While I was away last week, I paid attention to the news.

The list of last week's dead included a good many American soldiers. I suspect, sadly, this will go on and on. The fact that there is no end-game for Iraq is glaringly obvious.We think ambushing and murdering Saddam's sons is the answer. To me, it sounds like something Ariel Sharon would do to Palestinians. Bombing homes and exterminating its occupants. No trials..no taking prisoners. We are sinking to the savage eye-for-an-eye level of war. Look where it's gotten Israel in their "quest for peace" these past 60 years. Not very far.
An Egyptian political analyst was interviewed this week (article here):
"The US administration is wrong to think that the murders of Saddam Hussein's sons or of Saddam will bring an end to the armed resistance against the occupation," Egyptian political analyst Mustafa Kamel al-Said said. "The reasons for antagonism remain, there is no foreseeable withdrawal of US troops, living conditions are still bad, and the Americans are vetoing any political forces they deem unacceptable," Said told AFP."

The list of the dead last week also included a decent-but-despondent British scientist who was used badly by the government for whom he
worked....his fine work perverted to fit a bag of dirty lies aimed at the public to convince them of some great Iraqi threat. You could say that the British government virtually murdered David Kelly. George W Bush's determined vengeance and war-thirst contributed to Britain's fatal abuse of Dr Kelly. I hope they're all proud. I'd like to know what David Kelly's widow told Geoff Hoon. Hoon isn't saying.......(see here).
They like to blame the BBC for asking pertinent questions. Blaming the press is the facist-style M.O., you see.
other references:

-What David Kelly knew

-Dr David Kelly Timeline

Topping the dead-list, from the media standpoint, were two sleazy brutes who happened to be the sons of Poppy B and Dubya's arch-enemy.
What happened to the rule of law? When did we decide it meant nothing? I enjoyed reading Sandra Mackey's editorial in this week's NY Times. (here)
"In giving up on the attempted capture of the Hussein brothers as too risky, the American administration of Iraq has ignored the dictates of Iraqi culture. At the same time, it also runs counter to the kind of country we want Iraq to become — one built around the rule of law..."
I'm sure Bush and his blind supporters believe that this will assuage the families of Americans who have lost sons and daughters in the war...yet I ask you this---will those families soon forget that it was a mountan of Bush administration lies and criminal exaggerations that caused our troops to be in that land to begin with? Will any of us soon forget Bush's refusal to make any of his administration responsible for these lies?
The fact that Stephen Hadley still has his job this week tells me that Bush is intentionally harboring criminals in his administration...and I ask you to question why he is doing this. It can only be that he supports their lying and covering-up for him.
Hadley story commentary references:
-The Likely Story
-Stephen Hadley-Can This Guy Do Anything Right?

Best yet, our tax dollars ($30 million) are being paid to the scum-of-the-earth villa-owner/Iraqi sheik who turned the Hussein boys in. (here)

It's become painfully clear that, in order to maintain a stranglehold on their false truth, the Bush administraton is willing to do anything
to duck responsibility for getting us into what is truly a quagmire in Iraq.
Two very recent examples:
-The soldiers from the 3rd Division who complained to ABC News are under threat of punishment. The ABC reporter is dismissed as a homosexual Canadian.
see Andrew Greeley article here.
-Joseph Wilson's wife was exposed by the Bush administration as a covert CIA operative. Why? Because her husband dared to breathe the truth about
Bush lies and cover-ups.

I suppose you all witnessed Rep Thomas' calling of the police on his colleagues in the House of Representatives?



Perhaps you did not...and you certainly never would have heard the real story on FOX News. I witnessed FOX news giving only the Republican version of "the truth" after the watching the post-House discussion/floor activity on CSPAN. Thank GOD for CSPAN. It's the only place to get the truth nowadays...because you hear it yourself and are thus able to draw your own conclusions. Did you see Thomas' crybaby confession on the House floor last Wednesday? He has truly lost it! *You definitely wouldn't have seen it on FOX News.*
Thomas' fake humility shone through when he said: (article here)
"Because of my poor judgment, those outside the House who want to trivialize, marginalize and debase this institution were given an opportunity to do so," he said. "Because of my poor judgment, the stewardship of my party . . . has been unfairly criticized."

Here's what I think. Because of Thomas' poor judgement, the even poorer judgement of his GOP colleagues came through loud and clear in the immediate aftermath of the incident. They were most fairly and deservedly criticized. This is a party which I believe has truly lost its collective sensible mind.
If Thomas were truly humble and honest, he would never have fallen on his sword alone. He was obviously under the Hastert gun.....obviously having been read the riot act.


A last comment:
It does not seem that impeachment of Bush will occur. (See article from Village Voice here).
"Speaking of "civil officers" besides the president: During the buildup to the invasion of Iraq, Congress made no effort to investigate and showed little interest in obtaining independent information; instead, it meekly endorsed the resolution to go to war. If there are high crimes and misdemeanors involved, Congress is complicit in them."

Our Congressional representatives failed our nation and all of American democracy last fall by their blind unquestioning complicity in giving Bush carte blanche to attack Iraq. The fact that the blindly partisan and vitriolically loyal GOP has the majority in the House and the Senate would also zero out the chance that Bush would be impeached (and he SHOULD be impeached by all that is just and reasonable in a democratic nation- look at this bit of sarcastic comparison to see how ridiculous we have become).
This nation is in trouble, my fine readers.
What will you do?

* * * *"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."

* * * *

...Governor George W. Bush, to Sam Donaldson, 8/17/93



Apparently, you've been the King of Whoppers a long time, George


This blog will be on vacation until July 25th.
Take a look around while I'm away...make yourself at home.

"Bush Is A Coward"
by Jack Balkwill- a Vietnam veteran

"On 9/11, when the nation needed leadership, Bush hid at an Air Force Base. The most protected person on the planet went into hiding, not because he was in danger, but because he is a coward. I cannot imagine another president who would have hid like that. Even the spineless Nixon would have seen it is the job of a president to go to the White House and assure the masses that everything is under control.


Big Texbush runs away when the going gets bloody.
He talks Texas talk; struts a chicken's walk.

The Democrats seem unable to locate an issue with which to oppose Bush, most having voted for everything he's requested to date. May I suggest the truth? The single image Bush has promoted is flag-waving hero of the Republic.

The evidence proves he is a coward.

A Firm Basis for Impeachment
Robert Scheer

'We now know, and perhaps the White House knew then, that the inspectors eventually would come up empty-handed because no weapons of mass destruction program existed — not even a stray vial of chemical and biological weapons has been discovered.
However, that would have obviated the administration's key rationale for an invasion, so lies substituted for facts that didn't exist.

And there, dear readers, exists the firm basis for bringing a charge of impeachment against the president who employed lies to lead us into war.'

Laurie Mylroie / Conspiracy Theorist

The Continuing Series: Get To Know Your NeoCons-
Today's Lesson: "Laurie Mylroie/Conspiracy Theorist"

Laurie-the NeoCon Conspiracy Theorists' Dreamboat


SEE: It Happened in Baghdad
9-11, Oklahoma City—You Name It
by James Ridgeway
From the Village Voice July 15, 2003

"....Mylroie, who at one time was a consultant to the Department of Defense, said she thinks the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, a botched plot hatched in the Philippines to blow up a dozen American airliners, and 9-11 all were the work of Iraqi intelligence. Under this theory, the Iraqis faked intelligence files in Kuwait to create false identities for their key agents, including master terrorist Ramzi Yousef, who then were dispatched to the U.S. As for Al Qaeda, Mylroie contended that Saddam and bin Laden were in it together but that the Iraqi intelligence apparatus was the key. Bin Laden on his own never could have put together the attacks within the U.S., said Mylroie. Only operatives from an actual nation would have the knowledge and resources to do so. Her evidence is tenuous and circumstantial, but she claimed authenticity on grounds it was embraced by Israeli spooks and the former head of the New York FBI office.

Mylroie also wondered whether the anthrax attacks were the work of Iraqi intelligence, and she has speculated that the Oklahoma City blast was suspicious because it occurred after Terry Nichols, convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh's cohort, visited Mindanao, a hotbed of Muslim extremism in the Philippines, and supposedly attended a meeting with Ramzi Yousef and other terrorists........"

"....If the commission seriously entertains Mylroie's ideas, its investigations could take an alarming turn of direction—away from Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein and Iraq—and in this way go down the drain for good."



Reference-recent articles by Mylroie:
The Baluch Connection
The Circle of Terror
**this one's a real beauty**
THE WORLD TRADE CENTER BOMB: Who is Ramzi Yousef? And Why It Matters

GEORGE TO GEORGE




"Pssst....
Hey, pal..yeah..look over here...it's the Father of your country speaking....

I came clean when I chopped down that cherry tree.
The least you could do is to be a real man and fess up about all your dirty lies.

Don't make me come down from here and show you what for.
I may look like stone, but I can still kick your lying ass."

Re-post of an oldie-but-goodie....it rings just as true today
as it did on June 5th when I first presented it to you...maybe even more so!

Sing-a-long time!
Sing this to the oldies tune
"SINCE I DON'T HAVE YOU"



George W Bush singing to his missing adversary Saddam Hussein:

"I fibbed 'bout WMD..
And I don't have victory...
I don't have anything
Since I don't have you-u-u-u

I don't have proof you died..
And most folks think that I've lied...
I don't have anything
Since I don't have you-u





I ain't had much success..
And I guess..
I never will ever again
When you escaped from me..
In walked old mystery..
And it's been here since then..

Whoa,
I don't have your DNA
To prove I blew you away
I don't have anything
Since I dont have you-u,you-u....."

by Iddybud
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Brights are coming out of the closet?

From NY Times July 12, 2003
The Bright Stuff
By DANIEL C. DENNETT

A recent Dennet interview from Reason Online: http://www.reason.com/0305/fe.rb.pulling.shtml

Brights network on the web: http://www.the-brights.net/

See Religion/Politics research statistics: Pew Research Center Report- Religion and Politics: the Ambivalent Majority

See Professor Larry Lessig's blog for Howard Dean's guest-blogposting!

Howard Dean begins.....

"It’s been a busy day, but it’s great to blog here on Larry Lessig’s blog.

I’ll be writing all week, but if there’s a day I can’t make it, Joe Trippi, my campaign manager, will fill in for me. Thank you Professor Lessig for inviting me.

The Internet might soon be the last place where open dialogue occurs......"

Instinct is an animal grace.
Truth eludes us in all these inner wars
between passion and prudence...
reason and spirit...



"Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment;
Cleverness is mere opinion
Bewilderment is intuition."

Jalal-uddin Rumi

P-I Focus: Power of presidency resides in language as well as law

By Renana Brooks
Clinical Psychologist

excerpt:
"...Bush's opponents must combat his dark imagery with hope and restore American vigor and optimism in the coming years.
They should heed the example of Reagan, who used optimism against Carter and the "national malaise";
Franklin Roosevelt, who used it against Hoover and the pessimism induced by the Depression ("the only thing we have to fear is fear itself");
and Clinton (the "Man from Hope"), who used positive language against the senior Bush's lack of vision. This is the linguistic prescription
for those who wish to retire Bush in 2004...."

The Dubious Suicide of George Tenet
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

excerpt:
"....Tenet's confession is designed to take the heat off," says McGovern, "to assign some responsibility somewhere. It's not going to work. There's too much deception here. For example, Condoleezza Rice insisted that she only learned on June 8 about Former Ambassador Wilson's mission to Niger back in February 2002. That means that neither she nor her staff reads the New York Times, because Nick Kristof on May 6 had a very detailed explication of Wilson's mission to Niger. In my view, it is inconceivable that her remark this week - that she didn't know about Joe Wilson's mission to Niger until she was asked on a talk show on June 8 - that is stretching the truth beyond the breaking point...."

This was my response to comments made on today's "Truth Laid Bear" blog.
*See the discussion in question here*.

Here's what started it:

LT Smash said this:

'It really all boils down to this:
Just about everyone here would rather be at home right now—but nobody wants to go home a loser.
If we gave in to the snivelers and peaceniks who cry, “Bring our troops home now!” Iraq would undoubtedly descend into a bloody civil war, and God only knows who would come out on top. Saddam might even emerge from hiding, claiming to have driven the “infidels” out of his country. The United States would have suffered another black eye, and our enemies would be further emboldened to attack us again. We would have lost the war, and all of the brave Americans and British who gave their lives in this operation would have died in vain.
I am not willing to accept that scenario. You shouldn’t be, either.
What can I possibly add to that?'

My reply:

"This is an extremely interesting discussion.

Here's what it all boils down to:

We never, never, I repeat, NEVER should have
been hasty in going in to Iraq with the coalition for which we wound up "settling".

Clearly, it was inadequate.
Recent history is SCREAMING that it was inadequate.

Clearly, we needed an international peacekeeping force and a wider international effort... and our leader, GW Bush, and his administration did not see fit to do this thing right (since they were so determined to do it).They were prideful, hungry...wrong.

They didn't do it right.
They have made so many errors.
They were wrong in ignoring the concerns of the international community.
It was disrespectful and shameful towards the international community. It was ignorant of the basic rule of law.

We've made a mess of things.
Is it any wonder these nations aren't jumping at the chance to hop in and join the US effort in Iraq?


Now....today..we are at a point of no immediate return in Iraq.
We have to do whatever we have to do to see this thing through.
But all it truly amounts to is this dreadful feeling of "saving face" because so many of our courageous men and women have been brutally slain. We can't just drop all and say "so long". The Russians did that in Afghanistan. We did that in the last Gulf War. It doesn't work. It creates terrorism.

The Neo-Con ideals are not practicable when seen in real-time Iraq. They have not translated well at all. This nation, this America...what is to become of it? She's been brutally wounded by right-wing fanaticists. These are not your average Conservatives with a healthy respect for the true meaning of democracy (small-d). They are empire-driven.

No, we cannot be in denial about what we face in Iraq today.

At the same time, let us NOT forget WHY we are facing it..how it came to pass. And let us not forget all the lies, doublespeak, and exaggeration.

If we fail to learn that lesson, we are doomed to repeating it.

**Can you say Viet Nam?
When will we ever learn?

Jude"

Congratulations to Bill Keller!
New York Times names new executive editor

Posted: Monday, July 14, 1:01pm EDT

"Bill Keller, a columnist for The New York Times who previously served as the newspaper's managing editor and foreign editor and as its bureau chief in Moscow and Johannesburg, has been chosen as its executive editor, reports The New York Times.
Mr. Keller's appointment to the highest-ranking position in the newsroom was announced today by Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of The Times and chairman of The New York Times Company. It is effective July 30. "

America Under Threat

Read this.
.. think about it.
Your American democracy may be dying.



"....The events in Iraq are not over; they're just getting started. In forcing Hussein's regime out of Baghdad, the allies
have rendered Iraq ungovernable. The democratic alternative for Iraq that they talk about at press conferences was never more than propaganda.
As a result, Washington and London don't have much of a choice about how to proceed. They can run the country as an occupying regime, risking increasing guerrilla activity in the cities, civil war and resistance from Hussein's clan, which has far from lost its political and military capabilities.
Or they can make a deal with Hussein's people..."

"...Since G.W. Bush came to power, we are witnessing the most dramatic attack on American democracy ever since the Revolution.
We, outside the US are astonished, shocked, angry and, honestly, somewhat scared..."

"...Different people write that America repeats the Rome way, from the Republic to the Empire.
With all the consequences for the democracy that follows it...." (See my own comments from a prior blog entry)

"....the devastation of Iraq can become the beginning of an end to the American civil society.
Neoliberal admirers of "American model" outside the US dismiss all these warnings reminding us that, unlike Saddam Hussein,
G.W. Bush was elected legally, democratically and in full accord with the Constitution. So was Julius Caesar in Ancient Rome.
And so was Hitler in Weimar Germany...."


***Commentaries are a premium sent to Sustainer Donors of Z/ZNet . To learn more, go to ZNet at http://www.zmag.org**

My contribution to the poetry contest

Dave Barry had a great suggestion..why not enter a poetry contest?
So inspiring was his suggestion that I became a Freemont and entered immediately.
My literary contribution:

He Really Did It Not Me

"the night..the night was filled with dread
a bounty placed upon my head

i run..i run- to God knows where
too numb to feel, too tired to care

the crime- the crime i did not do
yet they would kill him if they knew

the dog..the dog ate mother's toes
the proof's in the fur in her torn pantyhose

i sha'nt..i sha'nt let the poor ol' puppance
take the cruel and harsh comeuppance

o yes--o yes i'll take the blame
and let them chase me down til i'm lame"

Freemont Road
Copyright ©2003 Freemont Road


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Get yourselves over to the poetry contest and add your very own "the dog ate mother's toes" Freemont masterpiece.
:)
From your friend ,
Freemont

A Liar's Carousel



I last wrote about journalist Judith Miller on June 22nd. See here.

Russ Baker has written an interesting article for the Nation...see: " 'Scoops' and Truth at the Times"

"Probably the most instructive exercise in assessing {Judith} Miller's reporting is to compare her with the Post's Barton Gellman. You would think the two were in different countries, if not on different planets......."

Baker goes on to compare/contrast Miller's NY Times headlines to Gellman's Washington Post headlines.
A striking contrast.
Quote from Nation article:

"Here are typical Miller headlines from May:


May 21: "U.S. Analysts Link Iraq Labs to Germ Arms"

May 12: "Radioactive Material Found at a Test Site Near Baghdad"

May 11: "Trailer Is a Mobile Lab Capable of Turning Out Bioweapons, a Team Says"

May 9: "G.I.'s Search, Not Alone, In the Cellar of Secrets"

May 8: "U.S. Aides Say Iraqi Truck Could Be a Germ-War Lab"

Now Gellman:


May 18: "Odyssey of Frustration; In Search for Weapons, Army Team Finds Vacuum Cleaners"

May 11: "Frustrated, U.S. Arms Team to Leave Iraq; Task Force Unable to Find Any Weapons"

May 10: "Seven Nuclear Sites Looted; Iraqi Scientific Files, Some Containers Missing"

May 4: "Iraqi Nuclear Site Is Found Looted; U.S. Team Unable to Determine Whether Deadly Materials Are Missing"
___________________________________________


Since we're talking about professional people (journalists and leaders alike) misleading the American public, in a somewhat-related story from the Boston Globe entitled "Bush overstated Iraq links to al-Qaida, former intelligence officials say",
Matt Kelley quotes Gregory Treverton, a former chairman of the National Intelligence Council under President Clinton:

''You see the polls lots of Americans believe that there was a link between Iraq and al-Qaida despite the lack of intelligence evidence on that score.''


Look at the headlines we're seeing from columnists like Miller in our most influential newspapers.
Observe stories now coming out about all the lies, exaggerations, and erroneous dribble-doublespeak the Bush administration has fed to us.
Is it any wonder the American public winds up looking like complete suckers...or at best, like "people from a different planet"?

Donald Rumsfeld looked like an ornery old fool on the Sunday news-talk shows this morning trying to talk his way around and
out of all the things he has said in the past.
Condi Rice was dizzy on the liar's carousel on the Sunday FOX morning show, too. (Did you see Tony Snow acting as a Bush-apologist in his interview with Rice? He was absolutely leading Condi with candied questions...you would have thought he was her DEFENSE ATTORNEY, for God's sake!)

They're spinning away about their pre-war lies. (How about their post-war lies? See here.)

It's truly amazing watching these people...journalists and leaders alike...on the liar's carousel.
Round and round and round they go...where they'll stop....nobody knows.

Nobody knows.
Nobody knows.
(The polls..the polls will tell you so).

When is Congress going to listen to us and get some action going on investigating all these lies?
Republican Congresspeople--what on earth is wrong with you?
If Congress fails to take action, the lies will continue to snowball, our President will assume he can get away with more,
and America will remain on a liar's carousel to facist hell.



Companion piece from the Independent/UK: "20 Lies About The War"

This was fun!

Go here and take this quiz!
Where do you stand on the issues?
How close does your stand come to your favorite Presidential candidate?
These were my results:

Iddybud's Results:

1. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (99%)
2. Kucinich, Cong. Dennis, OH - Democrat (93%)
3. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (80%)
4. Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat (79%)
5. Gephardt, Cong. Dick, MO - Democrat (72%)
6. Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat (71%)
7. Lieberman Senator Joe CT - Democrat (69%)
8. Libertarian Candidate (67%)
9. Moseley-Braun, Former Senator Carol IL - Democrat (67%)
10. Graham, Senator Bob, FL - Democrat (58%)
11. Bush, George W. - US President (31%)
12. Phillips, Howard - Constitution (12%)
13. LaRouche, Lyndon H. Jr. - Democrat (0%)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.gaybetamax.co.uk/flash2.html

Don't ask....just watch and listen. ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Something's Got To "Give"--- and Bush Certainly Isn't Going to Offer to Step Down


Letter to the Editor / Boston Globe
Give Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz the boot

Today's News Headlines from Democracy Circles.org
*"Democracy* isn't done alone in front of the television."*


CNN - Current List of Casualties in the Iraq War

http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/

---------------------------------

Reuters - Iraq civilian body count passes 6,000

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=335889

---------------------------------

t r u t h o u t - How to Rig an American Election

http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/voting.shtml#article2

---------------------------------

What Really Happened : The History the Government Hopes You Don't Learn

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

---------------------------------

TOMPAINE.com - The Insiders Are Coming Out by William Rivers Pitt

http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8284

---------------------------------

National Review - Scandal!: Bush’s enemies aren't telling the truth about what he said by Clifford D. May

http://www.nationalreview.com/may/may071103.asp
---------------------------------

AlterNet - A Diplomat's Undiplomatic Truth by Robert Scheer

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16345

---------------------------------

Christian Science Monitor - Media feels the press by Sara B. Miller

http://search.csmonitor.com/search_content/0710/dailyUpdate.html

---------------------------------

Boston Globe - Bush and Rice say CIA cleared Bush's State of the Union speech

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/192/world/Bush_and_Rice_say_CIA_cleared_:.shtml

---------------------------------

Newsday - Franks: We’re Here for Years

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usfran113368129jul11,0,4847467.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines
---------------------------------

Guerrilla News Network - Eli Lily Rules by Jim Lobe

http://www.guerrillanews.com/sci-tech/doc2357.html

---------------------------------

Sydney Morning Herald - Beijing cadres scramble to assess HK crisis

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/11/1057783356399.html

---------------------------------

PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THIS ONE--OUR DEMOCRACY IS BEING GREATLY UNDERMINED!

Chicago Tribune - WTO Rules That U.S. Steel Duties Illegal

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-wto-us-steel,1,7129716.story?coll=chi-business-hed

_______________________________

**If you would like to receive this newsletter (somewhat) daily, just write to newsletter@democracycircles.org**
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Al From and Bruce Reed are, like, sooooooooo yesterday! Sorry to have to say it, but it's true! John Kerry, too. They tell us to get over Selection 2000....and Howard Dean is the way we're getting over, already! Wake up, DLC!

From the Washington Post article "Among Democrats, The Energy Seems To Be on the Left"

"....the left's energy is also a reflection of discontent with the party's Clinton-era leadership. Off the record, many on the left agree with one Democratic organizer who mused recently: "In some ways, Bill Clinton was the worst thing that could have happened to the Democratic Party" because he largely silenced the party's left and enervated efforts to build the party's base.

That sentiment is manifesting itself in a barrage of criticism aimed at the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, which was closely associated with Clinton's 1992 election. For years, DLC founder Al From and his associates have preached that "Old Democrat" liberalism equals landslide defeats. "The New Democrat formula is the only one to win in three decades," From said recently. Earlier this year, he and DLC President Bruce Reed -- who served as Clinton's chief domestic policy adviser for eight years -- fired off a broadside accusing Dean of being an "elitist" from the "McGovern-Mondale wing" of the party and warning that he would lead the party to disaster if he wins the nomination.

Instead of sinking, Dean surged...."

John Kerry and Howard Dean have allegedly been using this line: (article here)
"...Kerry recalled Bill Clinton's words that voters in 2004 "would rather vote for someone who is strong and wrong versus weak and right", a line that Dean has used regularly since February..."

Personally, I think that line should be dumped--pronto. If we want someone strong and damn wrong, we already have the nincompoop...he was given the Oval Office by a majority of one--one Justice's opinion tipped the undemocratic scale-- in 2000.
What's wrong with strong and right, anyhow? Are our leaders so insecure about fallibility that they can't even go with the word "right" from the get-go? We don't want another wrong-headed Bushlite.



**From the blogs, read this recent entry from Toby's Political Diary - 'Let it Begin Here'
SEE: Howard Dean and the Democrats

I was appalled when I heard now-retired Gen Tommy Franks defend and boldly repeat Bush's "Bring 'em on" Texas-schoolboy taunt. I respect him far less now because of it. He really lowered himself.

From Democrats.com:

Tommy Franks Says 10-25 Attacks a Day on U.S. Troops in Iraq -- But He and Bush Want More

From Reuters: "U.S. troops in Iraq face 10 to 25 attacks a day, partly because they are hunting for Baathists, 'jihadists' and fighters crossing the border from Syria, Gen. Tommy Franks, who ran the war against Baghdad, said on Thursday. Franks, who stepped down recently as head of U.S. Central Command and will soon retire, told the House Armed Services Committee that 'on a given day, there will be somewhere between 10 and 25 violent incidents' in Iraq where 148,000 U.S. troops are located." But this isn't enough for Tommy-gun -- he seconded Bush's 'Bring 'Em On' the other day. And the specter of guerilla war is raised. "Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, the senior Democrat on the panel, said if the current pattern were left unchecked, the United States may find itself 'in the throes of guerrilla warfare for years.'"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39523-2003Jul10.html

From Howard Dean Weblog:

Dean Says Those Who Misled Nation Should Resign

Click here to add your name to a petition demanding that those responsible for misleading the American people resign. Let others know about the petition by telling them about this link: http://www.deanforamerica.com/truth

Manchester, NH -- Governor Howard Dean issued the following statement today:

"Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld's statement yesterday -- that he only found out that the Niger
documents were forgeries --within recent days was stunning.
What is now clear is that there are those in this administration that misled the President,
misled the nation, and misled the world in making the case for the war in Iraq.
They know who they are. And they should resign today.
There will be investigations, and the truth will come out - the American people must know the truth -
and those in this administration must be held accountable for their failure to give us the truth before we went to war.
But we do not need to wait for the investigations to rid these people from our government -
they can resign on their own today.
I am now convinced more than ever that it was a mistake to have given this administration a
blank check to engage in this war -
as too many in Congress did when they supported the Iraqi war resolution."

Investors Pull Out of Markets

and....
"The weekly report on claims for jobless benefits showed the lines of the newly-unemployed grew by about 5,000 people last week to 439,000 and the total number of people drawing benefits hit 3.8 million -- the highest in 20 years."

Great job on the economy, Dubs.

Bush Knew Iraq Info Was False!
WASHINGTON, July 10, 2003

"Senior administration officials tell CBS News the President’s mistaken claim that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa was included in his State
of the Union address -- despite objections from the CIA.

Before the speech was delivered, the portions dealing with Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction were checked with the CIA for accuracy, reports CBS
News National Security Correspondent David Martin.

CIA officials warned members of the President’s National Security Council staff the intelligence was not good enough to make the flat statement Iraq
tried to buy uranium from Africa.

The White House officials responded that a paper issued by the British government contained the unequivocal assertion: “Iraq has ... sought
significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” As long as the statement was attributed to British Intelligence, the White House officials argued,
it would be factually accurate. The CIA officials dropped their objections and that’s how it was delivered.

“The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa,” Mr. Bush said.

The statement was technically correct, since it accurately reflected the British paper. But the bottom line is the White House knowingly included
in a presidential address information its own CIA had explicitly warned might not be true."

More of this breaking story at:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/25/iraq/main560449.shtml

Hell, no, George didn't go.





George Wins the Lottery
Hustler, September 2003


George Bush said--2 days before ordering our troops into Iraq--
"There's no certainty in war but the certainty of sacrifice."

That is true, unless your name is Bush and your Poppy has lots of bribe money and enough influence to get some other poor schlepp to take your place in Sacrifice alley. Greg Palast has uncovered another Bush family lie. Do these people EVER tell the truth about anything?

Watch the skies tonight!



see link

Dear God....

"Up to 800 possibly dead"



10/07/2003 19:30 - (SA)

Chandpur, Bangladesh - Hopes were fading on Thursday of finding hundreds of people missing after a ferry sank in a Bangladesh river, as lashing rains and strong currents brought rescue operations to a near standstill....."

The number feared lost is over half of the number lost on the Titanic.
It didn't even make the headlines of the American network news. What is wrong with American journalism? Have they lost their souls? Have we lost ours?

How We Know the Ground is Beginning to Open Under Bush's Feet...and Soon He Will Sink into



the Land of Liar's Consequences

GW Bush:
"There's going to be, you know, a lot of attempts to try to rewrite
history, and I can understand that. But I'm absolutely confident in
the decision I made."
Excerpt from this article


Bush now realizes how history will portray him. He's already defending a history which will someday prove him to be the President who tried to revise history first, the accuse others of doing it later.

Why is John Kerry Telling Us To "Get Over" Selection 2000 (see Buzzflash reader's commentary) When The Stolen Election Is Still In the News? (see July 9th Daily Business Review)

U.S. authorities need to move quickly to either set up a national security system run by Iraqis or bring in international peacekeeping troops from other nations, possibly including Muslim countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh
U.S. Military Scholars Warn of Wider Iraqi Insurgency

``If U.S. forces are still there a year from now, individuals who suggest the United States is there for bad motives will feel more comfortable stirring up problems,'' said W. Andrew Terrill, research professor at the Carlisle, Pa.-based War College's Strategic Studies Institute.

``Even the (Shi'ites) are saying you need to think about leaving, and they're the ones we're getting along with at the moment,'' he added.

SUMMER FUN

SEARCHING FOR A TRUE AMERICAN HERO

RE: Global Internet network Terra Lycos as seen in the Washington Times:

"Politics is wiggling its way up the charts, however, as searches for Vermont Gov. Howard Dean,
a Democratic presidential contender, are up by 250 percent."

Do You Care Enough?



Indifference is evil's bodyguard. Without it, evil would have to do a much better job of hiding.

Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11

Editorial from today's NY Times: (Note the use of the word "allergic" in the first sentence. Well-done.)

"The Bush administration, long allergic to the idea of investigating the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is now doing
its best to bury the national commission that was created to review Washington's conduct. That was made plain yesterday in a muted way by
Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman, who are directing the inquiry. When these seasoned,
mild-mannered men start complaining that the administration is trying to intimidate the commission, the country had better take notice.

In a status report on its work, the commission said various agencies — particularly the Pentagon and the Justice Department — were blocking requests for vital information and resources. Acting more like the Soviet Kremlin than the American government, the administration has insisted that monitors from various agencies attend debriefings of key officials by investigators. Mr. Kean is quite correct in objecting to this as a thinly veiled attempt at intimidation. Meanwhile, the clock is running for the commission to complete a full report to the nation by next May. Too polite to use the word "stonewalling," the bipartisan commission nevertheless warned the nation that thus far the administration had "underestimated the scale of the commission's work and the full breadth of support required."

The White House has repeatedly pledged cooperation while stressing the delicacy of protecting classified secrets. There are techniques and precedents for the commission to be extended access to critical information without compromising security. Two serious areas of dispute that should be quickly settled in the commission's favor are access to the minutes of National Security Council meetings and to the daily briefing memorandums prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency for President Bush.

Mr. Kean assumed the chairmanship after questions were raised about potential conflicts of interest for the White House's initial choice, Henry Kissinger. "The coming weeks will determine whether we will be able to do our job," the commission warned in prodding the administration to protect the nation's future security as passionately as it clings to its past secrets.

THIS WON'T FLY! WE CANNOT ALLOW OUR PRESIDENT TO TAKE US TO WAR ON THE WINGS OF A LIE AND THEN SAY TO TRUST HIM--"HE HAD NO DOUBT IT WAS RIGHT."

FROM NY TIMES ARTICLE: "Saying he had "no doubt" that the United States was right to invade Iraq, President Bush today brushed aside the controversy over his use of faulty pre-war intelligence that said Saddam Hussein had tried to purchase uranium from Africa.

"I am confident that Saddam Hussein had a weapons-of-mass-destruction program," Mr. Bush said during a news conference in Pretoria, South Africa, his second stop on a five-nation tour through sub-Saharan Africa.

OH, NO. NO. WE'RE NOT SO CONFIDENT. NOT AFTER ALL THESE LIES.

BY THE WAY, HOW QUICKLY BUSH'S MACHO-WORDS TURNED AROUND FROM PRE-WAR STATEMENTS ABOUT SADDAM HUSSEIN'S IMMINENT THREAT TO AMERICA WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND HIS LAME TURNAROUND TO "I'M CONFIDENT SADDAM HAD A WMD PROGRAM".

FRANKLY, I'M TIRED OF BEING PLAYED WITH.
I'LL BET YOU ARE, TOO. WAR ISN'T A PLAYGROUND.

WE NEED TO WRITE TO OUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES TODAY-- TELL THEM HOW WE FEEL ABOUT THE LIES WE'VE BEEN FED.
Go here. See "TAKE ACTION-"Where Are The Weapons of Mass Destruction?"




Senator Rick Santorum sounded like an apologist extraorinaire when he said:

"Obviously, when you use foreign intelligence, you — we don't have necessarily as much confidence or as much reliability as you do your own," Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said on Tuesday. "It has since turned out to be, at least according to the reports that have been just released, not true. The president stepped forward and said so. I think that's all you can expect."

IF IT HAD BEEN SO OBVIOUS, SENATOR SANTORUM, WHY DID THE PRESIDENT (FOR WHOM YOU ARE COVERING) STATE IT WITH SUCH CONFIDENCE TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IN THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS?

BUSH'S LIES HAVE CAUSED THOUSANDS TO DIE....MANY OF THEM OUR OWN BELOVED TROOPS.

*And you thought Bill Clinton's lie about having relations with "that woman" was offensive?
I've never witnessed such hypocrisy!
How long will the American public stay asleep?
It's utter madness to stand for these lies.

He started out with 'Mom'

Terry Wallis has awakened from a 19-year coma.
Yes.
I said 19 years.
The first word he uttered after the unusual length of silence was the most beautiful word.

'Mom'.

How grateful his family must be for the angels who whispered into Terry's ear
to tell him that they were missing his company.

*The second word was "Pepsi". I'm sure I'd be looking for caffeine after that long sleep, too ;)

From Nasrudin's Tales

A Tale of Nasrudin



"One day the King decided that he would force all his subjects to tell the truth. A gallows was erected in front of the city gates.
A herald announced, "Whoever would enter the city must first answer the truth to a question which will be put to him."
Nasrudin was first in line. The captain of the guard asked him, "Where are you going? Tell the truth---the alternative is death by hanging."
"I am going," said Nasrudin, "to be hanged on that gallows"
"I don't believe you."
"Very well, if I have told a lie, then hang me!"
"But that would make it the truth!"
"Exactly," said Nasrudin, "your truth."

FOR LALEH AND LADAN

FOR LALEH AND LADAN


Iranian twins Laleh and Ladan Bijani were joined at the head for 29 years.
I was deeply saddened to learn they did not survive the brave attempt to
become separated...to have missed an opportunity to look one another in the eye for
the first time...and to pursue individual paths.

..
Like the brave men on the path,
Wash off your hand from this copper-like existence,
So that one day you gain the alchemy of love
And become gold. -Hafiz

Truth Is Strongest Weapon In War
by Jimmy Breslin

June 15, 2003


I was around when Watergate was being called a third-rate burglary. Brilliant minds in Washington said congressional hearings would be ludicrous, cheap and unpatriotic. Then, Sen. Sam Ervin of North Carolina arrived with a lance to start cross-examining White House people, and we were off into history. I don't think he went three days when the first murmurs of impeachment were heard.

Therefore, on Friday I looked through my notebooks and files about the deaths in Iraq of two Marines, Cpl. Marcus Rodriguez and Sgt. Riayan Tejeda.

Rodriguez's funeral was at Blessed Sacrament Church in Cypress Hills. His mother passed out on the sidewalk after the Mass.

Tejeda was buried out of St. Elizabeth's in Washington Heights. After the service, the mother, bent in pain, had to be helped through a crush of grief on the sidewalk.

Today, the two dead Marines are the symbol for everybody who died in a war that was started because of a series of coordinated lies in Washington that said that Iraq had nuclear bombs. "Weapons of Mass Destruction." The Bush administration used the term so much that it turned into initials, WMD.

I use here a 100-page report from "Defense and the National Interest," a publication respected in war colleges and put out by Charles Spinney, a retired Air Force officer who actually put his reports out while working in the Pentagon since 1975. It is now on the Internet -- with whistle-blowers enthusiastically sending him reports.

Here is just one significant part of his 100-page release:

The State Department said on Sept. 12, 2002, "A new report released on September 9th from the International Institute for Strategic Studies -- an independent research organization -- concludes that Saddam Hussein could build a nuclear bomb within months if he were able to obtain fissile material."

In October 2002, the CIA said, "If Baghdad acquires sufficient weapons grade fissile material from abroad, it could make a nuclear weapon within a year. Without such material from abroad, Iraq probably would not be able to make a weapon until the last half of the decade."

It will either rain or it will not rain tomorrow.

The Defense and the National Interest Report states that more than 90 percent of the entire Manhattan Project budget went to fissile materials, less than 4 percent went to the weapons laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M.

A bomb with fissile material or no bomb at all.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said that there were no claims of Iraq actually attempting to import fissile material since 1991, and the known fissile material inside Iraq prior to that date has been fully accounted for by the atomic energy agency. In 1981, Iraq tried to import uranium or "yellowcake" from Niger. Twenty-two years later, Niger today cannot export yellowcake without the consent of its three partners, France, Japan and Spain. It has not happened.

The British then excitedly came out with a document with the forged names of half the government of the country Niger, stating that Iraq was buying uranium. One of the signatures was of a dead man. The forgery was sold to an Italian intelligence agent. There was no uranium moved anywhere. Intelligence agencies all over the place are saying that they knew about the forgery.

And then on Jan. 20, George W. Bush announced in his State of the Union address something that had been known to be fraudulent for months and yet he told his country:

"The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon, and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb. The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently bought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide."

That's what Bush said. Why he said it is the question. And why Cheney and Rumsfeld kept trying to justify the war with cries of "WMD" must be questioned by today's Sam Ervin. Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Rumsfeld and Powell loved aluminum tubes. If Saddam has them, he's ready to fire. The tubes turn out to be suitable for short-distance missiles and useless for nuclear manufacture.

One reason for your government operating this way could be that the small closed group in the White House sees what they want to see and proceeds from there, even if it is plainly delusional to anybody looking in from outside.

The only one who takes on George W. Bush over the weapons is Sen. Bob Graham of Florida. Graham compared Bush to Richard Nixon. He says the Republican closed-door hearings are shameful and a dangerous display of secrecy.

Aside from delusion, the other reason for scaring the country about nuclear bombs is lying. There is the lie being told that is false but which the teller has taken to be true. They give the president a speech that is a lie and he gives it. Then there is the lie that tells the opposite of what the teller knows to be true.

It leaps out that the reason given to Americans for going into Iraq -- to stop them from blowing us up with nuclear weapons -- was an outright lie. It was told to America by President George W. Bush. And people died because of it. What kind of a lie and why it was told is something that only a full investigation by Congress, full and on television, can tell the public and tell us who lied and why.

And tell the families of these two Marines we lost in Iraq and who stand for all the others who died for a lie.

Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0615-01.htm
___________ ________________

Is Bush's admission of "error" enough to get him out of a detailed investigation?
I imagine he hopes so.
Then again, there's the business of over 200 dead U.S. troops and the messiest war since Viet Nam.
How much does America care about being lied to in light of the grievous consequences?

White House Backs Off Claim on Iraqi Buy

Cloud Cuckoo Land

Cloud Cuckoo Land

Time out for a shameless plug.
My friend Lisa Borders has written a knock-out of a first novel.
It's titled "Cloud Cuckoo Land".

Everyone should read it.



Pat Conroy, author of "The Prince of Tides", has said of the book:
"Cloud Cuckoo Land is an absolute original by a fresh new voice in fiction."

Bret Lott, author of "Jewel", has said:
"...Cloud Cuckoo Land is remarkable for its scope, style, and wonderfully big heart."

Not so coincidentally, a new official fan club for the rock group "Counting Crows" has just been given a name
chosen by the band members themselves... "CloudCuckooLand".
Lisa has many fans....read her and find out why!

Wesley Clark knew the Bush team was wrong-minded about the military well before they stole the election

Wesley Clark knew the Bush team was wrong-minded about the military well before they stole the election

" CLARK: I’ve never really addressed that issue. I’m considering this candidacy because a lot of people have confidence in me and have asked me to consider it. To me, it’s really about the issues. I saw it starting to go wrong before the [2000] election. I met with Condi Rice.
She told me she believed that American troops shouldn’t be keeping the peace—they were the only ones who could kill people and conquer countries,
and that’s what they should be focused on doing. What she was telling me [was] that she, as a potential Republican national-security adviser,
didn’t support our engagement in Europe. So I saw it going wrong from there.
Then, as the administration took office, I saw more and more what I believed were misunderstandings and missed opportunities."

Article here.

Liberalize the Media!

"The media is kind of weird these days on politics," former Vice President Al Gore is quoted as saying in the June 30, 2003 issue of Time Magazine. "There are some major institutional voices that are, truthfully speaking, part and parcel of the Republican Party."

Go here.
Listen or read.

Get to Know Your Neo-Cons--
Michael Ledeen -Part Two-

(Part One is here).

Flirting with Fascism
Neocon theorist Michael Ledeen draws more from Italian fascism than from the American Right."

Excerpt:

"As Ledeen shows, the Italian fascists expressed their desire “to tear down the old order” (his words from 2002) in terms that are curiously anticipatory of a famous statement in 2003 by the Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. In 1932, Asvero Gravelli also divided Europe into “old” and “new” when he wrote, in Towards the Fascist International, “Either old Europe or young Europe. Fascism is the gravedigger of old Europe. Now the forces of the Fascist International are rising.”

Ledeen has his "creative destruction" sights set on Iran.
Think about it.
Get to really know your Neo-Cons.


More reading: The Persistence of Fascist Metapolitics in the Contemporary ‘New Right’

Europe For The Europeans:Fascist Myths Of The New Order 1922 - 1992 Both by Roger Griffin / Professor in History/ Oxford Brookes University Department of History/ Oxford

Can you believe we need to educate ourselves about facism?
It's come to this in America.
A dark day.
More darkness to come if we fail to see the warning signs.

"I think it's pathetic that I'm considered the left-wing liberal," Dean said. "It shows just how far to the right this country has lurched."

I just read a basically informative Washington Post article about Howard Dean with a curiously negative spin..from the title of the article to statements like this:
"Howard Dean was angry. Ropy veins popped out of his neck, blood rushed to his cheeks, and his eyes, normally blue-gray, flashed black, all dilated pupils."

and

"If Dean is the candidate crowds come to hear, he has also become the one pundits have come to watch, for better or worse. They won't soon forget his dour sparring with Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) during the Democratic candidates' first debate in South Carolina in May, or his shaky appearance on NBC's "Meet The Press" two Sundays ago. And that mouth. A product of New York, Dean can speak so fast that words come tumbling out, landing in a messy heap. In recent months he has been called "brusque," "brash," "blunt" and "belligerent"; a few more choice words on his part, and critics will be questioning whether Dean has the diplomatic skills needed to be the leader of the free world."

I'm finding that this is just typical Washington insider-journalist behavior.
Almost as if they are hedging...still not quite "getting it".
Not believing their own eyes and ears...lacking intuition, perhaps lacking courage to come out and admit
they see the forest for the trees.
I often wonder--is it corporate-related career pressure? Influence of some kind?
Why not simply inform us with news articles and cut out the spin?




There was another Washington Post article regarding Tim Russert that was analyzed by Progressive Review's Sam Smith who sees the article itself, by Howard Kurtz, as a spin-platform for Russert and calls Russert "The Establishment's Bill O'Reilly".
Smith brought up an interesting point about the last Meet Ther Press appearance of Howard Dean:

"....Well, you get the idea. Kurtz' log rolling for Russert fails to note a number of interesting questions such as
how much money did Howard Dean raise because voting "outsiders" failed to agree with the assessment of Washington "insiders"
after watching Dean on Russert? Further, Kurtz' paean poops out when he tries to give examples of Russert's excellence in journalism:

"One likely area involves budget deficits and Social Security, a Russert obsession. When he asked Dean about once having called for cutting
Social Security benefits, the former Vermont governor said: 'I don't recall saying that, but I'm sure I did if you have it on your show,
because I know your researchers are very good.' Dean added that Social Security is 'actually in fine shape until, I don't know, 2040 or
something like that.'

"'No, no, no, no, no,' Russert interrupted, adding: 'When the baby boomers retire, we have a real impending crisis.' Dean quickly backed
off.'"

Well, it turns out that Dean was closer to the truth then Russert and Kurtz, probably because the latter spend too much time talking with
politicians and too little looking at the facts.

According to the Social Security trust fund trustees, fund income will fall below fund expenditures in 2024 and will be depleted in 2037.
It should be noted that this figure has been adjusted several times by the trustees; over one four year period that depletion date has been
extended by eight years, which is a deadline that's pretty hard to catch up with.

There are other problems:

- The Social Security fund projections are based on an inordinately dour view of the American economy, essentially predicting
a continuing near recession in the coming decades.

- As the Left Business Observer has pointed out, while there will be a bulge in older Americans, the total ratio of non-working people
(which includes children) to employed Americans will be much better than it has been in the past.

- Finally, the trust fund is an accounting artifice, representing a political and not an economic choice of how money should be spent.
Should it run dry, we might even have to take some money out of the imperial invasion budget of the Pentagon.

But all this would be far too complex for Russert's liking and so he dismisses Dead ex cathedra and Kurtz laps it up. "



He's not the only one spinning..he just makes it incredibly obvious. Establishment spinners know how to hide the rotisserie. Read this entertaining article about Bill from today's Miami Herald.

I read a great editorial in the Philadelphia Inquirer Online.
Excerpt: "U.S. soldiers are dying and dodging guerrilla bullets in a hot and hostile country and their commander-in-chief
says, "Bring 'em on"? Mr. President, do you live in a play house or the White House?"

Al Sharpton said of Bush's "Bring 'em on" statement:
"For the president to say, `bring it on,' almost like
daring and provoking Iraqis to kill American soldiers, he sounds more
like a gang leader in South-Central L.A. than one that is trying to
institute a policy of democracy and reconstruction in the world."


If Bush wanted to consider reality, he may want to read these two recent articles...
the first from BBC News
The second from the Christian Science Monitor.




Who knows where this road will lead us? Got a map, George?

The Bush administration likes to make roadmaps. How about a roadmap out of Iraq

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

READ THIS BOOK

Bush wants African Oil

Bush still looking for oil.
This time in Africa.

Bush's trip to Africa is causing him follow a Clintonesque path.
God, I'll bet Bush hates that comparison after saying in 2001 that Africa wasn't on his radar.
(I don't think there were too many blips on that radar at all, frankly).

If you hear Bush telling you he wants to get these poor folks out of poverty so they won't turn to terrorism -while he's concentrating on oil development for US interests- consider this (from the article:)

"The problem is that money going into the oil industry tends to fill the pockets of top politicians who grant access for exploration and drilling. Millions in “signing bonuses” and other concealed perks make a handful of people fabulously rich, but do little for the population at large. Indeed, the inflow of foreign exchange to oil tends to create relatively few jobs and allows countries to import, rather than manufacture, the goods they need. In the end, most developing countries that have oil as their economic mainstay are embroiled in conflict and mired in poverty."

The only way Africa has gotten on Bush's radar is OIL.
It's the same old same old.
At present, the United States imports about 18 percent of its oil from Africa. Iraq isn't panning out. OPEC is holding together and keeping their prices up.
There is no cheering in the Arab streets for what we have wrought in Iraq.
I guess it's time for some good old down-home expoitation of Africa.
Just watch. I'll bet Bush, all hubris and Godspoken, will be bold enough to look for the African-American vote
for all his "humanitarian" effort in Africa. Remember all the good he's doing with promised money for AIDS-curing drugs
for Africa...while sliding an ex-pharmeceutical honcho into the number-one oversight position.

If it's not Big Oil, it's Big drugs. It's always Big sumthin' with Bush and his ilk.
If it ain't Big, it ain't bringin' in the campaign contributions.
Money is the ONLY thing that makes Bush-style Republican policy work.
There is no virtue alone that could make today's GOP policy socially appropriate.
Money is their message. We are the United States of Amoney-ka.
If you ain't got the dime, Bush aint got the time.

If Bush really wants to help the poverty-stricken, perhaps he should look a little closer to home.
See this story from the Guardian.

If the following statement from the story is true and it could be proven, Bush should be promptly impeached and imprisoned.

excerpt: "Democrats believe the Republicans are being encouraged by the White House to cause chaos in the hope this will lead to the recall of the Democratic party governor, Gray Davis, and his replacement with a Republican, possibly Arnold Schwarzenegger."

Talk about being anti-american! Dragging your nation's economy down purposefully for political gain? That, my friends, is criminal.

What's happening to what was once such a great, virtuous, and noble nation?

Howard Dean, Webmaster

From the Howard Dean blog today:

Howard Dean, Webmaster
Adam Nagourney looks back at Howard Dean's Monday numbers and gets the complete picture in the Sunday New York Times' Week In Review :

"Political strategists have become increasingly fascinated with the Internet as a potential new force in political organizing and fund-raising.
But no one seemed to understand how effective the Web could be until Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor and presidential candidate,
reported last week that he had raised $7.5 million in the second quarter of this year — with $4.1 million coming from his Web site.
Dr. Dean blew past his competitors, drawing checks and clicks from almost 59,000 people, which he suggested was a record.

It's not just money. Using the Web to get out the vote — replacing telephone banks and doorbell ringing — suddenly seems very real.
Dean supporters organized meetings nationally last week through Meetup.com, drawing 55,000 people in 250 communities.
Is it any surprise that Joe Trippi, Dr. Dean's campaign manager, would be proposing that the Web would transform politics as
much as television did after the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debates?"

___________________________

My own comments as posted on the Howard Dean blog:

"Here is the key to it all...this is how Dr. Dean will, as we look back, have come strolling refreshingly on in and surprised them all:

Using Adam Nagourney's astute comment:

"....no one seemed to understand how effective the Web could be until Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor and presidential candidate, reported last week that he had raised $7.5 million in the second quarter of this year — with $4.1 million coming from his Web site."

Many in Big Media just don't "get it" yet.
They're a tough crowd. Very slow to come around to reality sometimes.
They are beginning to understand..and voices like Nagourney's are powerful in getting those in journalism who are far too often wobbly and reliant upon "old-school" to come around to the truth of what is happening out here.


I love these music ideas, by the way.
Especially the Billy Bragg.

I've always loved this Peter, Paul, and Mary song..and in this day and age of Patriot Acts, Total Information Awareness, and sunshine patriots, it reminds me of the hope that still lives in our hearts...the hope that Dr. Dean symbolizes, for me:

HOME ON THE RANGE /
DON'T EVER TAKE AWAY MY FREEDOM

Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam
And the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day

Home, home on the range
Where the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day

Three horses grazing out my window, brown, black and white they stand
Rolling pastures they can wander, free and easy is their land

Don't ever take away my freedom, don't ever take it away
We must cherish and keep that one part of our lives
And the rest we're gonna find one of these days...
One of these days

I always thought that I'd see in my own lifetime
An end to poverty, injustice and war
But now I've learned that that job will take a long, long time
So there's one thing that must endure

Don't ever take away my freedom, don't ever take it away
We must cherish and keep that one part of our lives
And the rest we're gonna find one of these days...
One of these days

When I am old and thinking over the whole life that I've led
If there's one final wish left to me
I will pray that the children, who are yet to be born,
I will pray that they will always live free

Don't ever take away my freedom, don't ever take it away
We must cherish and keep that one part of our lives
And the rest we're gonna find one of these days...
One of these days

There is a time for the singing and the sunshine
There is a time for the thunder and the rain
There is a time for the changing of the seasons my friend
But there is one thing we must never change

Don't ever take away my freedom, don't ever take it away
We must cherish and keep that one part of our lives
And the rest we're gonna find one of these days...
One of these days

Traditional / Peter Yarrow

____________________

Irrelevant Journalism-Part 8941

Heard on the Chris Matthews show today:

Howard Fineman of Newsweek reading a letter from a friend he claims is high-ranking in the US Military.
He states that he had received the letter three weeks ago:

"Have I got news for you!
The reporters have fled and the real stories have just begun...Iraq is a mess."

Why did the embedded reporters disappear?
(The ones supported by so many of our tax dollars)?
Was it because the Bush administration claimed "victory"?
What made it a victory, really? Was it that gigantic statue that was pulled down and stomped upon?


Saddam-Did we really get him? Click here for answer.

Was that the end?

Hardly.

Ask the American families of over 60 men who have died since then.

Where are the embedded reporters now that the real stories have just begun?

They're back in their Bushworld where the big news today is wag-the-dog Liberia.

Carefully crafted Attention Deficit journalism.

The mess in Afghanistan has been all but forgotten (as we once again negotiate with terrorists in the Taliban out of the media-scope).

Will Iraq soon be relegated to the back-burner?

They're already trying..while troops are still dying.

It's Worse Than It Seems

From the blogs:
Is the draft coming soon?

It's Worse Than It Seems
By Steve Gilliard / http://www.DailyKos.com

"...Viceroy Jerry has asked for 50,000 troops to maintain his rule. There's one small problem with that. There aren't 50K to give. The US military is nearly at the end of it's deployable strength and needs to withdraw the 3ID as soon as possible...."

"....didn't we disregard our allies sane, rational, and logical suggestions about how to deal with Iraq? Now, we expect Japanese and Korean troops, forget French and German to help us out?"

"The request for troops is a political minefield and one which places the Army at it's limits. The war was supposed to be over, 50,000 men getting their Iraqi visas puts that to the lie once and for all. It would awaken opposition to the war and not solve the problem..."

"The Shia will determine what happens in Iraq regardless of our desires and will. The Army is stretched to the limits with no clear source of more troops. And there are no simple answers to any of this. Bring it on? We have brought it on, more than we can handle without grim choices..."

TEMPERAMENT WARS

TEMPERAMENT WARS
By James Traub
New York Times Sunday Magazine, July 6, 2003

"Why are the Democrats so much more willing than the Republicans to make political sacrifices in the name of procedural fairness or of good government? Maybe Democrats are just nicer, but a more philosophical view is that liberals are committed to, are in fact bedeviled by, ideals about process that do not much preoccupy conservatives, at least contemporary ones. Liberals put their faith in such content-neutral principles as free speech, due process, participatory democracy. Is that too lofty?"


Bitter charging is all the GOP knows.


"The G.O.P. is making such inroads among younger voters for the same reason that Fox News is making inroads among younger viewers.
We live in a culture that values brazen certainty and loud conviction, no matter how wrongheaded.
Pity the Democrats, stuck with the wrong set of virtues..."

George W Bush- Lies With Lips fully in Gear-Delusions of Granduer Also Spinning Madly

Army Times Editorial Shows the Truth -What the Average Military Man and Woman Are Thinking of George W. Bush's Empty Rhetoric

George W Bush lies with his lips fully in gear---his God-stimulated delusions of granduer apparently alive and intact--
how else could he make so many vacant promises and statements devoid of actuality?

The rhetoric is far more empty than the stuffed "man-area" of AWOL Flop Gun Bush's flight suit on the day he lied on and on about
victory in Iraq-- the combat being over--the mission "accomplished". Does he take active servicepeople and Vets for fools?

Veterans and active servicepeople can tell when a leader is trying to rip away at the social programs that benefit them.

They can see a phony leader feeding them pretty lines-- and they can see when the pretty lines have no substance
to transform 'pretty' to active reality.


A man's own life is important to him. So is his country and his beloved family.
The soldier thinks not about God's bestowal of grandeur upon his leader when following orders of that trusted leader.
The soldier concerns himself not with any glory his leader hopes to attain, but simply hopes for the grace of his God in the face of death.

If you think you aren't happy about the thought of perpetual war (allegedly inspired by God) at the drop of your leader's
war-mongering 'bring-em-on' hat, think about the men and women with their very lives on the line....and the families who love them.

"His name is George W. Bush. He became President of the United States.
So you know if you said to me, name 25 million people who would maybe be President of
the United States, he wouldn't have been in that category."

David Rubenstein, Carlyle managing director

___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

Poor Rich Little Loser-boy Dubya


He was down on his luck. Needed sumthin' to do. He liked tellin' lots of dirty jokes.
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ __ __

David Rubenstein said:

"....when we were putting the board together, somebody came to me and said, look there is a guy who would like to be on the board. He's kind of down on his luck a bit. Needs a job. Needs a board position. Needs some board positions. Could you put him on the board? Pay him a salary and he'll be a good board member and be a loyal vote for the management and so forth.

I said well, we're not usually in that business. But okay, let me meet the guy. I met the guy. I said I don't think he adds that much value. We'll put him on the board because - you know - we'll do a favor for this guy; he's done a favor for us. We put him on the board and spent three years. Came to all the meetings. Told a lot of jokes. Not that many clean ones. And after a while I kind of said to him, after about three years - you know, I'm not sure this is really for you. Maybe you should do something else. Because I don't think you're adding that much value to the board. You don't know that much about the company.

He said, well I think I'm getting out of this business anyway. And I don't really like it that much. So I'm probably going to resign from the board.

And I said, thanks - didn't think I'd ever see him again.
His name is George W. Bush. He became President of the United States. So you know if you said to me, name 25 million people who would maybe be President of the United States, he wouldn't have been in that category.

from an actual tape obtained by freelance reporter Suzan Mazur who recently posted a partial transcript on the Progressive Review website.

See Democracy Now story re: a tape recording of Carlyle managing director David Rubenstein to have "A Look At Why The Carlyle Group Wanted to Drop George W. Bush From Its Board A Decade Ago"

A day to 'begin the world over again'

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Fourth of July, 2003
John Nichols: A day to 'begin the world over again'


The Fourth of July falls on a Friday this year, which is great news for the three-day weekend crowd that complains bitterly most other years about having to go to work the day after they "celebrate" the anniversary of the nation's birth.

In a country where just about every national symbol - from the flag to the presidential oath of office - has been bent to serve the interests of commerce and leisure, it is amazing that we still celebrate the Fourth of July on the Fourth.

As long as no one tells John Ashcroft or Dick Cheney that this holiday honors revolutionaries who threw off the chains of colonialism, empire, monarchy and the state-sponsored religion that were - and remain - the primary threats to freedom and human advancement, the Fourth is probably safe from interference from our contemporary King George and his churlish courtiers.

But how should Americans who take seriously the promise of a revolution - "that all men (and women) are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with inalienable rights" and "that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among these men (and women), deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed" - go about celebrating this Fourth of July?

Should we raise the red-white-and-blue banner of the Republic? Well, of course. Though it has been dragged through the mud by so-called "patriots" who continue to engage in the sort of military adventurism that both Washington and Jefferson warned against in their farewell addresses to the nation, this remains the flag of the Wisconsinites who marched south to banish the crime of slavery from this country's soil. No flag has yet been associated with a nobler military endeavor than the Stars and Stripes when it flew above those who battled the Southern scoundrels who marched beneath the banner of human bondage.

Should we celebrate the founders themselves? Yes, within reason. It is true that many of the men who made this nation were flawed. The best of them admitted as much at the time. The worst were revealed in time. But no one who cherishes liberty should hesitate to raise a cheer for old Tom Paine, who wrote of Americans in 1776: "We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation similar to the present hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of the new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the events of a few months."

As America celebrates the 227th birthday of the new world, however, it is important to recall that Paine also reflected upon the prospect: "If you subvert the basis of the revolution, if you dispense with principles and substitute expedients, you will extinguish that enthusiasm and energy which have hitherto been the life and soul of the revolution; and you will substitute in its place nothing but a cold indifference and self-interest, which will again degenerate into intrigue, cunning and effeminacy."

Paine's warning anticipated this degenerate moment, in which Americans are awakening to the prospect that the president and his advisers intrigued the country into a foreign misadventure that stinks rather too much of the imperialism Americans once associated with the British crown their forebears revolted against.

Should we despair at the realization of Paine's worst fear for the land? Perhaps a bit. But Paine would surely warn against surrendering to that despair. These may, in fact, be the times that try men's souls. But as Tom Paine suggested in 1776, such times are where the false patriots are separated from the true: "The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, as definitional a pair of summer soldiers as ever will be found, can lead their sunshine patriots in celebrations of imperialistic conquest and their allegiance with Tony Blair and what remains of the tattered British realm. The sons and daughters of Tom Paine will stand this Fourth of July and honor the revolutionary spirit that revolted against the corruptions of empire.

Copyright 2002 The Capital Times


http://www.madison.com/captimes/opinion/column/nichols/52132.php

Seen on the forums

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I noticed this on a political forum yesterday--liked it ;)

"Bring 'Em On"

If your aim is to bait the enemy,
You don't have to watch what you say.
You just have to do all your taunting
From a very safe distance away.

By DC Dave

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Listen to Howard Dean's NPR Interview -- Transcript Now Online

Go here to listen to
Bob Edwards' interview with Howard Dean on July 2.

American Prospect article on Dean campaign

Don't miss this article from American Prospect (link here). They have a good handle on what's really happening with the Dean campaign.

Doonesbury today

See the Doonesbury cartoon for today, July 4.

Bring 'em on?

These were Dr. Dean's comments on Bush's dangerously thoughtless and macho-impulsive Bring 'em on" statement yesterday:

“Today, President Bush provoked Iraqi militants targeting our soldiers in Iraq, saying ‘Bring them on.’ This was incredibly reckless rhetoric.
These men and women are risking their lives every day, and the President who sent them on this mission showed tremendous insensitivity to the dangers they face. This is the wrong message to send to our troops in the field and their families who wish them a safe return. President Bush should focus on encouraging the keeping of the peace, since that is now our mission.”

Friends listen

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"The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention… "
Rachel Naomi Remen