Georgetown University Law Professor David Cole in "The Nation" or better yet, read his new book, "Enemy Aliens" (New Press, 2003).
The problem is precisely that the truth of the Administration's agenda in Iraq and the world is not getting out. The agenda is born of greed (corporate and oil interests), extreme politics (Zionism and American imperialism), and fundamental Christian dogma that calls itself the only "truth" and that has as one of its underlying tenets support for the "promised land" of Israel.
Hitler whispered his agenda at first, quietly crafting changes in the law and judicial system that would support his regime. By the time the world woke up, it was too late to stop him. There still may be time to stop Bush and his plot to change the world order through violence, fanaticism, and control of the critical infrastructure that holds the globe together (financial institutions, oil, water, and energy, for instance). But not if the truth does not get out.
Op-ed columnists all over the country are missing the point by warning off his rhetoric. He is "sending the wrong message," they say. It may be the wrong message, but it is the honest message from an administration that hides its mission in the false rhetoric of tolerance, "democracy," and humanitarianism.
Don't muzzle Boykin and don't demote him. The more we hear the truth, the better off we will be. And the sooner, perhaps, Americans will wake up and realize what their government has in mind for them-and the world."
Elaine Cassel practices law in Virginia and the District of Columbia, teachers law and psychology, and follows the Bush regime's dismantling of the Constitution at Civil Liberties Watch on http://babelogue.citypages.co...:8080/ecassel/ . She can be reached at: ecassel1@cox.net
The arrogant Bush Regime is going "hat-in-hand" to all of the countries that they treated abominably (who didn't support their illegal & immoral incursion into Iraq), to ask them to assist in cleaning-up their incompetent war-turned-bloody-guerril la-quagmire in Iraq. Bush's death toll mounts daily, and another US Soldier was killed this morning http://www.reuters.com/newsAr...;jsessionid=A3Y3D4W4OL5O4 CRBAEZSFFA?type=topNews&s toryID=3647836 , making the insane blood-letting 389 US (336) & British (53) Soldiers, 17 Journalists and between 7395 & 9198 innocent Iraqi civilians ... and thousands of injured and maimed.
As the Bushies are "on-tour" and asking others to risk life-and-limb and give cash to save their bloody fiasco in Iraq, these other nations are demonstrating that they are unwilling to be swindled, looted and plundered:-- as they have watched the heinous Bush Regime's rape of America and Iraq.
The Bushies' real motive (not WMDs) of grabbing for money and oil is a disgusting display that the entire world is shocked to behold. In "The new Great Game - The 'war on terror' is being used as an excuse to further US energy interests in the Caspian" on http://www.guardian.co.uk/com...,3604,1066570,00.html :
"The main spoils in today's Great Game are Caspian oil and gas. On its shores, and at the bottom of the Caspian Sea, lie the world's biggest untapped fossil fuel resources. Estimates range from 110 to 243bn barrels of crude, worth up to $4 trillion. According to the US department of energy, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan alone could sit on more than 130bn barrels, more than three times the US's reserves. Oil giants such as ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco and BP have already invested more than $30bn in new production facilities.
"I cannot think of a time when we have had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian," said Dick Cheney in a speech to oil industrialists in 1998. In May 2001, the US vice-president recommended in the national energy policy report that "the president makes energy security a priority of our trade and foreign policy", singling out the Caspian basin as a "rapidly growing new area of supply".
Worse is to come: disgusted with the US's cynical alliances with their corrupt and despotic rulers, the region's impoverished populaces increasingly embrace virulent anti-Americanism and militant Islam. As in Iraq, America's brazen energy imperialism in Central Asia jeopardises the few successes in the war on terror because the resentment it causes makes it ever easier for terrorist groups to recruit angry young men. It is all very well to pursue oil interests, but is it worth mortgaging our security to do so?" - [i]Excerpt[/i]
The Bush Regime have been forced to set-up new agency in order that the contributions made by donor countries are not stolen by the Bushies and their corrupt cronies (Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle Group, etc.). Tragically, the Americans have had over $166 billion embezzled thus far, by these corrupt war-profiteers and robber-barons, at $1 billion per week, and no end-in-sight. Other nations will not allow the same rampant and shameless rape of their own citizens by the Bushies to occur.
"Under pressure from potential donors, the Bush administration will allow a new agency to determine how to spend billions of dollars in reconstruction assistance for Iraq, administration and international aid officials say.
The new agency, to be independent of the American occupation, will be run by the World Bank and the United Nations. They are to announce the change at a donor conference in Madrid later this week.
The change effectively establishes some of the international control over Iraq that the United States opposed in the drafting of the United Nations Security Council resolution that passed on Thursday. That resolution referred to two previously established agencies devised to ensure that all aid would be monitored and audited.
But diplomats say other countries were unwilling to make donations because they saw the United States as an occupying power controlling Iraq's reconstruction and self-rule.
The new agency could open up that process and award contracts through bidding practices open to global companies. Donors could also give directly to Iraq, specifying that their own companies do the work.
Leading up to Madrid, Japan has committed itself to $5 billion over several years, including $1.5 billion in 2004 and possibly a few more billion dollars in subsequent years.
The European Union has committed $230 million and Canada about $200 million for 2004. The World Bank is contemplating loans of $500 million in each of the next two years. Rich Arab countries are also being wooed." - [i]Excerpt[/i]
Bushy-boy 43 is unable to get the support that Daddy-Bush 41 got for the Gulf War. Others will provide a relatively small percentage of the overall costs-- although they want to ensure these monies help the Iraqi people ... whereas, Bush's squandering of $166 billion through 2004 (Bushies will ask for MORE in 2004!), will largely profit his criminal campaign contributors and war-profiteers. Daddy-Bush got other countries to pay 88% of the Gulf War, and America paid $7 billion out of a total cost of $61 billion. [Refer to "Cost Comparison of Past American Wars with Bush's Guerrilla Quagmire" on http://www.tblog.com/template... ]
Meanwhile, the Bushies have run-up the largest deficit in our nation's history, at $560 billion and we have nothing to show for it ... but enriched, gluttonous robber-barons, while our infrastructure is crumbling and services needed by our citizens are being denied and slashed.
"We the People" are being asked to bear the heart-breaking massacre of our people and innocent civilians abroad, and the back-breaking burden of record-level deficits and debts to pay for the "Spend-and-Spend-on-Corpo rate-Welfare" for the richest-of-the-rich awarded massive tax cuts, tax loopholes, and boondoggles by the corrupt Bush Regime. Please contact your Congressmen on http://www.congress.org , and demand that this insane swindling of the American people be repealed today ... If the tax-cuts for the rich (over $500,000/annum) alone were over-turned, then the $87 billion could be recuperated. Instead, those struggling will be forced into slave-labour to pay-off the interests payments and debts incurred by this neo-fascist Bush Regime.
Why should the lower-income, middle-class and fixed-income retirees be obliged to bear all of the sacrifices? Isn't it time for the Bushies and their corrupt cronies, including the richest-of-the-rich and the powerful oligarchy in this country, to be called upon to make some sacrifices also?
How Dubya Likes Getting His News ... And Wants Us To Get Filtered Orwellian News, Too!
In "[b]1984[/b]" George Orwell brilliantly observes: "A Party member is required to have not only the right opinions, but the right instincts. Many of the beliefs and attitudes demanded of him are never plainly stated, and could not be stated without laying bare the contradictions inherent in Ingsoc. If he is a person naturally orthodox (in Newspeak, a [i]goodthinker[/i]), he will in all circumstances, know without taking thought, what is the true belief or the desirable emotion. But in any case, an elaborate mental training, undergone in childhood and grouping itself round the Newspeak words [i]crimestop[/i], [i]blackwhite[/i], and [i]double-think[/i], makes him unwilling and unable to think too deeply on any subject whatever." Orwell could have been describing the corrupt Bush Regime.
Bush is the most un-curious and ignorant president in the history of the U.S.A. He isn't interested in history, culture and the world around him. He told Brit Hume, that he doesn't read newspapers or watch TV news ... he gets everything he needs to know from his own neo-fascist liars and propagandists who "protect" him: Cheney, Rice, Rove & Card ... hmmm, how comforting?!@#%? Bush wants "good" news from his cronies, and wants the rest of us to get our news filtered orwellian-style, too!
An example of the dangerous consequences of Bush's foolhardy and woodenheaded incompetence is outlined in "[b]Structurally Unsound[/b]" by Leon Fuerth on http://www.washingtonpost.com... : "Each administration is organized in a manner that reflects not only the priorities of its president but also the president's operational style. In the case of President Bush, this appears to have been a contemporary business approach to management, one that involves flattening the power structure by placing a great deal of authority in the hands of those responsible for running major units.
The problem with this model is that the government of the United States is not a corporation. Its product is not military power in one package, diplomacy in another and economic power in yet another, but rather a single, integrated "system of systems" that collectively represent national security." - [i]Excerpt[/i]
"Thomas Jefferson, relentless in his defense of the First Amendment, was fed up with the attacks on his leadership when he served as the nation's third president.
But Jefferson is remembered for saying he "would rather have newspapers without government than government without newspapers."
Bush is missing a lot by getting the news filtered by his staff. If he read a newspaper every day he would be sharing an experience with most Americans. Otherwise, he's just out of the loop." - [i]Excerpt[/i]
"According to Michael Kinsley, George Bush is a president who prefers to deliver his news unfiltered by nasty media bias, but prefers to get his news heavily filtered by his posse of advisers. Bush claims, "The best way to get the news is from objective sources. And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world."
Kinsley writes, "He wants people to get the news filtered by George W. Bush. Or rather, he wants everyone to get the news filtered by the same people who apparently filter it for him. It's an interesting epistemological question how our president knows what he thinks he knows and why he thinks it is less distorted than what the rest of us know or think we know. Every president lives in a cocoon of advisers who filter reality for him, but it's stunning that this president actually seems to prefer getting his take on reality that way. "
The problem that the Mad King George and his corrupt regime must confront in 2004, is that many amongst the ranks of "We the People" do not accept our news "filtered" orwellian-style, by the Bushies and see past their lies, deceptions and falsehoods. The Bush Regime is a Miserable Failure.
US Casualties Mount in Worsening Struggle with Opponents of Bush's Insane Iraq War
US casualties are mounting daily, in a worsening struggle with opponents to the US occupation of Iraq. Bush's insane war-turned-bloody-guerril la-quagmire is not "going well", despite their neo-hitlerian propaganda tour, designed to mislead the American people yet again, and re-gain popularity for the corrupt Bush Regime.
Last night, more Americans were massacred in Bush's insane "pre-emptive" warfare in Iraq, bring his death toll to 388 US (335) & British (53) Soldiers, 17 Journalists and between 7395 & 9198 innocent Iraqi civilians. [Source: http://www.antiwar.com/ewens/... ]. Refer to "US troops under fire in Iraq - Two US soldiers have been killed and one injured in an ambush in northern Iraq, the US military has said" on http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/mi... .
Other nations are disgusted and disinclined to oppose the majority of their citizen's refusal to support sending their own men and women to die, in order to enrich Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle Group & other Bush Regime corporate war-profiteers and traitorous robber-barons. Even Turkey suggests it might reverse it's decision to send troops to Iraq. In "Turkey cools towards Iraq role - Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he may reverse a decision to send troops to Iraq if Iraqis continue to oppose the idea" on http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/mi... :
"Both Turkey and Iraq suffered a setback of their own on Saturday when a 600-mile (1,000 kilometre) oil pipeline running from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk began working successfully but then sprang a leak.
It had been subjected to weeks of sabotage acts."
Moreover, other nations are not offering more troops or cash to prop-up the sagging Bush Regime-- Refer to "Allies offer Bush few troops and little cash to ease Iraq burden" on http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ne... :
"The Bush administration has been forced to play down expectations for next week's crucial "donors' conference" in Madrid, when America will ask its friends to provide troops and money for Iraq.
Initial optimism in Washington following Thursday's United Nations vote to back coalition forces has all but evaporated as it becomes clear that the United States will continue to bear the military and financial burden."
"Shias fight back as resistance spreads - The oil briefly flowed again, but US casualties are mounting in a worsening struggle with Saddam supporters and opponents" on http://news.independent.co.uk... :
"The guerrilla attacks on US troops are not very intense - they average about 20 a day - but they are spreading. While clashes in Karbala were still going on, a US soldier was killed and two wounded by a roadside bomb just outside Baghdad, probably by fighters from the Sunni community which lost most from the fall of Saddam.
The mood in the so-called Sunni triangle, essentially four provinces north of the capital, is growing more hostile to the [U.S.A.] occupation."
All is not rosy in Iraq ... the Iraqis are not tickled-pink ... and the daily deaths, injuries and maimed continues unabated with no end-in-sight. As the morale of US Soldiers declines dramatically, the situation on-the-ground, is clearly deteriorating. The incompetence of the Bush Regime is embarrassingly obvious, as more reports surface of sound advice ignored by the self-proclaimed "geniuses (sic)"-turned-buffoons: Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell, Wolfowitz, Perle, et al., prior to launching their illegal & immoral incursion into Iraq. In "State Dept. Study Foresaw Trouble Now Plaguing Iraq" on http://www.nytimes.com/2003/1... :
"A yearlong State Department study predicted many of the problems that have plagued the American-led occupation of Iraq, according to internal State Department documents and interviews with administration and Congressional officials.
Beginning in April 2002, the State Department project assembled more than 200 Iraqi lawyers, engineers, business people and other experts into 17 working groups to study topics ranging from creating a new justice system to reorganizing the military to revamping the economy.
Several officials said that many of the findings in the $5 million study were ignored by Pentagon officials until recently, although the Pentagon said they took the findings into account. The work is now being relied on heavily as occupation forces struggle to impose stability in Iraq."
[b]Why would the Bush Regime ignore the advice of Middle-East and Military Experts? [/b] Because, this so-called "war" was waged primarily to re-create a new Middle-East in order to empower Israel (the only country in the region with nuclear weapons, in violation of the UN Resolution 687 http://www.ploughshares.ca/CO... [Source: "Double Standards - Israel's UN Violation" on http://www.poptel.org.uk/scgn... ]) and to enrich the Bushies' corrupt corporate criminals ... in accordance with their neo-fascist Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
"We the People" should demand that Congress be held accountable for the over-sight of the dangerously stupid Bushies' fiasco in Iraq ... Please contact Congress on http://www.congress.org , and demand that the tax cuts, tax loopholes & massive boondoggles for these criminals, robber-barons & war-profiteers be repealed. It's time for the spoiled, arrogant and corrupt Bushies to make a sacrifice, and not leave the rest of us to bear the consequences of their imbecilic and immoral decisions.
Bush Forces US Soldiers To Live in Squalor Without Proper Medical Attention
While the Bush Regime and their corrupt corporate robber-barons-turned-war- profiteers are very much enjoying their lavish war-booty, having swindled Americans out of $166 Billion and plundered Iraqi oil, businesses and resources-- our US Soldiers are dying, injured and maimed for life!
The Bushies are callous to the plight of those who have lost fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters, with Bush's Death Toll now over 386 US (333) & British (53) Soldiers, 17 Journalists, and between 7390 & 9193 innocent Iraqi civilians [Source: http://www.antiwar.com/ewens/... ]. Moreover, at least 1946 American GIs have been maimed, injured, and damaged -- And, as our people are asked to sacrifice their lives-and-limbs, none of the "arm-chair" chicken-hawks have done so ... they are not at risk-- their loved ones are not at risk-- and, of course, their pocket-books are not at risk, having been awarded obscene tax cuts, tax loopholes & boondoggles for the richest-of-the-rich, as the average American will be forced to pay-off Bush's record-level $560 Billion deficit including interest!
"Hundreds of sick and wounded U.S. soldiers including many who served in the Iraq war are languishing in hot cement barracks here while they wait -- sometimes for months -- to see doctors.
The National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers' living conditions are so substandard, and the medical care so poor, that many of them believe the Army is trying push them out with reduced benefits for their ailments. One document shown to UPI states that no more doctor appointments are available from Oct. 14 through Nov. 11 -- Veterans Day.
"I have loved the Army. I have served the Army faithfully and I have done everything the Army has asked me to do," said Sgt. 1st Class Willie Buckels, a truck master with the 296th Transportation Company. Buckels served in the Army Reserves for 27 years, including Operation Iraqi Freedom and the first Gulf War. "Now my whole idea about the U.S. Army has changed. I am treated like a third-class citizen."
Since getting back from Iraq in May, Buckels, 52, has been trying to get doctors to find out why he has intense pain in the side of his abdomen since doubling over in pain there.
After waiting since May for a diagnosis, Buckels has accepted 20 percent of his benefits for bad knees and is going home to his family in Mississippi. "They have not found out what my side is doing yet, but they are still trying," Buckels said.
One month after President Bush greeted soldiers at Fort Stewart -- home of the famed Third Infantry Division -- as heroes on their return from Iraq, approximately 600 sick or injured members of the Army Reserves and National Guard are warehoused in rows of spare, steamy and dark cement barracks in a sandy field, waiting for doctors to treat their wounds or illnesses.
The Reserve and National Guard soldiers are on what the Army calls "medical hold," while the Army decides how sick or disabled they are and what benefits -- if any -- they should get as a result.
Some of the soldiers said they have waited six hours a day for an appointment without seeing a doctor. Others described waiting weeks or months without getting a diagnosis or proper treatment.
The soldiers said professional active duty personnel are getting better treatment while troops who serve in the National Guard or Army Reserve are left to wallow in medical hold.
"It is not an Army of One. It is the Army of two -- Army and Reserves," said one soldier who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, during which she developed a serious heart condition and strange skin ailment.
A half-dozen calls by UPI seeking comment from Fort Stewart public affairs officials and U.S. Forces Command in Atlanta were not returned.
Soldiers here estimate that nearly 40 percent of the personnel now in medical hold were deployed to Iraq. Of those who went, many described clusters of strange ailments, like heart and lung problems, among previously healthy troops. They said the Army has tried to refuse them benefits, claiming the injuries and illnesses were due to a "pre-existing condition," prior to military service.
Most soldiers in medical hold at Fort Stewart stay in rows of rectangular, gray, single-story cinder block barracks without bathrooms or air conditioning. They are dark and sweltering in the southern Georgia heat and humidity. Around 60 soldiers cram in the bunk beds in each barrack.
Soldiers make their way by walking or using crutches through the sandy dirt to a communal bathroom, where they have propped office partitions between otherwise open toilets for privacy. A row of leaky sinks sits on an opposite wall. The latrine smells of urine and is full of bugs, because many windows have no screens. Showering is in a communal, cinder block room. Soldiers say they have to buy their own toilet paper.
They said the conditions are fine for training, but not for sick people.
"I think it is disgusting," said one Army Reserve member who went to Iraq and asked that his name not be used.
That soldier said that after being deployed in March he suffered a sudden onset of neurological symptoms in Baghdad that has gotten steadily worse. He shakes uncontrollably.
He said the Army has told him he has Parkinson's Disease and it was a pre-existing condition, but he thinks it was something in the anthrax shots the Army gave him.
"They say I have Parkinson's, but it is developing too rapidly," he said. "I did not have a problem until I got those shots."
First Sgt. Gerry Mosley crossed into Iraq from Kuwait on March 19 with the 296th Transportation Company, hauling fuel while under fire from the Iraqis as they traveled north alongside combat vehicles. Mosley said he was healthy before the war; he could run two miles in 17 minutes at 48 years old.
But he developed a series of symptoms: lung problems and shortness of breath; vertigo; migraines; and tinnitus. He also thinks the anthrax vaccine may have hurt him. Mosley also has a torn shoulder from an injury there.
Mosley says he has never been depressed before, but found himself looking at shotguns recently and thought about suicide.
Mosley is paying $300 a month to get better housing than the cinder block barracks. He has a notice from the base that appears to show that no more doctor appointments are available for reservists from Oct. 14 until Nov. 11. He said he has never been treated like this in his 30 years in the Army Reserves.
"Now, I would not go back to war for the Army," Mosley said.
Many soldiers in the hot barracks said regular Army soldiers get to see doctors, while National Guard and Army Reserve troops wait.
"The active duty guys that are coming in, they get treated first and they put us on hold," said another soldier who returned from Iraq six weeks ago with a serious back injury. He has gotten to see a doctor only two times since he got back, he said.
Another Army Reservist with the 149th Infantry Battalion said he has had real trouble seeing doctors about his crushed foot he suffered in Iraq. "There are not enough doctors. They are overcrowded and they can't perform the surgeries that have to be done," that soldier said. "Look at these mattresses. It hurts just to sit on them," he said, gesturing to the bunks. "There are people here who got back in April but did not get their surgeries until July. It is putting a lot on these families."
The Pentagon is reportedly drawing up plans to call up more reserves.
In an Oct. 9 speech to National Guard and reserve troops in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Bush said the soldiers had become part of the backbone of the military.
"Citizen-soldiers are serving in every front on the war on terror," Bush said. "And you're making your state and your country proud.""
Around the World, All Peoples Observe That Bush Talks "Democracy" While Acting Totalitarian
The Bush Regime are stupidly dangerous and while they [b]talk [/b]"democracy" their actions [b]shout[/b] totalitarianism. The entire world community including enlightened minds in the United States of America, are finally disheartened, disgusted and revolted by the arrogant Bushies' squalid behavior ... resulting in the massacre of thousands to enrich their corporate cronies, in accordance with their insane "Pre-emptive" (neo-hitlerian aggression) war doctrine according to Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
A few examples from today's' press around the world, expressing disgust with the Bush Regime, are worth reading:
"George W. Bush appeared before the American people to announce that he had ordered the invasion of Iraq. In a short speech, Bush declared that there was "no doubt" that Saddam Hussein possessed a storehouse of weapons of mass destruction that posed an imminent threat to the security of the United States and the world.
This was offered as a straightforward and unambiguous statement of fact, unqualified by any caveats. It was, of course, a blood libel, the culmination of an intensive propaganda campaign designed to whip up war fever in the populace with lurid images of Saddamite nukes mushrooming in Manhattan and robot spy drones spraying anthrax all over Boise, Idaho. Later, with the bloodletting underway, chief warlord Don Rumsfeld, bolstered this iron certainty about the existence of Iraq's fearsome weapons, announcing forthrightly: "We know where they are." He even pinpointed the location: "the area around Tikrit," Saddam's hometown. Again, there was no ambiguity, no doubts, no qualifications." - [i]Excerpt[/i]
"War in Iraq has swollen the ranks of al-Qaida and "galvanised its will" by increasing radical passions among Muslims, an authoritative think-tank said yesterday.
The warning, echoing earlier ones by MI5 and MI6, was made in the annual report of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance.
It said US claims after the invasion of Iraq that al-Qaida was on the run, and that the "war on terror" had turned the corner, were "over-confident". John Chipman, the institute's director, warned that the full effect of the war might never be known, because of the chaos it had left behind." - [i]Excerpt[/i]
"George Bush appeared set to win congressional approval for his $87bn (£52bn) Iraq package last night, including the controversial $20bn in reconstruction costs.
... polls showing that up to 60 per cent of voters oppose further spending on Iraq and a growing number of Democrats critical of the Bush administration's management of the post-war period." - [i]Excerpt[/i]
"The obvious price that Americans are paying for being a hyper-power, a global hegemony, a reborn Rome, is the daily loss of soldiers in Iraq and the $87 billion that Washington will spend there instead of at home on health care, education, roads and the rest.
There is another severe price that Americans are paying.
An ever-growing number of people around the world are giving up on America itself. They remain fascinated by and drawn to the American dream of affluence, freedom, and democracy. But the U.S. itself now disgusts them or frightens them — more so, in quite a few instances, than the suicide bombers.
As one measure of this rejectionism, a blue-chip panel of experts assembled by President George W. Bush to advise on ways to improve the U.S. image in the Muslim world has just reported back: "Hostility towards America has reached shocking levels" - [i]Excerpt[/i]
In [b]Australia Sydney Morning Herald[/b], "On their feet and applauding without a second thought, sadly" on http://smh.com.au/articles/20... :
"You'll see a lot of this in action next week when President George Bush swings through Canberra to address a joint sitting of Parliament. For the discussion focuses on just what kind of standing ovation he should receive when he does so. (No, really!)
One doesn't want to be churlish, but is it possible to ask just what this ovation will be for? His overall leadership on environmental issues perhaps? The stunning favours he has sent Australia's way? Or is it the magnificent way he has guided the so-called coalition of the willing in Iraq to the current outcome?
Please say it's not just organised sycophancy." - [i]Excerpt[/i]
In [b]Arab News[/b], "Drop the Saddam Chorus and Face Reality" on http://www.arabnews.com/?page...§ion=0&article=33694&d=16 &m=10&y=2003 :
"There is no question that Iraq is being infiltrated by some tough terrorist cookies. The trail of evidence leads that way. They are preying on the national and religious feelings of some local fanatics in Iraq. This is the direct result of American unilateralism, and the continued resistance of the US government to bring the UN into the equation. In spite of the new currency and the electricity that comes in power surges like American raids, the majority of Iraqis are beginning to see the Americans not as liberators but as occupiers.
You bring in the Turks, who are the most vicious of past occupiers of Iraq, and you compound the problem. Is it too humiliating for this American administration to listen to those who want to help? Any novice Arabist, let alone an Arab, would tell you that Arabs do not die for other men. They die for a tribe, a country, a religion, but never for a man no matter who or what he is. So drop the Saddam chorus and face reality in order to stop fresh blood from running unchecked." - [i]Excerpt [/i]
"There was a headline that grabbed me in The Times on Saturday. It said, "Cheney Lashes Out at Critics of Policy on Iraq."
"Wow," I thought, "that must have been an interesting encounter." Then I read the fine print. Mr. Cheney was speaking to 200 invited guests at the conservative Heritage Foundation [neo-fascist] and even they were not allowed to ask any questions. Great. Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein issue messages from their caves through Al Jazeera, and Mr. Cheney issues messages from his bunker through Fox. America is pushing democracy in Iraq, but our own leaders won't hold a real town hall meeting or a regular press conference." - [i]Excerpt[/i]
[b]This is the Bushies' Doctrine: No (Unscripted) Questions! No (Meaningful) Opposition! No Free (Unless You Agree) Speech![/b]
"We the People" are being lied to, on a daily basis, and it is vital that we use our voice to express our opposition to the Bush Regime's Crimes Against Humanity. Please contact your Congressman to express your opposition to approving $87 Billion supplemental request for Iraq, unless the tax-cuts for the rich are repealed; the tax-loopholes for corporate cronies are over-turned; and, the boondoggles for the corrupt war profiteers are stopped. You should also demand the resignations of the neo-con, neo-fascist "crazies" (Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell, Wolfowitz, Perle, Bolton, Feith, etc.) who are destroying our democracy. Contact Congress on-line at http://www.congress.org .
Why Bush Can't Find Osama bin Laden "Dead or Alive" As Promised ...
An ex-aide discloses that Colin Powell knowingly misled Americans and the entire world community during his squalid presentation to the UN in the run-up to the corrupt Bush Regime's illegal and immoral incursion into Iraq. Bush's Death Toll stands at 381 US (328) & British (53) and between 7378 & 9181 innocent Iraqi civilians. Bush has squandered over $79.5 Billion in Iraq thus far, at $4 Billion per week-- and a "rubber-stamp" Congress is about to award his obscene request of $87 Billion through 2004 (making the Grand-But-Not-Final-Total over $166 Billion), and no end in sight.
"We the People" must awaken from our fantasy and acknowledge that it wasn't the intelligence that was faulty and phony, but the corrupt Bushies who are faulty and phony. Now is the time for an investigation into the crimes against humanity, as well as the criminal act under the US Constitution of leading a nation to war based upon lies, deceptions and falsehoods. Contact Congress to demand an investigation into the Bush Regime's crimes on http://www.congress.org .
"(CBS) The person responsible for analyzing the Iraqi weapons threat for Colin Powell says the Secretary of State misinformed Americans during his speech at the U.N. last winter.
Greg Thielmann tells Correspondent Scott Pelley that at the time of Powell’s speech, Iraq didn’t pose an imminent threat to anyone – not even its own neighbors. “…I think my conclusion [about Powell’s speech] now is that it’s probably one of the low points in his long distinguished service to the nation,” says Thielmann.
Pelley’s report will be broadcast on 60 Minutes II, Wednesday, Oct. 15, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Thielmann also tells Pelley that he believes the decision to go to war was made first and then the intelligence was interpreted to fit that conclusion.
“…The main problem was that the senior administration officials have what I call faith-based intelligence,” says Thielmann. “They knew what they wanted the intelligence to show. They were really blind and deaf to any kind of countervailing information the intelligence community would produce. I would assign some blame to the intelligence community and most of the blame to the senior administration officials.”
Steve Allinson and a dozen other U.N. inspectors in Iraq also watched Powell’s speech. “Various people would laugh at various times [during Powell’s speech] because the information he was presenting was just, you know, didn't mean anything - had no meaning,” says Allinson.
Pelley asks, “When the Secretary finished the speech, you and the other inspectors turned to each other and said what?” Allinson responds, “’They have nothing.’”
Allinson gives Pelley several examples of why he believes Iraq didn’t have weapons of mass destruction. One time, he was sent to find decontamination vehicles that turned out to be fire trucks. Another time, a satellite spotted what they thought were trucks used for biological weapons.
“We were told we were going to the site to look for refrigerated trucks specifically linked to biological agents,” Allinson tells Pelley. “…We found seven or eight [trucks], I think, in total, and they had cobwebs in them. Some samples were taken and nothing was found.”"
The Insane Neo-Con "Crazies" Are At It Again: Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace?
The Bush Regime's neo-con "crazies" are at it again: it's unbelievable ... but this is what happens when a gang of Dr. Strangelovian thugs highjack elections in banana republican coups d'etat - exploit terrorism as an excuse to enrich their corporate cronies - and, wage illegal and immoral incursions into countries based upon a pack of lies, deceptions and falsehoods.
These neo-con "arm-chair" chicken-hawks label any nation that refuses to do their corporate pimp's bidding: an axis-of-evil ... and presto ... more war courtesy of cowards and goons: who never served (Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle) - were AWOL in drunken stupors (Bush) - and all of them stand to make hundreds of millions while neither they nor their loved ones risk life-and-limb. The Bush Regime's thugs should be frog-marched in handcuffs off to jail, instead of being allowed to wage more wars.
Recently they've grumbled and rumbled about Syria (Syria & Iran are next on their "hit list"). Following the 9/11 attacks, Ariel Sharon jumped for joy and was quoted as roaring that the USA will now attack our Arab neighbors. Shortly following the incursion into Iraq, Sharon bragged that Syria and Iran are "next-in-line". Apparently Bush isn't moving fast enough to massacre many more Arabs, so Sharon is going to prod-and-push the Bushies into more insane, bloody wars.
"We the People" must take a stand and say "Enough is Enough" -- I urge you to contact your Congressmen on http://www.congress.org , and demand that the neo-con criminals in the Bush Regime be fired today (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz & Perle) and that this insane warmongering to enrich the Bushies' war-profiteers (and satisfy Sharon's blood-lust in the bargain ... a double-whammy) be halted.
"Pentagon adviser Richard Perle said Tuesday that the recent Israeli attack on an alleged training camp for Palestinian militants in Syria was long overdue and that he would not rule out U.S. military action against the Arab state.
Perle, a close adviser to U.S. President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, spoke at a Jerusalem conference of conservatives from the United States and Israel.
"President Bush transformed the American approach to terrorism on Sept. 11, 2001, when he said he will not distinguish between terrorists and the states who harbor them," Perle said.
"I was happy to see that Israel has now taken a similar step in responding to acts of terror that originate in Lebanese territory by going to the rulers of Lebanon in Damascus."
Israel has said the training camp it targeted in an Oct. 5 airstrike was used by Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group that had carried out a suicide bombing in the Israeli port city of Haifa two days earlier, killing 20 people.
Israel has accused Syria of allowing Palestinian militant groups to train and operate from its territory. The Israeli air strike was the first attack on Syrian soil in three decades.
Perle said he hoped the air strike reflected a new Israeli policy similar to the Bush doctrine.
"We have problems with the Syrians who continue to support terrorism. We have to find a way to get them to stop," Perle later told The Associated Press.
Asked whether this would include possible U.S. military action against Syria, he said: "Everything's possible."
Perle said it would not be difficult to commit forces to Syria despite heavy U.S. troop commitments to Iraq and the Korean peninsula, along with a continued presence in areas such as the Balkans and Liberia.
"Syria is militarily very weak," he said.
Perle stepped down from his position as chair of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board this spring, following allegations that he had used his position with the Pentagon to further business deals in Singapore and the United States. He is still a member of the board.
Perle said that the Bush administration's "road map" to peace between Israel and the Palestinians by 2005 had failed, but that he supported the ideas Bush introduced in a speech on June 24, 2002.
In that speech, Bush outlined his vision for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and called for a change in Palestinian leadership."
Joshua Micah Marshall has a genius for finding these unbelievable dirty, little secrets lurking in the "bowels" of the corrupt Bush Regime, as he reports in TalkingPointsMemo on http://www.talkingpointsmemo.... (October 14, 2003, 05:26 PM):
[b]Okay, can I have five minutes of your time? [/b]
[i]You've gotta hear this.
If you click on this link you can hear a short segment from NPR's 'Marketplace' about one of the American businessmen, Tompie Hall, trying to get a piece of the Iraqi reconstruction action.
Bush & Cheney Inc., and their corporate robber-barons, swindlers and war-profiteers, aren't wasting any time in their rapacious theft of Iraq businesses, resources and people.
Anal-Retentive Cheney Drums-up Straw Men to Transform USA into Fascist State
Tragically, the anal-retentive Veep Cheney is running the USA (into the ground), as he drums-up straw men to transform the USA into a neo-fascist state, where the corporate oligarchy rule and the rest of us are turned into neo-slaves, with no rights ... no protections ... no freedom. Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress both acknowledge that Bushy-boy is being led ... not doing the leading!
The Bush Regime are inventing a new series of neo-hitlerian propaganda campaigns designed to propagate a vast array of lies and deceptions ... They have a miserable track-record for naming their corrupt & rapacious policies that harm the American middle-class and workers, the exact opposite of the effects of those same policies (e.g. "Leave No [RICH] Child Behind" is a failure resulting the slashing of funding for education-- and bolstering robber-barons' rape of the system and only permitting the children of the wealthy to be properly educated ... Even Saddam Hussein did better than that!) Read David Corn's interview with Working For Change on http://www.workingforchange.c... .
Thomas Jefferson said "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism" ... Not in the orwellian doctrine according to Bush's Three Stooges: Cheney, Rice & Rove, for whom dissent makes one "fair game" (as Joseph Wilson & his wife, Valerie Plame found-out when targeted for punishment by Herr Joseph Goebbles Rove http://www.tblog.com/template... ) ... Now, Cheney, one of "the crazies" (along with Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz, according to Pentagon officials) is planning a new series of spin campaigns using the hitlerian doctrine of telling the "Big Lies" that will fool the people all the better. Refer to "Cheney on Iraq puts White House to work on unmuddling [sic] message" on http://www.boston.com/news/na... : "... the sheer disorganization of the administration's response to postwar crises argues against this interpretation. What seems clear is that this administration, once admired for its discipline, is split into warring factions over Iraq. And the seasoned veteran [Cheney] put on the ticket to help Bush resolve these kinds of disputes is not a helper but a participant."
"We the People" can look forward to being told that The Earth Is Flat ... Iraq is Rosy ... 2 + 2 = 5 ... Iran has WMDs & We Must Conduct "Pre-emptive" Strike to "Liberate (sic)" Iranians ... The Sun Rises in the West and Sets in the East ... North Korea has WMDs & We Must Conduct "Pre-emptive" Strike to "Liberate (sic)" Koreans ... Iraq is Rosy and the Iraqis are Tickled-Pink ... etc. etc. etc. ... and Big Brother is Watching You!
"On October 10, Vice President Dick Cheney went before a favorite audience, the Heritage Foundation, to give his latest defense of the Iraq War.
Along with Heritage, Bush and Cheney have addressed the American Enterprise Institute, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the American Legion to plead their case before the friendliest crowds they could find.
Where are they going to speak next? The Halliburton annual board meeting?
Cheney, who more than any other Administration official, hyped the threat from Saddam Hussein, may not seem like the obvious choice now to say why the war was such a good idea, since not a single weapon of mass destruction has been found.
Cheney, August 26, 2002: "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."
This is the same Cheney who had to say on Meet the Press recently that he "misspoke" when, on March 16, he said the Administration believes Saddam had already "reconstituted nuclear weapons."
But there he was, apparently untroubled by his previous misstatements, offering up variations of the same old tired rationales for the Iraq War.
In reviewing the case about weapons of mass destruction, Cheney invoked David Kay's preliminary report. Conveniently, Cheney failed to acknowledge the chief disclosure of that report: no weapons found.
Instead, Cheney quoted Kay saying he had "discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities." That's a far cry from having the weapons themselves.
Cheney even mentioned "a line of unmanned aerial vehicles" that could go beyond their proscribed range. These UAVs have been shown to be of the most primitive kind, but for some reason, the Administration keeps citing them. (Colin Powell said, in his infamous U.N. speech, that such drones could reach the United States!)
Cheney also continued to harp on the alleged "grave danger" that Saddam posed if he passed along "deadly weapons to a terrorist network."
But even George Tenet of the CIA discounted that threat a year ago.
Then Cheney stated that Saddam "had an established relationship with Al Qaeda, providing training to Al Qaeda members in the areas of poisons, gases, making conventional weapons." But Cheney supplied no evidence to this effect.
Will he, months from now, concede that he "misspoke" again?
In the last part of his speech, Cheney tried to rebut three criticisms of Administration policy.
The first one was that the threat from Saddam was not imminent. Here, Cheney simply reiterated the Administration's doctrine of preemption. "Terrorist enemies of our country hope to strike us with the most lethal weapons known to man, and it would be reckless in the extreme to rule out action and save our worries until the day they strike."
Now, of course, no one is suggesting that any Administration wait "until the day they strike."
Countries have the right of self-defense, even a limited right of preemptive self-defense, if an attack is imminent.
But by taking imminence off the table, the Administration grants itself the right to attack just about any country it can label as a terrorist nation any time it wants to.
In the case of Iraq, by the way, Saddam did not have "the most lethal weapons known to man."
And in assessing threats, you have to consider not only the capacity a country has but also the likelihood it would attack.
Even the CIA concluded that Saddam was not likely to have initiated an attack on the United States because if he did, he would have been wiped out.
The second argument Cheney cited was this: "Critics of our national security policy have also argued that to confront a gathering threat is simply to stir up hostility."
Here, Cheney did not even address the heart of the criticism. All he said was that Saddam and Al Qaeda were already hostile to the United States, and by not confronting them, they would grow even more brazen. But the criticism really is not about those already hostile to the United States. The criticism is that U.S. unilateral action in the Muslim world actually creates new and more hostility toward the United States. And we are seeing this every day in Iraq right now and elsewhere in the Muslim world.
The final criticism Cheney tried to knock down was that of unilateralism, which Cheney defined as: "The United States, when its security is threatened, may not act without unanimous international consent."
This, too, is a straw man.
If the United States faces an imminent threat or if it is under attack, it has the right to self-defense.
Nor is unanimous international consent required in other circumstances. The United States could get its way if permanent members of the Security Council abstained on a resolution approving force, or if the Security Council agreed, by a narrow majority vote (with no vetoes), to go ahead with an intervention.
In a thinly veiled gesture to France, Cheney said, "the mere objection of even one foreign government would be sufficient to prevent us from acting."
But the "mere objection of even one foreign government"--namely, the United States--has kept the U.N. Security Council from acting many, many times, especially against lawless moves by the government of Israel. (See Bush's recent veto of a resolution condemning Israel's bombing of Syria.)
The integrity of the U.N. system depends on the superpower following the rules. But Cheney has no tolerance for that.
Multilateralism, he suggests, "is a prescription for perpetual disunity and obstructionism." It amounts, he said, "to a policy of doing exactly nothing."
He stated that "it would prevent our own country from acting with friends and allies, even in the most urgent circumstance."
Wrong again. If the circumstance is "most urgent," and is truly a matter of imminent preemption or self-defense, then the United States has the right to take action.
In any event, Iraq was nowhere near "the most urgent circumstance."
But for Cheney, that is no matter.
He continues to trot out discredited rationales, dubious evidence, and casuistic arguments to support the insupportable: Bush's reckless policy of unilateral preemption."
GOP Evil Bastards - 2004 Campaign Posters Courtesy of Karl (Bush's Brain) Rove?
[b]"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen ...
He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark mustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."[/b]
[b]- 1984, George Orwell[/b]
Will the Local Yokels be Bamboozled by the Bush Regime's Neo-Propaganda Tour?
Will the local yokels around the nation be bamboozled by the Bush regime's neo-propaganda tour, designed to push the reality of their daily slaughter, mayhem, chaos and growing anger "off the pages" ... and convince all of us dumb slobs that everything in Iraq is "rosy" and the Iraqi people are "tickled pink"?
"President Bush, annoyed by what he considers the "filter" of news reporting, will seek to go around the press on Monday through television outlets that do not routinely cover the White House.
Bush was giving a series of interviews to make the case that the situation in Iraq is getting better.
The appearances are part of a week-old administration initiative against critics of the war and its aftermath. It's included speeches by Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and even first lady Laura Bush.
The offensive comes as polls show Americans increasingly worried by Iraq policy."
Bush desperately needs to swindle an additional $87 Billion (making the insane cost of his insane "pre-emptive" war-turned-guerrilla-quag mire $166 Billion, thus far and no end in sight), in order to deliver upon his promises (nope, not to the Iraqi people) to Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle Group, Big Oil , and the other war-profiteers and corporate robber-barons.
Two more US Soldiers were slaughtered in the last 24 hours, http://www.reuters.com/newsAr...;jsessionid=A10TNSUNJBO10 CRBAELCFFA?type=topNews&s toryID=3603408 , making Bush's Death Toll over 376 US & British Soldiers, and between 7377 & 9180 innocent Iraqi civilians http://www.antiwar.com/ewens/... . The anger of the Iraqi people is increasing as every day passes, and they do not trust the Bush Regime's motives or competency. (Who does with a scintilla of brain-matter?) In "Inside the resistance - Popular anger is forging an alliance between diverse strands of Iraq's guerrilla movement" on http://www.guardian.co.uk/Ira...,2763,1061703,00.html :
"Given the growing number of Iraqis joining the resistance, there is a strong need for Washington and London to revise their military and political plans for post-conflict Iraq. The occupation forces are in a fragile position. If they strengthen their military presence in the face of increasing resistance, they will only alienate Iraqis yet further from their attempts to redraw the political future of Iraq - and the resistance will continue to spread. Unless there is an early withdrawal, the currently sporadic attacks in the Shia-dominated south can be expected to mushroom.
Britain and the US are currently setting the stage for a new phase of Iraqi resistance. Its members are learning fast from the experience of the region, and are already adopting new tactics. The latest of these is suicide bombing - a weapon which even the strongest counter-terrorism forces struggle to cope with. "
Meanwhile, another dishonest attempt to hood-wink, scam and con the American people is a bizarre "letter" fabricated by the Bushies' puppets, and sent-out in the name of US Soldiers to various local newspapers around the nation. In "Getting Past 'the Filter'" by Matt Bivens, in the Nation, on http://www.thenation.com/outr... :
"President George Bush has been complaining about "the filter" of national media, which garbles his feel-good all's-well-in-Iraq message by reporting on the car bombings, the killed-in-action Americans, the fleeing foreign aid workers, the internal White House investigations and recriminations, etc.
So this week, he and others in his Administration will be going around "the filter" to give interviews with local newspapers and small television stations. The idea is that journalists not used to dealing with Presidents and Cabinet secretaries will be more easily awed and deferential. In other words: We've reached the point in our Iraq adventure where the President de facto admits his policies can't stand up to even basic media scrutiny -- his only hope is to avoid questions, because he can't really answer them.
Meanwhile, another indication of what little respect the Bush Republicans have for small-town media -- and also, frankly, for soldiers from small-town America -- comes courtesy of the Gannett News Service, which reports: "Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers across the country ... And all the letters are the same."
"A Gannett News Service search found identical letters from different soldiers ... in 11 newspapers ... The [Washington] Olympian received two identical letters signed by different hometown soldiers ... [The letter] describes people waving at passing troops and children running up to shake their hands and say thank you. It's not clear who wrote the letter or organized sending it to soldiers' hometown papers. Six soldiers reached by GNS directly or through their families said they agreed with the letter's thrust. But none of the soldiers said he wrote it, and one said he didn't even sign it. " http://www.theolympian.com/ho...
* * *
The flip side of fake propaganda letters can be found in this essay by a man "recently taken, handcuffed, down into a subterranean interrogation room in the bowels of a police station and asked by a police investigator, 'When I look into your writings will I find anything subversive?' ""
...
"We the People" are witnessing a neo-con propaganda campaign flush with lies, deceptions, and corruption ... organized by Cheney, Rice and Karl (Bush's Brain & America's Joseph Goebbles) Rove http://www.tblog.com/template... .
The Mad King George seems to be persuaded by his three stooges (Cheney, Rice & Rove) that his corrupt Bush Regime can fool all of the people, all of the time. Sorry, methinks not! Refer to "If Bush Wants To Save Us From A Madman, Why Doesn't He Commit Himself To A Mental Institution?" on http://www.tblog.com/template... .
Bush & Cheney Global Corporate Empire Boondoggles ... War-Profiteering Abound ...
The Bush & Cheney Global Corporate Empire is their ghoulish business strategy and despicable plan to profit from their insane "pre-emptive" wars, in accordance with the neo-con's unconstitutional 'Project for the New American Century' (PNAC). [ Source: http://home.earthlink.net/~platter/neo-conservatism /pnac.html ]
In recent days, the Bushies' boondoggles abound, are creating new "opportunities (sic)" for their greedy corporate cronies & robber-barons turned war-profiteers abroad & economic rapists here at home. Unfortunately, the media and press are covering-up the gilded gold rush by Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle Group, Big Oil, and others ... [ Sources: http://www.alternet.org/story... , http://www.worldpolicy.org/pr... , http://www.newbridgestrategie... ] ... All at the expense of the American Worker!
Cheney's Halliburton has been awarded immoral (and possibly illegal) no-bid, no-audit, no-cap fat contracts charging American taxpayers over-bloated, exorbitant prices, in order to reap massive profits ... Bush & his Dad's Carlyle Group & Bechtel have been given massive Pentagon contracts with no oversight ... Rice's Big Oil are rubbing-their-hands-toget her in anticipation of their grab of Iraq's oil & refineries ... Bush's buddy Joe Allbaugh wasted no time to set-up his grab-of-Iraqi-businesses (New Bridge Strategies LLC) ... Ahmad Chalabi, a wanted embezzler & thief (Cheney-Rummy-Wolfy puppet), has awarded his nephew an investment firm in Iraq ... and, even now, these greedy-gusses aren't satisfied with the hundreds of millions they've swindled from Americans and Iraqis. They're going to steal and con us all out of as much as they can get away with!
"We the People" are witnessing a corrupt cronyism run amok, on an enormous scale, so outrageous, that it warrants an investigation by Congress. Please express your outrage on http://www.congress.org .
Cheney wastes no time in grabbing everything that he can get his grimy hands on (Who do you think will reap the profits to be had from exploiting Middle East resources and peoples?) In "US establishes Middle East Finance Corporation" on http://www.menareport.com/sto... :
"US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Elizabeth Cheney announced the establishment of the Middle East Finance Corporation, which will loan capital to small and medium sized business owners in the region as part of the larger Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI).
Cheney, speaking in Detroit on September 30, 2003, at the US-Arab Economic Forum, said said the Middle East Finance Corporation will be launched with $20 million for the current fiscal year and a planned funding increase to $30 million in 2004.
According to Cheney, the initiative was specifically "aimed at supporting micro-entrepreneurs." The small and medium sized business sectors targeted by the new MEPI initiative "have been the true engines for economic growth, and business leaders in those categories are the ones who are most likely to be able to generate the kind of job creation that is necessary," said Cheney.
During her address, Cheney outlined the four major areas targeted by MEPI -- political reform, economic reform, educational reform, and the empowerment of women. She said the specific needs and priorities of the program had been identified through the 2002 United Nations Arab Human Development Report.
Cheney said the encouragement of political change is not an effort to impose an American-style democracy on the region. However, findings outlined in the 2002 Arab Human Development Report and supported by the World Bank, have sent the message that Middle Eastern societies have to "open up," she said. — (menareport.com) "
Watch and see WHO are awarded the "loans" ... WHO are their "business partners" ... and, WHO profits?
Anal-Retentive Cheney Labels All Critics A Danger To America ... Watch Private Cheney Film ...
As the corrupt Bush Regime go "on the offensive" with a neo-hitlerian propaganda campaign to tell fairy tales about their bungled war-turned-guerrilla-quag mire in Iraq, the daily horror of death and destruction faced by our soldiers and innocent civilians continues unabated. [ "A Shi'ite warning to America" on http://www.atimes.com/atimes/... ]
Bush's Death Toll mounts daily, as Rumsfeld expresses his own surprise and "shock-and-awe", at the loss of 375 US (322) & British (53) Soldiers, 17 Journalists & between 7377 & 9180 innocent Iraqi civilians. [Source: http://www.antiwar.com/ewens/... ] However, the important priority of the massive gold rush funnelled to the war-profiteers: Halliburton, Bechtel, Big Oil & other robber-barons [ http://www.alternet.org/story... ], is what puts a big, fat shiny smile-turned-smirk of the faces of the blood-thirsty Bush war-mongers.
Rumsfeld is "shocked-and-awed", but not as much as the rest of us ... however, many of us are numbed by the horrific lies and crimes against humanity perpetrated by this neo-con, neo-fascist Bush Regime. In "Rumsfeld 'Surprised' by Saddam Loyalists" on http://story.news.yahoo.com/n... , Rummy says "I suppose on reflection the thing that probably surprised me the most is the ability that the so-called Fedayeen Saddam people had to terrorize and frighten the rest of the Iraqi people and cause them to not come over to the other side ..." ...
... Rumsfeld says "Oooooppppsss", to the thousands of American, British and Iraqi families who have lost their loved ones ... "Stuff happens!" ... Except that Middle-East Experts and US Military Experts all warned the arrogant Bushies' self-proclaimed "geniuses (sic)" that this carnage would happen before their not-so-genius "warfare" and non-existent "planning (sic)" ... Remind me again: When was the "Mission Accomplished?" and What was the "Mission Accomplished?" and How is the "Mission to be Accomplished?" ... Getting rid of a madman ... One mad Saddam against a cabal of neo-con madmen ... Saddam was far less dangerous to the USA and to the tens of thousands massacred in Iraq in Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL), than the neo-con "crazies" (as the Pentagon calls Cheney, Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz ... and the rest of the gang).
Meanwhile, the anal-retentive Veep Cheney is running around the country, speaking to the corrupt corporate robber-barons and richest-of-the-rich, awarded immoral (and possibly illegal) massive boondoggles, tax loopholes & tax cuts-- who would be thrilled to cheer Adolf Hitler himself, since they've plundered and looted America, and are living their neo-Belle-Epoque by swilling the blood of innocents, and from the misery of their neo-slaves, the American workers.
In "Cheney Goes on Offensive Over Iraq - Unyielding Speech Is Designed to Regain Support" on http://www.washingtonpost.com... , the meister-liar-extraordinai re, is vomitting the same tired-old screed, that has proved to be lies, lies and more lies... But then Karl (Bush's Brain & America's Joseph Goebbles) Rove, Rice & Cheney, conduct daily prayer sessions to that old hitlerian regime that gave them their gospel according to Goebbles: "If you tell a lie enough times, it becomes accepted as truth, and, the bigger the lie, the more likely it is to be accepted."-- This is the mantra that this group of thugs repeat in their crazy heads over-and-over again.
Cheney "portrayed those who objected to the president's "preemption" policy as opening the United States to attack." ... So if we don't genuflect in front of this corrupt cabal of neo-fascist rapists, we're "opening the United States to attack"? I don't think so, Herr Cheney! The Halliburton war-profiteer and war-monger, concluded by smirking "historians will look back on our time and pay tribute to our 43rd president ..." Only if John (Robespierre) Ashcroft sends all respectable historians to Gitmo and assassinates them ... Most respectable historians consider the Bush Gang the worst disaster to hit America in our nation's history, and this bloody fiasco in Iraq to be the most serious foreign policy blunder since the Vietnam War.
"We the People" must prepare ourselves for the neo-hitlerian propaganda campaign-turned-warfare about to be waged against us ... as "truth was the first victim of Bush's War". Bush will stumble, bumble through Rove's ramblings, that Bush doesn't even have the mental capacity to comprehend. Cheney will regurgitate the same tired-old lies, lies and more lies. Rice will stupidly imply that anyone who disagrees with her outright falsehoods and deceptions, is a racist for daring to even question "Mother Hen" to Bush.
We must wage a retaliatory War of Independence against the neo-Mad King George and his gang of neo-con con-artists. Begin today by demanding that Congress conduct an investigation into the crimes committed by the corrupt Bush Regime on : http://www.congress.org .
[b]Watch a private clip of Cheney & his Chickenhawks on [/b] : http://www.toostupidtobepresi... . [b]Be sure to watch for the Epilogue ...![/b]
Four Eminent Senators Ask Bush To Appoint Special Counsel in Justice Department Investigation
Bush promised that the White House would co-operate fully with the Department of Justice investigation into the leak by their own high-level officials (an act of treason and a felony), of an under-cover CIA operative's identity, jeopardizing her life and the lives of her contacts ... Moreover, the work she has undertaken to protect the United States from WMDs, is undone by the very hypocrites and liars in the Bush Regime-- who claim (dishonestly) to be protecting us against "terrorism". Instead the Bush Regime have put us in greater danger and jeopardy than ever before in our nation's history.
Please call-upon Congress to demand an Independent Special Counsel to take-over the investigation into this heinous crime, as it is clear, that the Bush Regime are acting in bad faith, on http://www.congress.org . Also sign the on-line petition on MoveOn, demanding that a proper investigation be conducted into the laws broken by the White House, on http://www.moveon.org/intimig... .
This great nation stands or falls, on the principle that no man is above the rule of law. The Bush Regime have held the rule of law in contempt, trampled over the US Constitution & Bill of Rights, and committed an act of treason. And yet, according to our U.S. Constitution, they are not Kings or Emperors. Even the Magna Carta established in 1215, that no King, no Lord, no citizen, no person is permitted to break the law with impunity.
Are we to allow the Mad King George and his corrupt regime to commit heinous criminal acts? "We the People" should not permit these corporate robber-barons to behave like imperial dictators and tyrants who trample on their citizens and the law.
The following is a letter sent by four eminent United States Senators to President Bush:
[i]Tom Daschle, Joseph R. Biden, Carl Levin and Charles E. Schumer are members of the United States Senate. [/i]
October 9, 2003
The President The White House Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
We write to express our continuing concerns regarding the manner in which your Administration is conducting the investigation into the apparently criminal leaking of a covert CIA operative's identity. You have personally pledged the White House's full cooperation in this investigation and you have stated your desire to see any culprits identified and prosecuted, but the Administration's actions are inconsistent with your words.
Already, just 14 days into this investigation, there have been at least five serious missteps.
First, although the Department of Justice commenced its investigation on Friday, September 26, the Justice Department did not ask the White House to order employees to preserve all relevant evidence until Monday, September 29. Every former prosecutor with whom we have spoken has said that the first step in such an investigation would be to ensure all potentially relevant evidence is preserved, yet the Justice Department waited four days before making a formal request for such documents.
Second, when the Justice Department finally asked the White House to order employees to preserve documents, White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales asked for permission to delay transmitting the order to preserve evidence until morning. That request for delay was granted. Again, every former prosecutor with whom we have spoken has said that such a delay is a significant departure from standard practice.
Third, instead of immediately seeking the preservation of evidence at the two other Executive Branch departments from which the leak might have originated, i.e., State and Defense, such a request was not made until Thursday, October 1. Perhaps even more troubling, the request to State and Defense Department employees to preserve evidence was telegraphed in advance not only by the request to White House employees earlier in the week, but also by the October 1st Wall Street Journal report that such a request was "forthcoming" from the Justice Department. It is, of course, extremely unusual to tip off potential witnesses in this manner that a preservation request is forthcoming.
Fourth, on October 7, White House spokesperson Scott McClellan stated that he had personally determined three White House officials, Karl Rove, Lewis Libby and Elliot Abrams, had not disclosed classified information. According to press reports, Mr. McClellan said, "I've spoken with each of them individually. They were not involved in leaking classified information, nor did they condone it." Clearly, a media spokesperson does not have the legal expertise to be questioning possible suspects or evaluating or reaching conclusions about the legality of their conduct. In addition, by making this statement, the White House has now put the Justice Department in the position of having to determine not only what happened, but also whether to contradict the publicly stated position of the White House.
Fifth, and perhaps most importantly, the investigation continues to be directly overseen by Attorney General Ashcroft who has well-documented conflicts of interest in any investigation of the White House. Mr. Ashcroft's personal relationship and political alliance with you, his close professional relationships with Karl Rove and Mr. Gonzales, and his seat on the National Security Council all tie him so tightly to this White House that the results may not be trusted by the American people. Even if the case is being handled in the first instance by professional career prosecutors, the integrity of the inquiry may be called into question if individuals with a vested interest in protecting the White House are still involved in any matter related to the investigation.
We are at risk of seeing this investigation so compromised that those responsible for this national security breach will never be identified and prosecuted. Public confidence in the integrity of this investigation would be substantially bolstered by the appointment of a special counsel. The criteria in the Justice Department regulations that created the authority to appoint a Special Counsel have been met in the current case. Namely, there is a criminal investigation that presents a conflict of interest for the Justice Department, and it would be in the public interest to appoint an outside special counsel to assume responsibility for the matter. In the meantime, we urge you to ask Attorney General Ashcroft to recuse himself from this investigation and do everything within your power to ensure the remainder of this investigation is conducted in a way that engenders public confidence.
Sincerely,
Tom Daschle Joseph R. Biden Carl Levin Charles E. Schumer
If Bush Wants To Save Us From A Madman, Why Doesn't He Commit Himself To A Mental Institution?
If Bush sincerely wants to save us from a madman, why doesn't he commit himself to a mental institution? After all, an objective analysis of his pathetic track-record, will lead most intelligent people of conscience to condemn Bush and his corrupt regime for falsehoods and deceptions, wanton and unjustifiable aggression, cronyism and war-profiteering, and sheer and utter incompetence.
Apparently the Bush regime are "on the offensive" with a new series of insane propaganda tours to convince the ignorant and corrupt, that all is going well in Iraq. Bush smirks "I acted because I was not about to leave the security of the American people in the hands of a madman," Mr Bush told National Guardsmen and reservists in New Hampshire. "I was not about to stand by and wait and trust in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein." [ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ne... ] Tragically, the American people are still in the hands of a madman, as the wrong regime was toppled.
Bush seems willfully (maybe he really is an ignoramus) ignorant of the fact that Saddam Hussein had no WMDs, no intention of attacking anyone, and presented no danger to the USA, our allies, or his neighbors. Since Bush doesn't read newspapers, he also is oblivious of the fact that since he and his corrupt regime are spouting glad tidings and all-is-rosy-in-Iraq, a car bomb killed 10 and injured 28 yesterday [ http://www.smh.com.au/article... ], and another ambush killed 2 more GIs and injured 4 more people today [ http://www.reuters.com/newsAr...;jsessionid=GEB0MUOBNZEME CRBAELCFEY?type=topNews&s toryID=3592404 ]. Cheney and Rice also spout unbelievable lies and falsehoods-- but then their credibility is already shredded and in tatters, having so cynically and viciously misled the American people, so often-- no one with a scintilla of brain-matter listens to them anyway.
Bush's Death Toll in Iraq stands at 375 US (322) & British (53) Soldiers, 17 Journalists, and between 7377 & 9180 innocent Iraqi civilians. [ http://www.antiwar.com/ewens/... ]
Bush probably is optimistic because (i) he doesn't give a damn how many die and are brutally injured & maimed, (ii) his corporate cronies are raking in massive war-profits from the blood of Americans, Brits & Iraqis, and, (iii) a corrupt "rubber-stamp" Republican Congress is defending and colluding in all of his crimes, including the slimy and despicable White House felony having exposed a CIA Agent in a cruel and petty act of revenge against her husband who committed the "terrible" act of telling the American people the truth. In the doctrine according to Bush, loyalty to the United States of America and the American people turns one into "fair game" ... only loyalty to Emperor Bush and his gang of traitorous thugs is permitted.
Nothing in the White House happens without the approval of Cheney, Rice & Rove-- and all three of these goons should be "frog-marched" to jail, today! Instead of appointing an Independent Special Counsel, the White House is not co-operating, but instead attempting to hide the evidence that would expose the three stooges (Cheney, Rice & Rove)-- but then Bush wouldn't be without his "Mother Hen", Rice who like a lap-dog never leaves his side (or his lap? Bush is terrified not to have his security dogs around) ... Bush would be lost without his 3 ghoulish mouth-pieces who lie for him & put lies into his fumbling mouth ... Poor Laura Bush.
The trifecta of "useful idiots" seem oblivious of the facts, or don't care, or are corrupt, and are allowing America and Iraq to be plundered and looted in the most criminal and brutish neo-con con in the history of this country:
1) American public are the "useful idiots" who watch the poverty rate increase to staggering levels with 3 million jobs destroyed by Bush, making the unemployment level rise to 9 million people. Bush has created the largest deficit of over $560 Billion in the history of the country, and is plundering social security, while giving his corporate cronies and rich greedy campaign contributors massive tax cuts, tax loopholes & boondoggles.
Meanwhile, our infrastructure and needs here at home are being ignored, and as the dollar shrinks, and fuel prices skyrocket, the disposable income of average workers is less and less ... Our children and grandchildren will be paying-off massive interest into the pockets of these rich robber-barons, since Bush has squandered of our hard-earned taxpayer dollars, reaching a debt of $6.8 Trillion, of which Bush's share is $1.9 Trillion. Bush spends for welfare-for-the-rich, turning the average American into a neo-slave.
The American people should demand that the profits of war-profiteers be confiscated; tax cuts & loopholes repealed; and, that competitive bids for Iraq contracts be open to world-wide competition overseen by the United Nations.
2) Media and press are the "useful idiots" who lap-up the corrupt Bush regime's propaganda verbatim, and vomit it back to us-- instead of doing their job, and probing the Bush goons. Insufficient warning of the dire consequences of pending economic disaster here at home, and the nightmare in Iraq, as well as our shattered relationships with our allies, is being reported to the public.
Instead, the media and press, fall-all-over-themselves, to make sure they obtain those White House dinner invitations (although why anyone would want to feed-at-the-trough with the Bush pigs is a mystery) ... and are either sycophants or intimidated cowards. No wonder the ignorant American public fails to comprehend the disastrous state-of-affairs here at home, and the nightmares and crimes against humanity abroad; perpetrated by the Bush Regime.
3) The cowardly and corrupt "rubber-stamp" Republican Congress, is a hypocritical group of "useful idiots", colluding with Bush, corporations and the rich-and-powerful, to destroy this country. Instead of standing up for basic principles (something they claimed they would do when Clinton was ousted), they are collaborators in a neo-con neo-fascist con-artist game of swindling American taxpayers today, and the Iraqi people tomorrow.
The additional $87 Billion Booty-for-Corporations, demanded by Bush, should have triggered calls for an investigation into the corruptions and deceptions by the Bush Regime. The total cost of this insane bloody guerrilla quagmire is $166 Billion through 2004, alone and no end in sight. In fact, the World Bank estimates that Iraq will require $55 Billion in reconstruction costs [ http://www.boston.com/dailyne...:.shtml ] ... consider that $20.3 Billion of Bush's Blood-money is allocated for reconstruction ... Bungling Bush will be coming back next year for another $87 Billion at minimum ... making the Swindle-of-America more than $253 Billion stolen from Americans.
Why hasn't Congress called for an investigation into the lies perpetrated by Bush, Cheney, Rice, Powell, Rumsfeld and goons ... that led us into this fiasco? At minimum, the resignations of the incompetent buffoons: Cheney, Rice, Powell, Rumsfeld, Bolton, Feith, Wolfowitz, should be attached as a mandatory requirement prior to any further funds (insane $87B) awarded to bail Bush out of his mess. If the American people were fully aware of the facts, the corrupt Republicans (and Democrats who collaborate) in Congress would be ousted in 2004, along with the criminal Bush Regime.
Meanwhile, Bolton and other neo-con arm-chair "chicken-hawks" are running around the world, dangerously threatening more wars with other countries. Now the insane Bushies want to invade Iran and North Korea! [ http://www.guardian.co.uk/ira...,12858,1060030,00.html and http://www.iht.com/articles/1... ] "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace" scam dreamt-up in the "bowels" of the neo-con's lust for their Global Corporate Empire.
How much insanity by the corrupt Bush cabal, to enrich Halliburton, Bechtel, Big Oil, and other robber-barons [ http://www.alternet.org/story... ] must we bear, before people of conscience say: "Enough is Enough"!
The Bush Regime wants to expand warfare because once the sleepy-headed American public awaken to the fact that they are being mercilessly raped economically, plundered and looted, then the Bush's "heads" will roll. Once the Iraqi people recognize that the Bushies and their robber-baron thieves-in-arms (Embezzler Chalabi & his nephew, Joe Allbaugh, etc.) are going to rape them also, the bloodshed will escalate even further.
"We the People" must declare our independence from the Mad King George and his regime of blood-thirsty thugs, before many, many, many more innocent people are massacred. Bush's killing fields and mass graves in Iraq are growing in size every day ... Bush's victims of his callous and rapacious policies to enrich the rich, and impoverish the rest of us, are growing in size every day ... Bush's lies, deceit and attack upon our freedoms, decency, integrity and honour are growing in size every day.
Attorney General John Ashcroft's Recent Visit To An Elementary School
Attorney General Ashcroft is visiting an elementary school. After the typical civics presentation, he announces, "All right, boys and girls, you can all ask me questions now."
A young boy named Bobby raises his hand and says, "I have 3 questions:
1. How did Bush win the election with fewer votes than Gore?
2. Why are you using the USA Patriot Act to limit Americans' civil liberties?
3. Why hasn't the U.S. caught Osama Bin Laden yet?"
Just then the bell sounds and all the kids run out to the playground. Fifteen minutes later, the kids come back in class and again.
Ashcroft says, "I'm sorry we were interrupted by the bell. Now, you can all ask me questions."
A young girl raises her hand and says, "I have 5 questions:
1. How did Bush win the election with fewer votes than Gore?
2. Why are you using the USA Patriot Act to limit Americans' civil liberties?
3. Why hasn't the U.S. caught Osama Bin Laden yet?
4. Why did the bell go off 20 minutes early?
5. Where's Bobby?"
...
"We the People" might pay a visit to Gitmo??? Maybe, Bobby is over there?!#$%&@&!?
[i]... Bush Regime Joke ...[/i]
Bush Uses Enron-Style Slight-of-Hand As Deficit Is Worse Than Reported & Dollar Shrinks
Bush is a liar and a warmonger ... he has swindled the American people out of billions of dollars to enrich his corrupt pimps, and waged an illegal & immoral incursion-turned-guerrill a-quagmire massacring thousands. Now, the corrupt Bush Regime "cooks-the-books" and fails to honestly report the horrific state of the US Economy that they have so viciously and ruthlessly plundered and looted.
The Bushies are staging a bizarre propaganda tour with "Chain-Gang" Cheney and "Egg-Fried" Rice running around the country, spewing their outright falsehoods and insane neo-con screed, in an attempt to drum-up support for their massive screw-up. Everything is "wonderful" in Iraq, the Bushies smirk, smirk, smirk, because none of these goons read the newspapers. Another bomb blast today in Baghdad ... In "10 dead as blast rocks Baghdad police station" on http://www.smh.com.au/article... : "A suicide car bomber hit a police station in north-east Baghdad today, killing 10 people including two people in the car. Captain Sean Kirley, of the 2nd Armoured Cavalry, said three policemen and five civilians were killed."
The Bushies' Death Toll now stands at 373 US (320) & British (53) Soldiers, 17 Journalists, and between 7377 & 9179 innocent Iraqi civilians. Of course, Bush, Cheney and Rice are thrilled, because their paymasters and pimps, Halliburton, Bechtel, and others (Read "Divvying up the Iraq Pie" by Stephen Pizzo on http://www.alternet.org/story... , for a list of the other war-profiteers), are plundering and looting the American and Iraqi people in the most heinous, traitorous and criminal manner possible. These war-profiteers are drinking the blood of innocents massacred abroad, and raping the taxpayers here at home.
Meanwhile, Bush has done something far "worse" than raise taxes (which is necessary in times of war-- or to create jobs-- or to provide services needed by the citizenry)-- Bush has destroyed over 3 Million jobs to create an unemployment level of 9 Million Americans. This corrupt Bush Regime has awarded massive tax-cuts, tax loopholes, and boondoggles, to the wealthiest and corporations. Moreover, the Bush Gang use Enron-style slight-of-hand (scam & con) to falsify their rape of America to the public. Bushy-boy and Kenny-boy (Enron) Lay are "birds of the same feather": blood-sucking vultures: The US deficit under Bush is at the highest level since before the Great Depression (1929)!!!
By destroying our economy and shrinking the dollar, the lower-income, middle-class, fixed-income-retirees, and those of modest means, effectively are worse off, than if taxes were raised, because their hard-earned tax-payer dollars are funnelled into interest payments on debt, that go to the rich ... their dollar shrinks so they are unable to purchase their food & pay their bills at the same price ... prices go up, their spending power diminishes along with their quality of life ... and, they have no services or programs to show for their loss of income. Bushies' cronies, however, got massive tax cuts and don't pay their fair share back into society.
"Last week the federal government ended the fiscal year with a reported deficit of approximately $400 billion, pushing the federal debt held by the public to nearly $4 trillion. Sobering though these numbers are, they actually understate the problem. Through an accounting sleight of hand with far greater consequences than the corporate scandals of recent years, the federal government distorts public debate, threatens social programs and impoverishes future generations.
What's missing from the $400 billion figure is an accurate recognition of the mounting obligations of the Social Security system. Under current practices, Social Security reports its financial performance on a cash-flow basis: it compares annual revenues to annual costs and reports a surplus or a deficit. Last year, Social Security enjoyed a surplus of roughly $160 billion. The government used this money to mask what would otherwise have been a $560 billion federal deficit."
The dollar has shrunk by over 6% in the last few months. "U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said the United States had not changed its long-standing strong dollar policy despite the greenback's slide in recent days. [Lies ... Lies ... Lies ...] Investors feared that if the dollar kept sliding against the single currency, the value of euro zone exports to the United States would shrink and thus dent earnings." http://sify.com/finance/livem...
"We the People" have been lied to about the economy, warfare, and the state-of-the-union. We have been swindled out of hundreds of billions of dollars. Instead of being used to improve the lives of our citizens, our hard-earned nation's treasure is being funnelled to the Bushies' corrupt corporate cronies and robber-barons.
Our men and women in the military are tragically being massacred, maimed and injured daily (1 death every 36 hours & over 40 hospitalizations per week) ... as well as the deaths and injuries of countless innocent Iraqi civilians ... and no end in sight.
The American Worker is being asked to bear the back-breaking burden of the exorbitant costs of tax-cuts for the rich, loopholes for corporations & boondoggles for robber-barons; as well as Bush's insane war ... The Average and Poor Americans also must bear the heart-wrenching burden of watching their loved ones die in a corrupt neo-con "corporate-take-all" war ...
Meanwhile, as the lives of average American citizens are increasingly burdened by death, deficits and debts, the Bushies and their hyper-rich, greedy cronies live the high-life in their imperial neo-Belle-Epoque.
The Bushies and their robber-baron rapists, make no sacrifice, no contribution-- they pay less taxes ... they profit from war ... their kids don't die ... in fact, they are richer than ever before from the misery and exploitation of the rest of us ... It is Outrageous!
It is time to dethrone the corrupt Bush Regime ... and declare our independence from the Mad King George. Please contact your Congressmen to request an investigation into the Crimes Against Humanity, as well as possible criminal activities related to the wanton rape of the American Taxpayer and false reporting, by the Bush Regime, on http://www.congress.org .
US GI Soldiers May Go AWOL ... What Could Bush Do? After All, Bush Went AWOL!
"Often a noble face hides filthy ways." - Euripides
"Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue." - Rochefoucauld
"The wicked work harder to preach hell than the righteous do to get to heaven." - American Proverb
What could Bush and his corrupt regime do if our soldiers in Iraq choose to go AWOL? After all, Bush went AWOL in VietNam -- no one from his Champagne Brigade Reserve Unit remembers him showing-up or appearing for mandatory meetings (although none of them were ever sent overseas) ... Instead, Bush was in a drunken-stupor, partying in Florida while his fellow GIs were dying in VietNam ... Bush is drunk on power in his chaotic, corrupt White House, while GIs are dying in Iraq.
"We the People" are about to watch another potential charade in hypocrisy by the Bush Regime (massive hypocrisy, crimes, deceptions .... so little time)-- What will they do if American GIs in Iraq Go AWOL? American GIs ought to simply say "I'm following our American Leader Bush-- He Went AWOL ... Why Not I?"
In "AWOL STATE OF MIND: CALLS FROM SOLDIERS DESPERATE TO LEAVE IRAQ FLOOD HOTLINE" by Leonard Greene, on http://www.nypost.com/news/na... :
"Morale among some war-weary GIs in Iraq is so low that a growing number of soldiers - including some now home on R&R - are researching the consequences of going AWOL, according to a leading support group.
The GI Rights Hotline, a national soldiers' support service, has logged a 75 percent increase in calls in the last 12 weeks, with more than 100 of those calls from soldiers, or people on their behalf, asking about the penalties associated with going AWOL - "absent without leave" - according to volunteers and staffers who man the service.
Many of the calls have come from soldiers who are among those now on the first wave of 15-day authorized leaves that began almost two weeks ago. Some hotline callers have indicated they may not return, staffers said.
"What would happen if I just don't go back" to Iraq, one soldier asked a worker at a GI support-line center.
"I'm going to shoot myself in the foot," said another, referring to his solution for getting home.
Some soldiers are so desperate that they have called directly from the war zone, contacting the hotline when they can get satellite-phone access or after waiting in line for hours in the desert for a military phone.
So worried is military brass about the prospect of desertion that many soldiers say they have been encouraged to take their leaves in Germany - a stopover - to avoid temptation stateside.
"The military is aware of how low troop morale is," said Teresa Panepinto, program coordinator of The GI Rights Hotline, a service that dates back to the Korean War. "They're concerned these people are going to come home and not go back."
Volunteers throughout the country take live calls and respond to messages left by soldiers who want to know their rights. One call base is in a small office in a building on Lafayette Street in the East Village.
Panepinto said monthly calls to the hotline have risen from 2,000 to 3,500 in the last three months.
She said many soldiers complained about the length of the Iraq campaign, the rough desert conditions and a U.S. death toll that has risen well above 300, including nearly 180 soldiers killed after President Bush's May 1 declaration that major combat operations in Iraq had ended.
Pentagon officials said they had no up-to-date numbers on soldiers who have gone AWOL since the Iraq campaign, but an affidavit that surfaced at a recent court martial for a soldier charged with desertion put the number at more than 50.
Most of those charged were reservists who were activated and did not report, said Steve Collier, a lawyer representing a soldier charged with desertion.
Penalties for going AWOL range from a bad-conduct discharge to a court martial and jail time.
Military officials maintain that morale remains high among soldiers, who are paid more in combat zones, and that authorized leaves are being granted as "an investment in readiness."
Maj. Pete Mitchell, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, said the military code of justice is a significant deterrent to unauthorized absences.
"There is a possibility that somebody would make that decision," Mitchell said. "We're going to extend good faith that people are going to make the right decisions here."
Like the GI Rights Hotline staffers, Manhattan resident Julie Garfield said she would never encourage her nephew, Aaron Garfield, to desert his posting as a reservist in Iraq.
But if he did, she would probably cry tears of joy, she said. Aaron, who has never indicated that going AWOL is an option for him, has been in Baghdad six months.
"If he went AWOL I wouldn't blame him," said his aunt, who has been the significant adult in his life.
"They ripped him away from his life and education. He spent nine months in Bosnia. It's enough already."
In recent e-mails, Aaron says soldier morale is low because reservists are forced to stay while active-duty troops are being allowed to leave, if only for two weeks.
"There is no morale here," he wrote his aunt. "The leadership just doesn't care about us. I don't want anything to do with this mess anymore."
Lt. Gen. James Helmly, chief of the 205,000-mem- ber Army Reserve, warned recently that there could be an exodus of active and reserve forces if the United States fails to get other countries to join the Iraq campaign.
José Alvarez, an Army corporal now on duty in Iraq, has told his wife he will not re-enlist when his obligation ends next year.
He's angry that when his wife, Wendy, suffered a miscarriage recently, his unit refused to grant him an emergency leave.
"I'm definitely getting out," he wrote his wife. "To heck with the Army."
"He hates it and he's not re-enlisting," said Wendy from her home on a military base at Fort Hood, Texas. "He basically has given up." "
Bush's Trickle-Down of Death in Iraq and Trickle-Up of Infighting in Inept White House
Bush is a miserable failure ... a college frat-boy turned cheer-leader ... AWOL drunkard who scrammed when it was his turn to do his duty ... failed businessman bailed out by his Daddy's cronies who were paid back many times over by swindling American taxpayers.
Today, "We the People" get to witness the phenomena of an inept and immoral Bush reaching his level of incompetence (The Peter Principle incarnate in Bush) ...
[b]Bush's Trickle-Down of Death in Iraq[/b]
Three more US Soldiers were massacred in Iraq on Monday, in this insane war-turned-guerrilla quagmire, bringing Bush's Death Toll to 372 US (319) & British (53) soldiers, 17 Journalists, and between 7377 & 9179 innocent Iraqi civilians.
Read "Three More US Soldiers Killed in Occupied Iraq", by Naseer Al-Nahr, Asharq Al-Awsat, on http://www.aljazeerah.info/Ne...%20archives/2003%20News%2 0archives/October/8n/Thre e%20More%20US%20Soldiers% 20Killed%20in%20Occupied% 20Iraq.htm : "Three US soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were killed and three other service members were wounded in roadside bombings in Iraq on Monday and the Turkish Parliament yesterday approved a Cabinet decision to send troops to the troubled country. ... The [Iraqi Governing Council] council is unanimous in issuing a communiqué against the sending of Turkish forces to Iraq,” said council member Mahmud Othman in Baghdad." Huh???
Trickle ... trickle ... trickle ... as the poor, innocent and vulnerable die, die, die every day in Iraq. Meanwhile, the Bush Gang's family and corporate cronies are safe-and-sound in the bosom of their families ... these goons aren't dying, aren't harmed, aren't risking anything:-- Au contraire: they're getting richer and richer, every day.
[b]Trickle-Up of Infighting in Inept White House [/b]
As the slaughter continues, Bush plays games & sets-up a so-called "new team" (with the same tired ole' hooligans) headed by the liar and incompetent "egg-fried" Rice, in their desperate attempt to gain control of their bloody mayhem and chaos created by their self-proclaimed geniuses (sic): Cheney, Rummy & Wolfy (who should all be in jail) ... but apparently, nobody told Rummy!
In "Rumsfeld 'not told' of postwar shake-up" by Peter Spiegel in Colorado Springs, on http://news.ft.com/servlet/Co... : "Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary, said on Tuesday he had not been told by President George W. Bush or the National Security Council that the White House was to restructure the handling of postwar Iraq before the media were briefed on the plan by NSC officials. ... He said he did not know why Ms Rice, Mr Bush's national security adviser, had felt it necessary to send a memorandum about the new organisation to cabinet officials or brief the New York Times about the move. ... "That's what the NSC's charter is," Mr Rumsfeld said. "The only thing unusual about it is the attention. I kind of wish they'd just release the memorandum."" Huh???
Trickle ... trickle ... trickle ... as the poor dumb bastards in their inept White House, apparently are too frightened to talk to each other directly (and are running around like "chickens-with-their-head s-cut-off" in a panic-stricken modus operandi)! Bush is too terrified of his own gang & is mindlessly parroting whatever Karl Rove tells him to smirk ... Cheney is sweating-out-the-WilsonGa te affair over the shredding machines ... Rice is sitting on Bush's lap, afraid of being out of his sight where she can bamboozle her "top dog", and avoid criticism ... It's a mess!
...
The Bush Regime and their pathetic buffoonery would be a laughable joke, if it weren't for the fact that so many lives are being destroyed by this neo-con cabal, as innocent Americans and Iraqis are being massacred, maimed & wounded, and raped economically.
Elite GOP House Republicans Want to Slash a Bit of Bush's Corrupt War-Profiteering
"We the People" should be somewhat optimistic that a few elite GOP House Republicans want to slash a little bit of Bush's corrupt war-profiteering: blood-money swindled from plundering & looting Americans and the Iraqi people to enrich Bush's despicable corporate cronies.
The cuts proposed by the House Repubs don't represent much -- Congress should confiscate all profits from the corrupt Bushies & their war-profiteers, as well as, slashing the inept and traitorous Bush Gang's "pay" to minimum wage (with no overtime), and with no safety nets ... but, read on ...
"Senior House Republicans proposed slicing $1.7 billion out of President Bush's $20.3 billion Iraqi reconstruction request yesterday, moving to eliminate such political hot potatoes as $50,000 garbage trucks, new Zip codes and telephone numbers, and the $100 million restoration of the drained marshes of southern Iraq.
The proposed cuts are contained in a new version of the president's $87 billion war and reconstruction request for Iraq and Afghanistan that House Appropriations Committee Republicans circulated yesterday. The committee will formally draft its version of the war request Thursday.
Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.), chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), chairman of its foreign operations subcommittee, asked their staff to work through the weekend, paring back Bush's request to make it more palatable to fiscal conservatives angered by what they saw as an overly generous rebuilding effort. Such anger has fueled a drive to convert much, if not all, of the reconstruction aid into loans, to be repaid with Iraqi oil revenue. Bush opposes the idea.
"Hopefully, this will relieve some of the pressure," an Appropriations Committee aide said yesterday.
Young's proposal would eliminate several of the items most derided by Democrats, including $9 million to establish Zip codes, $4 million to update Iraq's phone numbers, $10 million to upgrade the business practices of Iraq's television and radio industry, and $20 million for a month-long "catch-up" business course, at $10,000 a pupil. The Republican bill would cut $100 million designated to build seven new communities in Iraq, complete with 3,528 houses, as well as roads, three schools, a clinic, a place of worship and a market for each. Kolbe said such projects should be handled by international lending organizations such as the World Bank.
The request for $400 million to build two 4,000-bed maximum-security prisons at $50,000 a bed would be pared back to one medium-security prison for $100 million. The House bill would also eliminate the $150 million request to build a state-of-the-art children's hospital in Basra. Instead, appropriators would add $100 million to the $393 million requested to refurbish existing health care facilities. The bill would also eliminate a proposed $200 million American-Iraqi Enterprise Fund to promote private-sector development.
"I have scrubbed the president's request and made some improvements," Young said in a statement. "In the end I expect the Iraq [spending bill] will enjoy broad bipartisan support in my committee and by the full House of Representatives."
White House officials vowed to fight the proposed cuts.
"After extensive consultations with military commanders and the Coalition Provisional Authority, the president put forward the level of funding necessary to accomplish our goals and objectives," White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said.
Record budget deficits were not the force driving House GOP efforts, aides said. Indeed, the bill's total cost, $86.7 billion, is only $300 million less than the president's. Nearly reversing the savings are House plans to add $300 million for peacekeeping operations in Liberia, increased funding for embassy security, $400 million extra for military construction in Iraq, $400 million more in foreign assistance for Afghanistan and $413 million to clean up military facilities after Hurricane Isabel.
The proposed cuts, instead, underscore GOP unease with the size of Bush's spending plan in Iraq, especially as lawmakers are being told to tighten their spending belts at home.
Democrats have begun using the Bush war request against them on the campaign trail. Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), a presidential candidate, began running campaign ads in Iowa last night asking, "$87 billion for Iraq with no plan in sight, billion-dollar giveaways for the president's oil industry friends like Halliburton, and no help from the allies [Bush] shut out -- is this our America?" The Young-Kolbe cuts are not as deep as some Republicans expected. House aides said the administration lobbied hard to keep many items in, and Young obliged. The White House's $100 million witness-protection program survived, as did $10 million to fund 100 prison construction experts at $100,000 a head, and $100 million to hire 500 people to investigate crimes against humanity at $200,000 a contractor.
In a meeting last week with Kolbe and Rep. Nita M. Lowey (N.Y.), the ranking Democrat on the foreign operations subcommittee, Iraq Governing Council member Ahmed Chalabi conceded that Iraqis could be hired to do such tasks for as little as a tenth of the cost charged by Western consultants, according to three sources who were at the meeting.
All $5.7 billion requested for Iraq's electrical system, and $2.1 billion for oil industry investment and fuel purchases, also remain. The new bill also maintains money to establish multiple museums and memorials commemorating the atrocities of Saddam Hussein's government.
One Appropriations Committee aide warned, however, "There will be more [cuts] to come."
Senate Appropriations Committee members made no attempt to trim Bush's bill last month. Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) will not seek cuts now that the bill is on the Senate floor, a GOP aide said yesterday. The Senate reconvenes next week to complete action on the spending bill.
But, Republicans conceded, if the House approves cuts to Iraqi aid, many of them would be likely to survive House-Senate negotiations."
Is there any sense of decency amongst some of these Republicans, or are they simply covering their fat "backsides" from the revulsion Americans and Iraqis will ultimately show in 2004, when they realise they've been raped, plundered & looted by the obscene Bushies?
Watch & see ...
Answers please, Mr. Bush ... Seven Unanswered Questions
"We the People" have been kept in the dark, while the Bush Regime condemns nations (like Saddam Hussein's regime) who lack the transparency and accountability that are the life-blood of a free society.
In today's Guardian UK, Michael Moore poses seven unanswered questions for Mr. Bush:
"I have seven questions for you, Mr Bush. I ask them on behalf of the 3,000 who died that September day, and I ask them on behalf of the American people. We seek no revenge against you. We want only to know what happened, and what can be done to bring the murderers to justice, so we can prevent any future attacks on our citizens.
[b]1. Is it true that the Bin Ladens have had business relations with you and your family off and on for the past 25 years? [/b]
Most Americans might be surprised to learn that you and your father have known the Bin Ladens for a long time. What, exactly, is the extent of this relationship, Mr Bush? Are you close personal friends, or simply on-again, off-again business associates? Salem bin Laden - Osama's brother - first started coming to Texas in 1973 and later bought some land, built himself a house, and created Bin Laden Aviation at the San Antonio airfield.
The Bin Ladens are one of the wealthiest families in Saudi Arabia. Their huge construction firm virtually built the country, from the roads and power plants to the skyscrapers and government buildings. They built some of the airstrips America used in your dad's Gulf war. Billionaires many times over, they soon began investing in other ventures around the world, including the US. They have extensive business dealings with Citigroup, General Electric, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and the Fremont Group.
According to the New Yorker, the bin Laden family also owns a part of Microsoft and the airline and defence giant Boeing. They have donated $2m to your alma mater, Harvard University, and tens of thousands to the Middle East Policy Council, a think-tank headed by a former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Charles Freeman. In addition to the property they own in Texas, they also have real estate in Florida and Massachusetts. In short, they have their hands deep in our pants.
Unfortunately, as you know, Mr Bush, Salem bin Laden died in a plane crash in Texas in 1988. Salem's brothers - there are around 50 of them, including Osama - continued to run the family companies and investments.
After leaving office, your father became a highly paid consultant for a company known as the Carlyle Group - one of the nation's largest defence contractors. One of the investors in the Carlyle Group - to the tune of at least $2m - was none other than the Bin Laden family. Until 1994, you headed a company called CaterAir, which was owned by the Carlyle Group.
After September 11, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal both ran stories pointing out this connection. Your first response, Mr Bush, was to ignore it. Then your army of pundits went into spin control. They said, we can't paint these Bin Ladens with the same brush we use for Osama. They have disowned Osama! They have nothing to do with him! These are the good Bin Ladens.
And then the video footage came out. It showed a number of these "good" Bin Ladens - including Osama's mother, a sister and two brothers - with Osama at his son's wedding just six and a half months before September 11. It was no secret to the CIA that Osama bin Laden had access to his family fortune (his share is estimated to be at least $30m), and the Bin Ladens, as well as other Saudis, kept Osama and his group, al-Qaida, well funded.
You've gotten a free ride from the media, though they know everything I have just written to be the truth. They seem unwilling or afraid to ask you a simple question, Mr Bush: WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?
In case you don't understand just how bizarre the media's silence is regarding the Bush-Bin Laden connections, let me draw an analogy to how the press or Congress might have handled something like this if the same shoe had been on the Clinton foot. If, after the terrorist attack on the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, it had been revealed that President Bill Clinton and his family had financial dealings with Timothy McVeigh's family, what do you think your Republican party and the media would have done with that one?
Do you think at least a couple of questions might have been asked, such as, "What is that all about?" Be honest, you know the answer. They would have asked more than a couple of questions. They would have skinned Clinton alive and thrown what was left of his carcass in Guantanamo Bay.
[b]2. What is the 'special relationship' between the Bushes and the Saudi royal family?[/b]
Mr Bush, the Bin Ladens are not the only Saudis with whom you and your family have a close personal relationship. The entire royal family seems to be indebted to you - or is it the other way round?
The number one supplier of oil to the US is the nation of Saudi Arabia, possessor of the largest known reserves of oil in the world. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, it was really the Saudis next door who felt threatened, and it was your father, George Bush I, who came to their rescue. The Saudis have never forgotten this. Haifa, wife of Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the US, says that your mother and father "are like my mother and father. I know if ever I needed anything I could go to them".
A major chunk of the American economy is built on Saudi money. They have a trillion dollars invested in our stock market and another trillion dollars in our banks. If they chose suddenly to remove that money, our corporations and financial institutions would be sent into a tailspin, causing an economic crisis the likes of which has never been seen. Couple that with the fact that the 1.5m barrels of oil we need daily from the Saudis could also vanish on a mere royal whim, and we begin to see how not only you, but all of us, are dependent on the House of Saud. George, is this good for our national security, our homeland security? Who is it good for? You? Pops?
After meeting with the Saudi crown prince in April 2002, you happily told us that the two of you had "established a strong personal bond" and that you "spent a lot of time alone". Were you trying to reassure us? Or just flaunt your friendship with a group of rulers who rival the Taliban in their suppression of human rights? Why the double standard?
[b]3. Who attacked the US on September 11 - a guy on dialysis from a cave in Afghanistan, or your friend, Saudi Arabia? [/b]
I'm sorry, Mr Bush, but something doesn't make sense.
You got us all repeating by rote that it was Osama bin Laden who was responsible for the attack on the United States on September 11. Even I was doing it. But then I started hearing strange stories about Osama's kidneys. Suddenly, I don't know who or what to trust. How could a guy sitting in a cave in Afghanistan, hooked up to dialysis, have directed and overseen the actions of 19 terrorists for two years in the US then plotted so perfectly the hijacking of four planes and then guaranteed that three of them would end up precisely on their targets? How did he organise, communicate, control and supervise this kind of massive attack? With two cans and a string?
The headlines blared it the first day and they blare it the same way now two years later: "Terrorists Attack United States." Terrorists. I have wondered about this word for some time, so, George, let me ask you a question: if 15 of the 19 hijackers had been North Korean, rather than Saudi, and they had killed 3,000 people, do you think the headline the next day might have read, "NORTH KOREA ATTACKS UNITED STATES"? Of course it would. Or if it had been 15 Iranians or 15 Libyans or 15 Cubans, I think the conventional wisdom would have been, "IRAN [or LIBYA or CUBA] ATTACKS AMERICA!" Yet, when it comes to September 11, have you ever seen the headline, have you ever heard a newscaster, has one of your appointees ever uttered these words: "Saudi Arabia attacked the United States"?
Of course you haven't. And so the question must - must - be asked: why not? Why, when Congress released its own investigation into September 11, did you, Mr Bush, censor out 28 pages that deal with the Saudis' role in the attack?
I would like to throw out a possibility here: what if September 11 was not a "terrorist" attack but, rather, a military attack against the United States? George, apparently you were a pilot once - how hard is it to hit a five-storey building at more than 500 miles an hour? The Pentagon is only five stories high. At 500 miles an hour, had the pilots been off by just a hair, they'd have been in the river. You do not get this skilled at learning how to fly jumbo jets by being taught on a video game machine at some dipshit flight training school in Arizona. You learn to do this in the air force. Someone's air force.
The Saudi air force?
What if these weren't wacko terrorists, but military pilots who signed on to a suicide mission? What if they were doing this at the behest of either the Saudi government or certain disgruntled members of the Saudi royal family? The House of Saud, according to Robert Baer's book Sleeping With the Devil, is full of them. So, did certain factions within the Saudi royal family execute the attack on September 11? Were these pilots trained by the Saudis? Why are you so busy protecting the Saudis when you should be protecting us?
[b]4. Why did you allow a private Saudi jet to fly around the US in the days after September 11 and pick up members of the Bin Laden family and fly them out of the country without a proper investigation by the FBI? [/b]
Private jets, under the supervision of the Saudi government - and with your approval - were allowed to fly around the skies of America, when travelling by air was forbidden, and pick up 24 members of the Bin Laden family and take them first to a "secret assembly point in Texas". They then flew to Washington DC, and then on to Boston. Finally, on September 18, they were all flown to Paris, out of the reach of any US officials. They never went through any serious interrogation. This is mind-boggling. Might it have been possible that at least one of the 24 Bin Ladens would have possibly known something?
While thousands were stranded and could not fly, if you could prove you were a close relative of the biggest mass murderer in US history, you got a free trip to gay Paree!
Why, Mr Bush, was this allowed to happen?
[b]5. Why are you protecting the Second Amendment rights of potential terrorists? [/b]
Mr Bush, in the days after September 11, the FBI began running a check to see if any of the 186 "suspects" the feds had rounded up in the first five days after the attack had purchased any guns in the months leading up to September 11 (two of them had). When your attorney general, John Ashcroft, heard about this, he immediately shut down the search. He told the FBI that the background check files could not be used for such a search and these files were only to be used at the time of a purchase of a gun.
Mr Bush, you can't be serious! Is your administration really so gun nutty and so deep in the pocket of the National Rifle Association? I truly love how you have rounded up hundreds of people, grabbing them off the streets without notice, throwing them in prison cells, unable to contact lawyers or family, and then, for the most part, shipped them out of the country on mere immigration charges.
You can waive their Fourth Amendment protection from unlawful search and seizure, their Sixth Amendment rights to an open trial by a jury of their peers and the right to counsel, and their First Amendment rights to speak, assemble, dissent and practise their religion. You believe you have the right to just trash all these rights, but when it comes to the Second Amendment right to own an AK-47 - oh no! That right they can have - and you will defend their right to have it.
Who, Mr Bush, is really aiding the terrorists here?
[b]6. Were you aware that, while you were governor of Texas, the Taliban travelled to Texas to meet with your oil and gas company friends?[/b]
According to the BBC, the Taliban came to Texas while you were governor to meet with Unocal, the huge oil and energy giant, to discuss Unocal's desire to build a natural-gas pipeline running from Turkmenistan through Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and into Pakistan.
Mr Bush, what was this all about?
"Houston, we have a problem," apparently never crossed your mind, even though the Taliban were perhaps the most repressive fundamentalist regime on the planet. What role exactly did you play in the Unocal meetings with the Taliban?
According to various reports, representatives of your administration met with the Taliban or conveyed messages to them during the summer of 2001. What were those messages, Mr Bush? Were you discussing their offer to hand over Bin Laden? Were you threatening them with use of force? Were you talking to them about a pipeline?
[b]7. What exactly was that look on your face in the Florida classroom on the morning of September 11 when your chief of staff told you, 'America is under attack'? [/b]
On the morning of September 11, you took a jog on a golf course and then headed to Booker elementary school in Florida to read to little children. You arrived at the school after the first plane had hit the north tower in New York City. You entered the classroom around 9am and the second plane hit the south tower at 9.03am. Just a few minutes later, as you were sitting in front of the class of kids, your chief of staff, Andrew Card, entered the room and whispered in your ear. Card was apparently telling you about the second plane and about us being "under attack".
And it was at that very moment that your face went into a distant glaze, not quite a blank look, but one that seemed partially paralysed. No emotion was shown. And then ... you just sat there. You sat there for another seven minutes or so doing nothing.
George, what were you thinking? What did that look on your face mean?
Were you thinking you should have taken reports the CIA had given you the month before more seriously? You had been told al-Qaida was planning attacks in the United States and that planes would possibly be used.
Or were you just scared shitless?
Or maybe you were just thinking, "I did not want this job in the first place! This was supposed to be Jeb's job; he was the chosen one! Why me? Why me, daddy?"
Or ... maybe, just maybe, you were sitting there in that classroom chair thinking about your Saudi friends - both the royals and the Bin Ladens. People you knew all too well that might have been up to no good. Would questions be asked? Would suspicions arise? Would the Democrats have the guts to dig into your family's past with these people (no, don't worry, never a chance of that!)? Would the truth ever come out?"
[b]And while I'm at it ...[/b]
[b]Danger - multi-millionaires at large [/b]
I've always thought it was interesting that the mass murder of September 11 was allegedly committed by a multi-millionaire. We always say it was committed by a "terrorist" or by an "Islamic fundamentalist" or an "Arab", but we never define Osama by his rightful title: multi-millionaire. Why have we never read a headline saying, "3,000 Killed by multi-millionaire"? It would be a correct headline, would it not?
Osama bin Laden has assets totalling at least $30m; he is a multi-millionaire. So why isn't that the way we see this person, as a rich fuck who kills people? Why didn't that become the reason for profiling potential terrorists? Instead of rounding up suspicious Arabs, why don't we say, "Oh my God, a multi-millionaire killed 3,000 people! Round up the multi-millionaires! Throw them all in jail! No charges! No trials! Deport the millionaires!!
[b]Keeping America safe [/b]
The US Patriot Act and the enemy combatant designation are just a hint of what Bush has in store for us. Consider a brainchild of Admiral John Poindexter, an Iran-contra perp, and the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa): the "policy analysis market", which the government was to put up on a website.
Apparently, Poindexter reasoned that commodity futures markets worked so well for Bush's buddies at Enron that he could adapt it to predicting terrorism. Individuals would be able to invest in hypothetical futures contracts involving the likelihood of such events as "an assassination of Yasser Arafat" or "the overthrow of Jordan's King Abdullah II". Other futures would be available based on the economic health, civil stability and military involvement in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey. All oil-related countries.
The proposed market lasted about one day after it was revealed to the Senate. Senators Wyden and Dorgan protested the Pentagon's $8m request, and Wyden said, "Make-believe markets trading in possibilities that turn the stomach hardly seem like a sensible next step to take with taxpayers money in the war on terror." As a result of the uproar over this, Poindexter was asked to step down.
[b]Giving Saddam the key to Detroit [/b]
In Las Vegas, an armoured fighting vehicle was used to crush French yogurt, French bread, bottles of French wine, Perrier, Grey Goose vodka, photos of Chirac, a guide to Paris and, best of all, photocopies of the French flag. France was the perfect country to pick on. If you're a cable news company, why spend priceless reporting time on investigating whether Iraq really does have weapons of mass destruction when you can do a story about how rotten the French are?
Fox News led the charge of pinning Chirac to Saddam Hussein, showing old footage of the two men together. It didn't matter that the meeting had taken place in the 1970s. The media didn't bother to run (over and over again) the footage from when Saddam was presented with a key to the city of Detroit, or the film from the early 1980s of Donald Rumsfeld visiting Saddam in Baghdad to discuss the progress of the Iran-Iraq war. The footage of Rumsfeld embracing Saddam apparently wasn't worth running on a continuous loop. Or even once. OK, maybe once. On Oprah. "
Good Questions, Mr. Moore!
Rush Limbaugh Like Most Druggies Talks Nonsense ... Maybe He Should Stop Popping The Pills ...
Rush Limbaugh, the bombastic blow-hard, is finally learning what most druggies find out-- The nonsense they vomit is often due to their pathetic drug abuse ... Perhaps Rush should stop popping his illegal cache of pills ...
Some of Limbaugh's ugly hate-speech includes:
'Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.' - Limbaugh speaking to a black caller on his show.
'When you strip it all away, Jerry Garcia destroyed his life on drugs. And yet he's being honoured like some godlike figure. Our priorities are out of whack.' - On the late Grateful Dead singer/guitarist.
'Have you ever noticed how all pictures of composite criminals resemble Jessie Jackson?' - On one of his fiercest critics.
'Ted Kennedy, whose liver is said to be shaped like a Chivas Regal bottle... ' - On the head of America's most famous liberal family.
'I am appalled at people who... look at all this abhorrent behaviour and say, "People are going to do drugs anyway - let's legalise it." Those who are for it are 100 percent selfish.' - On legalising drugs.
"We the People" have long been appalled by Limbaugh's corrupt lies, hate-filled venom, vicious rhetoric, and idiotic cliches, spouted by this neo-con con-artist; in the pockets of the most vile "corporate-take-all" rapists that swindle, plunder & loot this nation. Although, the 1st amendment gives Rush the "right" to vomit his screed ... as the right-wingers said about the Dixie Chicks-- we have a right to reject 'em ... That's the "free market" babe!
Read "Champion of the US Right faces drug allegations - Rush Limbaugh bought thousands of pills, says maid" by Lawrence Donegan on http://observer.guardian.co.u...,6903,1056126,00.html :
"For once Rush Limbaugh, the US's most popular radio talkshow host and the voice of America's neo-conservative political movement, had nothing to say on the story captivating the political salons of Washington DC: allegations that he is addicted to prescription drugs and bought thousands of pills on the black market.
'I haven't got to the bottom of this yet,' he told his 20 million listeners after the claims of his drug abuse emerged last week. 'I don't want to deal with hypotheticals or respond to what's in the press.'
But if Limbaugh uncharacteristically restrained himself, others haven't been so reticent, among them the radio host's long-time friend and political soulmate, President George W. Bush, who reportedly told aides yesterday: 'Rush is a great American. I am confident he can overcome any obstacles he faces right now.'
The President's support came as police in Florida, where the multimillionaire talkshow host lives, confirmed he was being investigated over claims he illegally procured the prescription drugs hydro-codone and OxyContin through his former housemaid, Wilma Cline. She has told police she supplied the drugs to Limbaugh over a four-year period from 1998.
OxyContin is derived from opium and is one of the most powerful pain-killers available. It is known on the streets in America as Hillbilly Heroin because of its popularity among drug addicts in the poorer areas of the American south.
Cline gave detectives a ledger detailing her alleged drug purchases on behalf of Limbaugh - including 4,350 pills in one six-week period - and a thick sheaf of emails allegedly sent to her by her former employer in which he asks her to supply him with the drugs. She claims to have bought a total of 11,900 pills for him: 'There were times when I was worried... all these pills are enough to kill an elephant, never mind a man.'
Her story first emerged in the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer but quickly spread to the mainstream media, where it was seized on by Limbaugh's liberal critics, not just as evidence of his rank hypocrisy but also as a harbinger of his eventual demise.
The talkshow host has long been viewed as one of the most influential political voices in America. Over the past 15 years he has risen from obscure local radio personality to the most listened-to radio presenter in the US.
His show, broadcast daily on 600 stations across America, consists mainly of an endless stream of invective aimed at liberal politicians such as Bill and Hillary Clinton - he led the charge for impeaching the former President over the Lewinsky scandal - and at so-called 'liberal' values that have supposedly undermined the American way of life.
Among his many complaints down the years was the alleged failure of liberal politicians to crack down on the drug problem. 'There's nothing good about drug use. Drug use destroys societies. Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up,' he once told his listeners.
Al Franken, author of the bestselling exposé of right-wing bias in the US media, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, and a long-time critic of Limbaugh, said yesterday he felt sympathy for anyone who suffered a drug addiction but conceded many on the political Left would be happy to see him arrested if the allegations held up.
'I'll be switching television channels to get it from every angle,' he said. 'My favourite part is when they push their heads to get them down into the police car.'
The drug allegations could not have come at a worse time for Limbaugh, who was already embroiled in a row over remarks he made about a black athlete - NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb - while making one of his regular appearances on a television sports show.
He claimed that the highly rated McNabb was a mediocre player who received favourable treatment in the media simply because he was black - a comment that sparked accusations of racism from NFL players, sports journalists and politicians alike.
Limbaugh has a long history of making incendiary comments on the subject of race, but they were usually aired within the confines of his show, where the right-wing audience was unlikely to be offended. However, he caused huge offence among viewers of Sunday NFL Countdown on the ESPN sports TV network, which, ironically, had hired the armchair NFL enthusiast to inject some 'controversy' into the show.
The Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark described Limbaugh's remarks as 'hateful and ignorant' and called on him to be sacked from his TV job, but Limbaugh quit before ESPN could take any action.
Despite his resignation, Limbaugh remained defiant, claiming he had been the victim of a witch hunt. 'I meant everything I said. So throw me in jail. So fire me... if that's what it takes to stand up for free speech, fine,' he said.
His army of devoted listeners have come to expect such belligerence and the race row is unlikely to dent his popularity. But media experts are agreed the allegations pose a much more serious threat to his status as the lodestar of right-wing American politics. Robert Thomson, director of Syracuse University's Centre for the Study of Popular Television, said: 'His whole thing has been about getting to the truth,' he said. '[Now] he is doing some of the things he has made a career exposing others for doing.' "
Hey, Republicans! Had Enough? ... A Letter to Average GOPers ...
"We the People" have had enough ... United States Soldiers facing the prospect of death (or maiming) daily in an unnecessary bloody guerrilla quagmire have had enough ... The Iraqi People have had enough ... The entire world community have had enough ... Many patriots including Independents, Democrats and Republicans alike have had enough, too!
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aide of their country, and declare our independence from the Mad King George. Perhaps you should send the following letter to your favorite Congressmen/women on http://www.congress.org .
"Hey, Republicans! Had Enough?" (Let's Not Forget Our Democratic Colleagues, either) by Allen Snyder, an instructor of Philosophy and Ethics at Pellissippi State Technical Community College, on http://www.opednews.com/1003S... :
"Dear Average GOPers:
It’s been a few months since my last letter and I just want to know one thing.
Have you had enough?
Enough of the lies, the mendacity, the hypocrisy, the fear and the paranoia; the cowardice, the cons, the irrationality, and the arrogance; the bombast, the bullying, the violence, the killing, the distrust, the secrecy, and the hatred?
Enough of thinly-veiled GOP power grabs, the shameless politicizing and exploitation of 9/11, the reconstruction deals for the well-connected Halliburton and Bechtel (sweet!), the Elite Aviator action figure (gag!), Showtime’s Presidential fiction film, regular buffoonery and condescension at the UN, the incredibly belated ‘honesty’ (forced by Dick-head Cheney’s rehashing old lies), the treasonous outing of covert agents, and the behind-closed-doors Patriot Act ‘conferences’ Herr Ashcroft is holding?
Enough of ‘environmentally friendly’ initiatives that pollute the air, decimate the forests, trash the waterways, endanger species, melt glaciers, blow more holes in the ozone, eliminate rules and restrictions, deregulate industry, and encourage prairie-dog-like oil drilling and mining anywhere there’s a drop of crude or speck of coal dust?
Enough of their media minions poisoning the airwaves with vitriol passing for reasoned opinion or logical argument, Judith Miller’s bogus New York Times stories, their fundamentalist zeal and conscience-less war cheerleading, their intimidating the competition into goose-stepping ever farther to the right, the racist and homophobic hate rants from Republican party leaders, and their palpable ignorance of everything involving even a minimum of international cooperation, diplomatic tact, or compromise?
Enough of Bradleys, Humvees, WMD, RPG, CENTCOM, MRE, friendly fire, embeds, Private Lynch, armchair analysts, neo-cons, chickenhawks, FOX, the WSJ editorial page, the orchestrated hysteria, color-coded terrorist alerts that stay yellow no matter what happens, PNAC, ‘surgical’ air strikes, suicide bombers, the bribes-for-troops program, North Korean nukes and new American nuke-lettes?
Enough of the casualties - the dead, maimed, and crippled; the mocked-up corpses and war crimes committed in your name; the orphans, childless, brother-less, and spouse-less; the emotionally scarred, psychologically traumatized, and morally shaken; extended tours of duty, unilateral military action, pumping testosterone, quagmires, ‘bring ‘em on’ terrorist taunting, shifting rationales, and the whole ridiculous notion of pre-emptive warfare?
Enough of bankrupt states, hemorrhaging budgets, cuts in basic services, ballooning deficits, rising unemployment, tuition hikes, tax cuts for rich folks, hundreds of billions in military expenditures, trickle-down economics that have never worked, leaving lots and lots of children behind, the buck-passing, the finger-pointing, corporate welfare, gutted social programs, free-speech zones, judge-less subpoenas, warrant-less searches, overturned sentences, tracked e-mails, library books, and websites, the acquiescence of Congress, a tainted and corrupt Supreme Court, the wholesale defection of responsible journalism, dumbed-down info-tainment, over-hyped news, and sexed-up dossiers?
Enough of Rice, Rove, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Powell (yes, even him), Perle, Card, Bugman DeLay, Dick-head Santorum, Bill Frist, Bill Kristol, Bill O’Reilly, Rush, Arnold, Joe Lieberman (he’s on my side, right?), the Western White House, Sunday talk show saturation lying, puff-ball interviews, Bush’s ‘aw-shucks’ folksy down-home act, his butchering of the English language, orchestrated recalls, punch-card ballots, Gallup polls, disenfranchised voters, stolen elections, Governor Brothers, and Tony Blair?
Enough of the ceaseless irony, the lack of humor, the thoughtlessness, the faux conservatism, the faux-er compassion, the machismo and misogyny, the whiffs of fascism, the censorship, the conflicts of interest, the contemptible war profiteering, the open scorn for the Rule of Law, the bait-and-switch, and their complete lack of sacrifice?
We have BushCo and its paranoid delusions of global grandeur to thank for just about all of it.
Again, I ask you.
Had enough?
Yeah, me too.
Al Snyder"
Is It True That Ignorant People Make The Best Bush Supporters? Perhaps, But ...
"Ignorance is the curse of God, Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to Heaven." - Shakespeare (Henry IV)
Is it true that ignorant people make the best Bush supporters? Perhaps, but we must also include the greedy & ghoulish corporate robber-barons, corrupt & callous richest-of-the-rich, and, neo-con attack-dogs & court-jesters, for whom the Bush Regime's pandering to their "need" for an extravagantly lavish life-style (on the back of a society to which they make little or no contribution... they take - they don't give), has been a boon. The gap between the richest "top dogs" & "fat cats", and the rest of us, including the skyrocketing poverty level, is the highest and most devastating since before the Great Depression (1929).
"We the People" have only one way-forward to ensure that our laws, rights and protections as part of a just society are not decimated by the corrupt Bush cabal: Knowledge ... "Knowledge is Power" ... and we should stand up and demand that this insane gang be restrained from arrogant deceptions; war-mongering; raping Americans & Iraqis to enrich their cronies; betraying their oaths of offices; and, finally Bush should be held accountable for his regime's Crimes Against Humanity.
Read an astounding account of how Americans are being deceived by a neo-orwellian media that panders to this corporate-take-all regime, in "We report, you get it wrong" by Jim Lobe on http://www.atimes.com/atimes/... :
"WASHINGTON - The more commercial television news you watch, the more wrong you are likely to be about key elements of the Iraq War and its aftermath, according to a major new study released in Washington on Thursday.
And the more you watch the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News channel, in particular, the more likely it is that your perceptions about the war are wrong, adds the report by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA).
Based on several nationwide surveys it conducted with California-based Knowledge Networks since June, as well as the results of other polls, PIPA found that 48 percent of the public believe US troops found evidence of close pre-war links between Iraq and the al-Qaeda terrorist group; 22 percent thought troops found weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq; and 25 percent believed that world public opinion favored Washington's going to war with Iraq. All three are misperceptions.
The report, Misperceptions, the Media and the Iraq War, also found that the more misperceptions held by the respondent, the more likely it was that s/he both supported the war and depended on commercial television for news about it.
The study is likely to stoke a growing public and professional debate over why mainstream news media - especially the broadcast media - were not more skeptical about the Bush administration's pre-war claims, particularly regarding Saddam Hussein's WMD stockpiles and ties with al-Qaeda.
"This is a dangerously revealing study," said Marvin Kalb, a former television correspondent and a senior fellow of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
While Kalb said he had some reservations about the specificity of the questions directed at the respondents, he noted that, "People who have had a strong belief that there is an unholy alliance between politics and the press now have more evidence." Fox, in particular, has been accused of pursuing a chauvinistic agenda in its news coverage despite its motto, "We report, you decide".
Overall, according to PIPA, 60 percent of the people surveyed held at least one of the three misperceptions through September. Thirty percent of respondents had none of those misperceptions.
Surprisingly, the percentage of people holding the misperceptions rose slightly over the last three months. In July, for example, polls found that 45 percent of the public believed US forces had found "clear evidence in Iraq that Hussein was working closely with al-Qaeda". In September, 49 percent believed that.
Likewise, those who believed troops had found WMD in Iraq jumped from 21 percent in July to 24 percent in September. One in five respondents said they believed that Iraq had actually used chemical or biological weapons during the war.
In determining what factors could create the misperceptions, PIPA considered a number of variables in the data.
It found a high correlation between respondents with the most misperceptions and their support for the decision to go to war. Only 23 percent of those who held none of the three misperceptions supported the war, while 53 percent who held one misperception did so. Of those who believe that both WMDs and evidence of al-Qaeda ties have been found in Iraq and that world opinion backed the United States, a whopping 86 percent said they supported war.
More specifically, among those who believed that Washington had found clear evidence of close ties between Hussein and al-Qaeda, two-thirds held the view that going to war was the best thing to do. Only 29 percent felt that way among those who did not believe that such evidence had been found.
Another factor that correlated closely with misperceptions about the war was party affiliation, with Republicans substantially "more likely" to hold misperceptions than Democrats. But support for Bush himself as expressed by whether or not the respondent said s/he intended to vote for him in 2004 appeared to be an even more critical factor.
The average frequency of misperceptions among respondents who planned to vote for Bush was 45 percent, while among those who plan to vote for a hypothetical Democrat candidate, the frequency averaged only 17 percent.
Asked "Has the US found clear evidence Saddam Hussein was working closely with al-Qaeda"? 68 percent of Bush supporters replied affirmatively. By contrast, two of every three Democrat-backers said no.
But news sources also accounted for major differences in misperceptions, according to PIPA, which asked more than 3,300 respondents since May where they "tended to get most of [their] news''. Eighty percent identified broadcast media, while 19 percent cited print media.
Among those who said broadcast media, 30 percent said two or more networks; 18 percent, Fox News; 16 percent, CNN; 24 percent, the three big networks - NBC (14 percent), ABC (11 percent), CBS (9 percent); and three percent, the two public networks, National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
For each of the three misperceptions, the study found enormous differences between the viewers of Fox, who held the most misperceptions, and NPR/PBS, who held the fewest by far.
Eighty percent of Fox viewers were found to hold at least one misperception, compared to 23 percent of NPR/PBS consumers. All the other media fell in between.
CBS ranked right behind Fox with a 71 percent score, while CNN and NBC tied as the best-performing commercial broadcast audience at 55 percent. Forty-seven percent of print media readers held at least one misperception.
As to the number of misconceptions held by their audiences, Fox far outscored all of its rivals. A whopping 45 percent of its viewers believed all three misperceptions, while the other commercial networks scored between 12 percent and 16 percent. Only nine percent of readers believed all three, while only four percent of the NPR/PBS audience did.
PIPA found that political affiliation and news source also compound one another. Thus, 78 percent of Bush supporters who watch Fox News said they thought the United States had found evidence of a direct link to al-Qaeda, while 50 percent of Bush supporters who rely on NPR/PBS thought so.
Conversely, 48 percent of Fox viewers who said they would support a Democrat believed that such evidence had been found. But none of the Democrat-backers who relied on NPR/PBS believed it.
The study also debunked the notion that misperceptions were due mainly to the lack of exposure to news.
Among Bush supporters, those who said they follow the news "very closely", were found more likely to hold misperceptions. Those Bush supporters, on the other hand, who say they follow the news "somewhat closely" or "not closely at all" held fewer misperceptions.
Conversely, those Democratic supporters who said they did not follow the news very closely were found to be twice as likely to hold misperceptions as those who said they did, according to PIPA. "
GOP Elite Already Starting to Fish-Around for Alternative to Liability Bush
The elite establishment in the GOP is already (secretly) starting to fish-around for an alternative to their growing liability Bush, in the event that the disastrous state-of-affairs in their sordid White House worsens:
* No Osama bin Forgotten "dead or alive" as promised ...
* No Saddam Hussein, still "alive-and-kicking" ...
* No WMDs (Bush demands for another $600 Million for David Kay to "find" them, in addition to the $300 Million Kay has already spent searching ... Hmmm ... Hans Blix had 100-200 inspectors & 6 months, compared with David Kay who had 1200 inspectors & 4 months, and now wants more people and 6-9 additional months!) ... Weasel words by the Bush Gang who justified the war in Iraq on the basis of "WMDs posing an imminent threat" that they're now dishonestly spinning to replace with "programs" ...
* US Economy in the gutter with 3 Million jobs destroyed by Bush policies and 9 Million out of work ...
* 45 Million Americans with no health care coverage ...
* Skyrocketing debts over $500 Billion making Bush's entire deficit spending for his term in office over $1.9 Trillion ...
* War-turned-guerrilla-quag mire in Iraq where General Sanchez admits 3-6 US Soldiers die (1 every 36 hours) and 40 are wounded, each week ... and no end in sight ... to-date 366 US & British soldiers and over 9000 innocent Iraqis have been massacred ...
* Bush demands an additional $87 Billion for war-mongering & to enrich corporate cronies (over the $79 Billion+ squandered to-date at $4 Billion/Month), making this an extravagantly costly war at $166 Billion (and no end in sight-- this is only the current projections through 2004!) ...
* Tax cuts for the richest among us, as well as loopholes & boondoggles for Bush's corporate cronies and campaign contributors ... while the American poverty rises, our infrastructure is crumbling, and programs to help those in need are eliminated (sounds like Bush/Rice criticism of Saddam Hussein's Regime) ...
* War-profiteering (considered treason by FDR & Truman) with despicable blood-money plundered and looted by Bush/Cheney corporate paymasters including Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle Group, Big Oil ... and new rapist-neo-con-rip-off-ar tist companies by Joe Allbaugh (Bush's buddy) and Ahmad Chalabi's nephew (Cheney/Rummy/Wolfy buddy) ...
* Scandal rocks the Bush Gang, as a vengeful, petty, mean-spirited and stupidly vicious illegal act of outing a CIA Agent to pay-back a man who exposed the truth about phony lies told by Bush, Cheney, Rice, etc, is bizarrely handed over to John (Robespierre) Ashcroft, long-time Karl (Bush's Brain) Rove buddy ...
Read "White House facing revolt within GOP" by Robert Kuttner on http://www.boston.com/news/gl... : "Until recently Republican control of Congress in the 2004 election was seen as a sure thing. Now, however, it looks as though both chambers are up for grabs, especially if Bush's own reelection is in jeopardy. Congressmen and senators are keen detectors of shifts in voter sentiment since their own survival depends on it. Bush's reversal of fortune is occurring on multiple fronts."
In the most recent New York Times/CBS News Poll ( http://www.nytimes.com/2003/1... ), the results demonstrate that the American public is becoming increasing dissatisfied with the Bush Regime ... They are losing confidence:
1. Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as President?
Approve 51% Disapprove 42% No Comment 7%
But this trend represents a continual drop in ratings ...
2. Do you feel that things in this country are generally going in the right direction or do you feel things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track?
Right Direction 37% Wrong Direction 56% No Comment 7%
3. What do you think is the most important problem facing this country?
The economy and jobs ranked highest (after Other) and more important, twice as often cited as the war and terrorism.
4. Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling foreign policy?
Approve 44% Disapprove 45% No Comment 11%
5. Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the situation with Iraq?
Approve 47% Disapprove 48% No Comment 6%
6. How about the economy? Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the economy?
Approve 37% Disapprove 56% No Comment 7%
Most Americans do not support the insane "pre-emptive" doctrine used by Bush (immorally and illegally) to launch a neo-hitlerian incursion into Iraq ...
Asked: Which comes closer to your opinion about what the United States policy should be after the war in Iraq? The United States should not attack another country unless the U.S. is attacked first, OR the U.S. should be able to attack any country it thinks might attack the U.S.?
U.S. Should Not Attack 55% U.S. Should Attack 35% No Comment 11%
Sorry, Cheney and Wolfowitz ... and other neo-con PNAC groupies ... the insane "Pre-emptive" Corporate Global Empire isn't what the American people want! Indeed, 61% of Americans also do not believe we should interfere in other countries and topple their dictators.
The GOP Republican "top dogs" and "fat cats" aren't stupid (even if they are greedy robber-barons) ... they are already watching a fiasco at home and a nightmare abroad, and wondering who might be able to "save the day" if the Bush Regime implodes ... Read "Has Bush Become a Threat to the Ruling Elite? Who Got Us Into This Mess and Why?" by Saul Landau on http://www.counterpunch.com/l... .
Corporations and the rich, who were obscenely awarded lavish tax cuts, gifts, loopholes and boondoggles, are "paying back" the Bushies (for the moment) -- the wealthiest have never had it so good, while they've taken working Americans (and soon Iraqis) to the proverbial "cleaners"! However, if Americans wake-up and turn against Bush enmasse, these ruthless robber-barons won't think twice about dropping Bush like a "hot rock" and placing their bets on another ruthless swindler.
In "Poll Shows Drop in Confidence on Bush Skill in Handling Crises" on http://story.news.yahoo.com/n... , Todd S. Purdum and Janet Elder report:
"Nearly 9 in 10 Americans say the war in Iraq is still going on [countering Bush's "Mission Accomplished" buffoonery], and 6 in 10 say the United States should not spend as much on the effort as Mr. Bush has sought. Three-quarters of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, say the administration has yet to clearly explain how long American troops will have to stay in Iraq, or how much it will cost to rebuild the country."
"Mary Preble, 46, a registered nurse and a Republican in Sugar Land, Tex., said: "I don't feel George W. Bush has a grasp on what the public is really interested in." She added: "I wasn't happy about the invasion in Iraq. We shouldn't have attacked before anything was proven. There seem to be no nuclear weapons.
"Right now he is trying to rally everyone around to the cause and give money to rebuild Iraq. But why should other countries kick in cash when he didn't wait until the U.N. said we're behind you? The other countries don't believe he has the leadership skills he should have." "
Well said ... Tragically for America and the world, Bush doesn't have the leadership skills he should have ... and the enormous costs in blood and treasure squandered by this arrogant, corrupt Bush Regime are criminal.
"We the People" (including grass-roots Republicans, as opposed to the corporate robber-barons; Democrats; Green Party & Independents alike) will continue to declare our independence from the Mad King George until he is toppled on 2nd November 2004.
Images of a Nation Under Siege - A Week in the Life of Baghdad & the Horror of Bush's War
The Bush Regime has dishonestly been propagandizing that all is "rosy" in Iraq, and the Iraqi people are "tickled-pink"-- with the motive to ram-through an intimidated and "rubber-stamp" Congress, their obscene $87 Billion swindle and rape of the American taxpayer, to pour into the big-pockets of their greedy corporate cronies, using Iraq as the "funnel", also to be plundered and looted of their oil, once Bush's cronies (Joe Allbaugh & Ahmad Chalabi) get-in-on-the-act!
The costs of the Iraq war-turned-guerrilla-quag mire currently exceeds $77 Billion thus far, at $4 Billion/Month-- making Bush's War Cost over $166 Billion! http://www.costofwar.com/ . Meanwhile, the dire needs of Americans (Bush destroyed 3 Million jobs ... over 9 Million unemployed ... 45 Million lack health care insurance ... American poverty rate skyrockets under Emperor Bush's rule!), are being callously ignored by a corrupt and incompetent Bush Regime.
Moreover, 365-366 American & British soldiers have tragically lost their lives (1 American killed every 36 hours), and 17 Journalists, as well as, between 7355 and 9155 innocent Iraqi civilians have been slaughtered ... all in the "name" of "democracy" (actually it's to enrich Bush's "crazies", war-profiteers, & the insane PNAC Global Corporate Empire)! Thousands of Americans and Iraqis are injured, maimed and scarred for life! [ http://www.antiwar.com/ewens/... ]
In AlterNet ( http://www.alternet.org ), a "War on Iraq News Log", is updated frequently, and is well-worth reading. In "Images of a nation under siege", they cite:
"Anita Roddick's website [ http://www.anitaroddick.com/i... ] has posted a series of moving photographs taken by Scott Fleming, a civil rights activist, who is in Iraq along with a team of journalists. Taken mostly in August, they reveal the grim reality of life under the U.S. occupation."
Please contact Congress on http://www.congress.org , and urge them to withhold Bush's request for $87 Billion until: (i) U.N. is brought in to oversee the hand-over to a newly formed Iraq Provisional Government, (ii) immoral (possibly illegal) Bush tax-cuts, loopholes and boondoggles for the rich are repealed; and, (iii) reconstruction contracts are decided by the Iraq government, with U.N. oversight, and that war-profits obtained by corrupt Bush cronies are confiscated.
The corrupt Bush Regime and their insane "arm-chair" chicken-hawks, forget that real human beings, with lives, dreams and aspirations, are dying every day in Iraq. While the Bush Gang are safe and sound in the bosom of armed-guards, and well-fed & well-rested in lavish palaces-- the misery and suffering outside of their "rose-colored", ivory-tower world is horrendous.
Perhaps, the Bushies' patently dishonest "rosy-colored" rhetoric is simply a consequence of falsehoods inextricably tainted by the inerasable oceans of blood spilt by their insane war-mongering.
Bush Regime's Leak of CIA Agent's Identity is to Intimidate Sources from Revealing Bush's Lies
The real scandal behind the scandal involving the White House leak of ex-Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame's identity as an undercover CIA operative, is the Bush Regime's design to intimidate sources from revealing the plethora of Bush's lies.
Ex-Ambassador Joseph Wilson committed the unpardonable sin of telling the truth: Niger uranium yellow-cake sales to Iraq, was a bold-faced lie regurgitated over-and-over by the Bush cabal, including Bush, Cheney and Rice ... They knowingly inserted the bogus lie into Bush's 2003 State of the Union address in order to scare and intimidate people into supporting an illegal and immoral incursion into Iraq. Wilson disclosed their lie ... Bush, Cheney, Rove and Rice had to make certain that he was punished ... and punished severely: An example to other whistle-blowers who might chose to be loyal to the United States of America and put the American People first, instead of lying to protect this corrupt cabal of crazies!
Now the question is WHO are the two traitors in the White House who (according to Daddy Bush 41) should be serving a 10 year sentence in prison and a $50,000 fine, for illegally outing an undercover CIA Agent? (Of course, it's hard to image in a tightly controlled and managed operation like the Bush White House, that Cheney, Rice and Rove at minimum, didn't authorise or participate in the leak -- Bush might be able to claim ignorance ... something he's good at -- and as such, they should all serve time in the clinker!)
Karl Rove isn't Bush's Brain and America's Joseph Goebbles for nothing! Their current strategy is to scare the hell out of the intelligence agents who know about the Bush Regime's pack of lies and deceit regarding the phony and discredited WMDs lies used to wage their "plunder and loot" war-turned-guerrilla-quag mire in Iraq. Scare all whistle-blowers into SILENCE!
"We the People" must contact Congress to demand that an independent counsel be appointed to investigate this heinous crime ... Does anyone really believe that the Bush Regime will honestly allow the truth to come out? (If so, you probably also believe that O. J. is still determined to find the "real killers" of his ex-wife!) ... Of course, because months have passed since this crime was committed, it's possible that documents have been shredded, phone records erased, and disk drives wiped-out! After all, they had an example beforehand, having watched Bush's buddy, Kenny-boy (Enron) Lay, destroy the chain-of-evidence for his criminal activities. Contact Congress on http://www.congress.org .
"I noted earlier that in his comments yesterday President Bush never referred to the issue of blowing a covert operative's cover, only to his opposition to "leaks of classified information."
Now, what is the whole question we're dealing with here? The Wilson/Plame matter is an outgrowth of the Niger/Uranium controversy. And that's just part of the larger debate about the intelligence wars leading up to the war, the whole matter of politicized intelligence.
One of the questions that's been churning through Washington of late is when some of those disgruntled folks at CIA are going to go to the press and start talking about all the stuff that happened in the lead-up to war. That might involve some 'leaks of classified information' or at least leaks that get close enough to it to make some career person over at Langley scared to talk.
I don't think this is all part of some plan -- at least not one quite fully developed. But just keep this angle in mind: the possibility that the administration is going to try use this controversy to go on the offensive against those who might reveal further uncomfortable truths about what happened in the lead-up to war. After all, what started this whole mess was their attempt to shut up people down in the national security bureaucracy who might already have come forward or might be thinking of doing so."
Of course, they want to shut people up ... that's the way the Bush Cabal works: Punish, Coerce, Punish, Bribe, Punish -- it's their anti-American "All for Me and Me for Me" modus operandi.
