Reflections on Bruce Lawrence's "Rethinking Islam in the West"-

Who are the Muslim Pluralists?

In his recent article No More Crusades at the Harvard International Review, Bruce Lawrence says:

We do need religious voices to speak to the current fault line between East and West, Islam and America, and it is Muslim pluralists who are the philosophers and religious thinkers with whom non-Muslim others can and should make common cause.

I decided to go on a search for those who might be considered Muslim pluralists. I wanted to find at least one and bring that one voice to the forefront this morning. If the pluralist voices could be raised over the din of the terror-talking media, people here in this country might begin to understand that the work to end terror will be as hard as any work we've ever had to do..and will not be solved by force. Real solutions will not come through war, force, occupation, and violence. It will need to come through our hearts.

A writing to which I refer you is a Jerusalem Post item titled Learning to love Islam from Yossi Klein Halevi, a religious Israeli Jew, correspondent for the New Republic and a senior writer for the Jerusalem Report. He is the author of the book "At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A Jew's Search for God with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land" The writing credits Muslim dissident Irshad Manji, for her wisdom. Irshad is a Toronto journalist whose Indian-born parents fled Uganda after Idi Amin's takeover. She calls herself a "Muslim Refusenik". She has recently published a book called The Trouble with Islam, which takes the form of an extended open letter to her fellow Muslims. Irshad has made observations such as:

I hear from a Saudi friend that his country's religious police arrest women for wearing red on Valentines Day, and I think, Since when does a merciful God outlaw joy--or fun? I read about victims of rape being stoned for "adultery" and I wonder how a critical mass of us can stay stone silent.

Concerning the found commonality at the heart of the Muslim and the Jew, Halevi proclaims:

Our critique of Islam requires a nuanced tone. We should offer Islam not just our criticism but our respect and, if possible, our love.

Love is always a swim upstream. The water is almost always tinted with the blood of those who refused to understand this: While we were stuck on this planet together, our children could have lived in peace.

We need now, more than ever, to create conversations where none existed before.

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

*additional reference: LIBERAL ISLAM: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES by Charles Kurzman

...liberal approaches to multi-religious co-existence have been stimulated by three historic shifts of the past quarter century: the rise of secular higher education in the Islamic world, which has broken the monopoly of the seminaries over religious discourse; the growth of international communications, which has made educated Muslims more aware than ever of the norms and institutions of the West; and the failure of Islamic regimes to deliver an attractive alternative. These liberal approaches face serious challenges, including accusations of treason and inauthenticity, and a Western ignorance about the existence and importance of this internal Islamic debate.

Frank Rich on faux journalism,
the White House's new ally


Excerpts:

American television is increasingly awash in fake anchors delivering fake news, some of them far more trenchant than real anchors delivering real news......The more real journalism declines, the easier it is for such government "infoganda" (as The Daily Show's Rob Corddry calls it) to fill the vacuum. President George W. Bush tries to facilitate this process by shutting out the real news media as much as possible....

When the president made an exception last month and took questions from an actual frontline journalist, NBC television's Tim Russert, his performance was so maladroit that the experiment is unlikely to be repeated soon....
.....There is no point in bothering with actual news people anyway, when you can make up your own story and make it stick. No fake news story has become more embedded in our culture than the administration's account of its actions on Sept. 11. As The Wall Street Journal reported on its front page this week - just as the former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke was going public with his parallel account - many of this story's most familiar details are utter fiction. Bush's repeated claim that one of his "first acts" of that morning was to put the military on alert is false. So are the president's claims that he watched the first airplane hit the World Trade Center on television that morning. (No such video yet existed.) Nor was Air Force One under threat as Bush flew around the country, delaying his return to Washington. Yet the fake narrative of Sept. 11 has been scrupulously maintained by the White House for more than two years.......

After Sept. 11, similar fake-news techniques helped speed us into "Operation Iraqi Freedom."...... What few journalistic efforts were made to penetrate the trumped-up rationales for war were easily defeated by the administration's false news reports of impending biological attacks and mushroom clouds. To see how the faux journalism sausage was made, go to www.reform.house.gov/min, where a searchable database posted by Representative Henry Waxman identifies "237 specific misleading statements about the threat posed by Iraq" made by Bush and members of his administration...

I like today's Thomas Friedman column

I've been hard on Mr. Friedman lately. I forget that he. too only desires to see out nation make some positive progress. In Awaking to a Dream, Mr. Friedman begins by saying: "Imagination is on my mind a lot these days, because it seems to me that the only people with imagination in the world right now are the bad guy...."

Also in today's NY Times, Bob Dole tells us "..President Bush has the facts on his side. His job now is simply to remind voters that America is safer and more prosperous than it was on the day he was sworn into office." As Bush did in the lead-up to the Iraq war, he's going to have to get out there and do some more misleading to make us believe we've come anywhere near tackling the terrorism problem and that we're safer for having made the pre-emptive attack which has become a quagmire. He'll have to do a misleading song and dance about those millions of lost and/or outsourced jobs, too.

Harvard International Review
No More Crusades
Rethinking Islam in the West
by Bruce B. Lawrence

"Since September 11, the "Clash of Civilizations" theory has dominated and incorporated all others. It seems to explain Muslim-Western hostility as both ancient and irreversible. It is neither. This enmity is made by humans and thus can be unmade by humans."

Points covered in the article:

..What is needed to advance beyond pseudo-dialectics and interminable warfare is a double critique-internal and external-that must begin with the symbolic event that haunts the memory of Christians and Muslims alike: the Crusades.

..Who are today's Crusaders? (Read and you may be surprised).

....Crusader logic is matched by Islamist, or Islamic extremist, rhetoric. Those [9-11] planes were meant not only to destroy buildings and to kill people, but also to send a message to the largest possible audience through modern media. The message was as stark as it was simple: the United States is the enemy of Islam, and the core of the United States is business that is privileged by the capitalist world system.

..We do need religious voices to speak to the current fault line between East and West, Islam and America, and it is Muslim pluralists who are the philosophers and religious thinkers with whom non-Muslim others can and should make common cause.

..To make a plural world safe both for democratic citizens and religious rivals demands nothing less than a hardy inter-faith coalition of good-willed Abrahamic advocates. The only victory that counts in the war on terror will come off the battlefield, in the minds and hearts of moral combatants who recognize their internal enemies as well as their external foes.

..Without attention to the fault lines of human caprice, including those within the churches, there can be neither peace nor its necessary concomitant, sustained Muslim-Christian cooperation, which also includes Jews and Buddhists along with others dedicated to pursuit of the collective good. It is a jihad, in the truest sense, a struggle against our own demons as well as others. It prohibits a Crusade. Indeed, it will only succeed when Crusades, Crusaders and Crusading have been understood for what they are: a bygone chapter of world history not to be repeated, except as a cautionary tale, for our own and for all future generations.

Questions about Iraq

There is excellent commentary about Iraq and the war on terror at Rodger A. Payne's blog this week.
On March 24th, Professor Payne said the real debate over Iraq remains, asking:

Can a nation like Iraq be democratized by toppling a despotic regime and "building" a new nation from the rubble?

Was military force the best way to do this?

-- Did the attack set a dangerous precedent and potentially legitimize similar uses of violence by other states that will make the world a much less safe place?

-- Will the use of military force without wide international support create so much backlash throughout the Islamic world that the forces of terror are substantially strengthened by this move?

How long will it take to democratize Iraq?

Can a democratic Iraq trigger a democratic domino effect throughout the region?

Why begin with Iraq? What if the US had put strong (non-violent) public pressure on other states -- like Saudi Arabia? Or Egypt?

Professor Payne also shares my fascination with the Republicans suddenly embracing transparency.

Harvard International Review
Religion and International Affairs

In the most current issue of the Harvard International Review, religion's role in international affairs is in focus.

From the Review:

Beginning with questions of religious radicalism, Karen Armstrong examines the forces behind the global surge in religious fundamentalism, while Mark Juergensmeyer describes religious violence against the secular state. Next, Symeon Giannakos provides a case study tracing the development of religious and statist identities in Southeast Europe. Keeping the pitfalls of civilizationalisms firmly in mind, Jonathan Fox draws on statistical evidence to show that religious factors are not the primary cause of ethnic conflict. Turning at last to ways in which religiosity can benefit the international order, David Smock evaluates the role of faith-based non-governmental organizations in peacemaking, and Robert Barro investigates the correlation between religion and economic growth.

Also, see No More Crusades- Rethinking Islam in the West by Bruce B. Lawrence.

Rep Nick Smith/House Ethics Probe Underway


On February 26th on Iddybud, I wrote:

I hear the investigation's really heating up on this Rep. Nick Smith-Medicare-House of Representatives bribery case. The House Ethics Committee may not be the only investigators...I hear there may also be an ongoing criminal investigation.

I see it's hitting the mainstream. It was the focus of ABC's Nightline last night. Yesterday, the House ethics committee named four lawmakers who will investigate whether Rep. Smith was offered the bribe to vote for the Medicare bill. A talk-radio host who helped expose the Medicare bribe has curiously lost his job. According to Roll Call, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the matter, too

Medicare Bribe Archive:
Feb. 26, 2004: "FBI Examines Medicare Bribe"
Feb. 4, 2004: "Brad's Little Problem"
Jan. 22, 2004: "Burying the Bribe"
Jan. 8, 2004: "Bob Novak Ate My Brain!"
Dec. 23, 2003: "Now It's a Scandal"
Dec. 8, 2003: "A Drug-Company Bribe?"
Dec. 6, 2003: "Why Smith Can't Recant"
Dec. 5, 2003: "Nick Smith Recants"
Dec. 1, 2003: "Who Tried To Bribe Rep. Smith?"

Eat your boogers
Forget an apple a day.
Go ye the green way.


Fake Boogers

Show your four-year-old how corn starch and water is sticky (especially as it dries out) and he will be looking at synthetic boogers!

The State of the Media 2003

Journalism.org:
2004 - the year of blogging?

The Web log culture is fascinating and still evolving.


From The State of the Media 2003 Report:

Web logs, or blogs, such as instapundit.com and kausfiles.com, are an exciting new prospect for the Web. And some of these bloggers are influential. For now, though, bloggers appear to command only a fraction of the online audience. During the first week of the Iraq war, for instance, the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that only 4 percent of Internet users had visited a blog......

In some cases yesterday's influential print columnists are today's bloggers. Journalists like Mickey Kaus (formerly of The New Republic), Howard Kurtz (of The Washington Post), Virginia Postrel (former editor of Reason) and Rich Lowry (editor of National Review), are people whose blogs are often cited by the old media and thus whose influence reaches much farther than their direct audience. The Web log culture is fascinating and still evolving.

.....Whether it will become a serious online presence and influence on journalism remains unclear. Several panelists at the Online News Association's 2003 conference predicted that 2004 would be the year of blogging.18 At this point, though, the hard data suggest that its influence, like journals of opinion in print such as The Nation or The Weekly Standard, will be more intellectual than commercial. In 2003, many political analysts credited conservative blogs for playing a role in the resignation of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott when the mainstream press did not do much with the story of his comments in favor of past segregation. Whether blogs come to define the Internet or represent only a small but appealing aspect of it, is still a question.

WHAT AN AWFUL JOKE!

'Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere!'


Credit: AP photo

--President George W. Bush


"I'm appalled. I think it's in extremely poor taste. I think he owes an apology to those families who have lost loved ones there and those of us that are going through the dread every day having a son or daughter in Iraq. He pokes fun at the reason that he told us (soldiers) went over there. I think it's extremely callous."

--Larry Syverson of Richmond, Virginia, who has a son serving with the Army in Iraq and another who recently returned after serving in the Tikrit area.


"This is disgraceful. He doesn't think of all the families that are suffering. It's unbelievable, how this guy tries to run the country."

--George Medina, 43, of Orange County, who lost his 22-year-old son, Spec. Irving Medina, Nov. 14 in Baghdad.


"To be poking fun; it's just a travesty to the soldiers who lost their lives. I think it's disrespectful."

--Charles Celestin, 28, of Coral Springs, Fla., whose brother-in-law, Spec. Irving Medina, died Nov. 14 in Baghdad.


"That's supposed to be funny? Unfortunately for the president, this is not a joke. George Bush insulted me as a veteran and as a friend to many still serving in Iraq. President George Bush showed a stunningly cavalier attitude toward the failed search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the administration's rush to war. If George Bush thinks his deceptive rationale for going to war is a laughing matter, then he's even more out of touch than we thought. Five-hundred eighty-five American soldiers have been killed in Iraq in the last year; 3,354 have been wounded, and there's no end in sight. George Bush sold us on going to war with Iraq based on the threat of weapons of mass destruction. But we still haven't found them, and now he thinks that's funny? George Bush didn't tell us the truth about the economy, about job loss, about the true cost of his deceptive prescription drug plan, or about the existence of weapons of mass destruction. There's nothing funny about that."

--Sen. John Kerry


"George Bush insulted me as a veteran and as a friend to many still serving in Iraq. This act lowers the dialogue about weapons of mass destruction. War is the single most serious event that a President or government can carry its people into. No weapons of mass destruction have been found and that is no joke - this is for real. This cheapens the sacrifice that American soldiers and their families are dealing with every single day."

--Brad Owens, Iraq war veteran


"It was one of the most despicable acts of a sitting president. That's not a joke to us, Mr. Bush. Five hundred soldiers lost their lives, looking for weapons that weren't there. Billions of taxpayer dollars were spent looking for weapons that weren't there. But guess what? You gonna look out that window in January and see a moving van to send you back to Texas."

--Rev. Al Sharpton


"They're not there [WMDs]. That is the issue. We should not take it to a new step to make fun of the situation. This is a very serious issue. We've lost hundreds of troops, as you know, over there. Let's not be laughing about not being able to find weapons of mass destruction."

--DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe



A little casual?! Why the hell did Nancy Pelosi laugh?

"I had thought that that was a little casual about a serious subject, but now the president has made it open season."

--Nancy Pelosi


"I wish I could report to you that the conflict is almost over. This I cannot do. We face more cost, more loss, and more agony. For the end is not yet."

--President Lyndon Johnson, 1967, who saw nothing humorous in the Vietnamese war - the conflict that George W. Bush managed to creatively avoid.



"The Democrats will go after anything.”

--Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie


"That WMD crack? And posing in advance for a stupid picture to go with your stupid, insensitive-to-soldiers'-families joke? Well. I'd say that should be worth at least another half-hour in front of the 9/11 Commission. But I don't get to make the rules."

--Value Judgement blog

Around the CNY Blogs

Although the warm Spring weather has arrived, it's still a rather somber day today in Syracuse. As NYCO points out, there is no joy in Mudville today. The Syracuse University men's basketball team is out of the NCAA Championships. NYCO also has provided astute commentary on the "unity" Democrat's dinner on Thursday:

About the unity dinner itself, I had surprisingly mixed feelings. I was channel-flipping between sports and politics, so I didn't see all of the Big Dog's speech (the C-SPAN video archives being like TiVo for Politics). But I did catch the bit where he was excoriating the GOP for its campaign tactics against McCain and Cleland, and when he got to the part about the Cleland-Osama ad, I just felt a real twinge, thinking about the Dean-Osama ad and how of course he wouldn't be mentioning that. And feeling that old anger about the Democratic establishment for a moment. I'm not sure I want to let go of that.
Lastly, dumb comment of the night goes to Jimmy Carter: "Ralph, go back to … examining the rear ends of automobiles and don't risk costing Democrats the White House this year, as you did four years ago." Yeah, that'll make people leaning Nader want to vote Democrat. Thanks.

Central New York readers will also be interested to read Nyco's comments on the strange passing-up of the Joanne Shenandoah documentary "Dancing on Mother Earth" by Public Television station WCNY in Syracuse.

If we can't see controversial programs about people and issues that actually concern CNY, what is the point of having public television in the first place?

"I got such a kick out of seeing the president huff and puff and get all indignant over the testimony of Richard Clarke this week. The real issue is this: Who would you rather have in charge of the defense of the United States of America, a group of people who never served a day overseas in their life or a guy who served this country honorably and has three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star on the battlefields of Vietnam?"

--Howard Dean today at George Washington University, formally endorsing Senator John Kerry for President

Tough times for Bushites call for tough measures
AMAZING DEVELOPMENT!
Totally out of character for the rigidly secretive Bush administration, a strict White House rule is allowed to be broken and propaganda-tool is pulled out for use.
That propaganda tool is FOX News.

Shortly before the hearing, the White House violated its long-standing rules by authorizing Fox News to air remarks favorable to Bush that Clarke had made anonymously at an administration briefing in 2002. The White House press secretary read passages from the 2002 remarks at his televised briefing, and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, who has declined to give public testimony to the commission, called reporters into her office to highlight the discrepancy. "There are two very different stories here," she said. "These stories can't be reconciled."
Back at the hearing, former Illinois governor James R. Thompson, a Republican member of the commission, took up the cause, waving the Fox News transcript with one hand and Clarke's critical book in the other. "Which is true?" Thompson demanded, folding his arms and glowering down at the witness.

The Bush administration must be feeling incredibly threatened. As they should.
I should include the next few lines for amusing closure:

Clarke, appearing unfazed by the apparent contradiction between his current criticism and previous praise, spoke to Thompson as if addressing a slow student. *[chortle]

"I was asked to highlight the positive aspects of what the administration had done, and to minimize the negative aspects of what the administration had done," he explained. "I've done it for several presidents."

Two views on Iraq

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860)


Here are two views on the war.

In the first, Denise Robertson lays out the guilt-carpet and asks how a woman (like me) could possibly protest a war that saves my "sisters". She says:

Of course, Iraq is still a dangerous place. I wouldn't like to live there with children but I like it a damn sight better now than it was two years ago, when Uday Hussein would routinely remove virgins from the country's schools in order to rape them.

It mystifies me that so many women have protested a war that freed their sisters from that kind of outrage.

I would ask Denise to consider the bitter truth about Iraq. Uday or no Uday. In the most recent edition of The New Yorker, journalist Jon Lee Anderson is seeing Baghdad firsthand while Denise frolics somewhere this day in the fairly secure UK.

Baghdad is a much more dangerous place than it was a year ago. A few days before the Mount Lebanon explosion, someone set off a bomb in front of a perfume shop in the same neighborhood—Al-Karrada, a predominantly Shiite section of the city. The target of the attack, who died, was the brotherin-law of Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council. Jaafari’s brother-in-law was not involved in politics, but he was presumably easier to get to than Jaafari, and killing him may have been worth it just to get a message across.

It is not only the wealthy who are targeted for robbery and extortion. As in countries like Colombia and Mexico, wives and children of schoolteachers and mechanics are kidnapped along with politicians and rich businessmen. A couple of months ago, the twelve-year-old son of an Iraqi friend of mine, a driver who lives in a working-class neighborhood, was kidnapped one morning while walking to school. My friend had recently bought a nice secondhand car, which he was very proud of and loved to show off. That was probably his big mistake. The kidnappers demanded fifty thousand dollars in ransom. He bargained them down to six thousand dollars, sold his new car, and paid up. Several hours later, the boy was released a few blocks from his home. Since then, my friend has not let his son out of the house, even to go to school.

I would remind Denise and other Iraq-cheerleaders that this is about far more than rape-rooms. The systemic crime dilemma in Iraq must be dealt with swiftly and it should never have been unilaterally up to the United States and the willing/bribed coalition members to take on by themselves. For all that is decent for my sisters, brothers, and the children of Iraq, we need to re-engage the world. We never should have disengaged to begin with. Thus far this lady doth protest, methinks........meknows.

March 25 News and Views



www.citypages.com

CityPages.com: Karl Rove's Moment-
How "Bush's Brain" hijacked Washington, D.C. and politics-as-usual.

The amazing thing about 2004 is not that a radical, reckless president has the chance to be reelected; the amazing thing is that, in the face of a political establishment and a news media that rarely said boo to George W. Bush, millions and millions of people have his number anyway. Where the people are concerned, therefore, Karl and W are forced to make a dicier bet--against public memory, decency, and self-interest. It isn't clear yet whether terror fears and "wedge" issues like gay marriage, guns, and religion will once again divert sufficient numbers of people from more pressing matters, such as their own livelihoods. Maybe not.

On the other hand, Karl Rove has yet to lose a race by underestimating the integrity and rationality of American electoral politics.

Guardian Unlimited - The battle of the airwaves in America:

Sarcastic, bilious and very rightwing, talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has become one of the most powerful voices in American politics. Can a group of liberals really beat him at his own game?

Paul Krugman - Lifting the Shroud

Dan Frosch, AlterNet: The Burden of Conscience

TAP: President Bush says we're winning the war on terrorism. As with so many things, however, his math doesn't add up.

On March 18, President Bush declared that U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have made "America more secure." There have been more al-Qaeda-linked attacks internationally since September 11 than in the eight years before it.

9-11 Commission

Yahoo: Families of 9/11 Victims Laud Clarke for Apology

Center for American Progress - 9/11: Internal Government Documents

NYT:Assessing the Blame for 9/11

The real impression gleaned from the hearings is not that the Bush administration was indifferent to the threat of terror, but that its officials had trouble fully understanding it.Their mind-set did not allow for the possibility of an extranational threat not orchestrated by any one particular government.

AlterNet - White House Tailspin

I saw 'Yellowcake' Hadley on 60 minutes last Sunday trying to lie his way out of admitting there was the alleged find-blame-on-Iraq meeting in the situation room with the President and Richard Clarke just after 9-11. I saw Leslie Stahl shoot ol' Yellowcake down with proof of there being at least two witnesses to the meeting. In this article, it says:

Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley – the same man who ignored CIA orders to remove false uranium claims from the President's pre-war State of the Union – defended the Administration by saying, "All the chatter [before 9/11] was of an attack, a potential Al Qaeda attack overseas." But according to page 204 of the bipartisan 9/11 congressional report, "In May 2001, the intelligence community obtained a report that Bin Laden supporters were planning to infiltrate the United States" to "carry out a terrorist operation using high explosives."

Yellowcake Hadley is caught once again. Say, why hasn't anyone ever gotten around to firing this lying fellow? Some would tell me I should leave him alone. I guess he's only "representing"..his superior liars, that is.

Buzzflash.com editorial: Documentation of Plans to Crash Airplanes Into Buildings that Bush and Condi Claim They Knew Nothing About*

*I've read most of this evidence in the past. The sane person would ask herself, "Why do you feel you must keep repeating these truths?" My answer would be: "Yeah, it looks a little crazy, doesn't it? You'd think the public would get it by now. You'd think the media would get it by now. You'd think........" Anyhow, here we go again! White House con-men have big megaphones which never stop bleating, repeating the misleading. So call me competition, already.


Misleader: Bush Administration Resorts to Lies About 9/11

Washington Post: Transcript of Wednesday's 9/11 Commission Hearings

The Memory Hole: 5-Minute Video of George W. Bush on the Morning of 9/11



Kerry vs. Bush

NY Times - As Gasoline Hits Record Price, Bush, Kerry and Democrats Spar Over Policy and Next Move

National Review - SecDef McCain: Is John McCain auditioning for a non-veep Kerry admin spot? by Rich Lowry

The Miami Herald - Kerry says Bush is soft on Chávez
*Note: see Kerry's statement on Venezuela


Iraq

The Village Voice - Day by Day, Death by Death: A Chronology of U.S. Military Fatalities Since 'Mission Accomplished,' Part I

Yahoo! News - Bush Briefed on Al Qaeda Threat Before Taking Office

Newsday.com - Bush's 9/11 myths endanger U.S.

MSNBC- 11 Iraqi police killed in ambushes

TIME Magazine - How We Got Homeland Security Wrong

Guerrilla News Network - Secrecy: The Real Mother of Terror by Colonel Daniel Smith, USA (Ret.)

Consortiumnews.com - Bush's Terror Hysteria


Political Comedy:

Fake Ad/Howard Stern.com: Bad American Presidents, We Salute You

Today's News and Views

Dotty Lynch: What Would Lee Atwater Do?

Self-Loathing Dept: Zell Miller loathes policies of majority of our nation's modern Democrats-hopes they lose

Niagara Falls Reporter: When ignorance becomes mendacity: George W. Bush's "war on terror"

GovExec.com: Groups call for the resignation of Sept. 11 commission director Philip Zelikow

Independent UK: September 11: the shocking evidence of secret deals, missed chances and fatal misjudgements

Robert Scheer: President Bush failed country in its hour of greatest need

Ellen Beck/UPI: Medicare solvency ticking away

Intervention Magazine: 9/11 Commission- why is Condoleezza Rice refusing? What is she hiding?

SF Gate: Hamas leader: Militants not targeting America

Guardian UK: Rising oil prices and a weak dollar could shatter the global economy

Fred Kaplan: Dick Clarke Is Telling the Truth- Why he's right about Bush's negligence on terrorism.

Entertainment news at Yahoo: Fred Rogers Being Honored for Music Work

David Kay at Harvard University:

"The cost of our mistakes with regard to the explanation of why we went to war in Iraq are far greater than Iraq itself. We are in grave danger of having destroyed our credibility internationally and domestically with regard to warning about future events. The answer is to admit you were wrong, and what I find most disturbing around Washington is the belief you can never admit you're wrong."

--David Kay 3-22-04 speech at Harvard University's
John F. Kennedy School of Government

M. A. Muqtedar Khan: France's radical secular fundamentalism will not enhance civil peace

The radical secular fundamentalism of France will, in my opinion, enhance rather than diminish the prospects of a clash of civilizations. Secular, Westernized Muslims have little influence in the Muslim world. Islam has become the dominant idiom of the Muslim world and the West must find a way to cooperate and coexist with moderate/liberal Islamists who believe in democracy, tolerance and pluralism, but within the Islamic rubric. French-style secularism is neither welcome in the Muslim world, nor in the US, nor by a majority of French Muslims who now constitute about one-fifth of the French population.

Kahn is a visiting fellow at Brookings Institution and director of international studies at Adrian College in Michigan.

I have written previously about the issue of the French banning Muslim head scarves and how it did not "sit right" with me when I think of government facilitating the truest of freedoms on behalf of its citizenry.

From the Iddybud archive February 11, 2004:

Opinion: "French Assembly Votes to Ban Religious Symbols in Schools"
What do you think about this assembly vote? I am not at all comfortable with it. When a government attempts to wipe away all outward signs of the spirit, it would seem to be only for the promotion of a non-spiritual, 'religion-void' society. Is this not what the most infamous authoritarians of the past have attempted to do?

Spain 10 days after the elections-
11 days after the bombings

Gustavo de Arístegui: "The terrorists had more than one reason to strike against Spain..it's folly to think they struck us simply for Iraq."

Jose Maria Aznar: "My government has told the truth. I can put up with political criticism, but I will never accept being accused of lying or manipulation. These are accusations that are intolerable, and which soil the memory of the victims. Some forget that it is this memory, and nothing else, that should be guiding our actions today.."

Ivo H. Daalder: The Warning in Spain's Election-Governments that ignore the wishes of their own people—and that over time fail to convert them to their cause—will likely suffer the consequences at the polls. The same goes for governments that manipulate information or mislead their voters. It is a lesson all democratic governments, interested in reelection, would do well to heed.

See The Gotham City 13..just don't drink the koolaid!


click on photo for the rest of the flavors.

What's wrong with
Joe Lieberman?

Read this NYT article.
Senator Joe Lieberman says he saw "no basis" for the accusation that the Bush administration was too focused on Iraq in the wake of 9-11 and that he thinks "we've got to be careful to speak facts and not rhetoric and not to go about what happened in the past so totally that we divide ourselves."

The only thing, in my opinion, that will unite Americans is awakening them to the cold, honest truth.
Politics be damned.

Senator Lieberman, unfortunately, seems to be imprisoned in a Senatorial civility-cage while serious abuses of American democracy are allowed to take place in the false name of the "uniting".

Let's not "play nice". If we fail to unite with honesty, we'll only send out the message that lies from leaders are acceptable.

~~~~~~~~~~~

UPDATE: See Rubber Hose's comments about the Lieberman "no basis" statement.

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UPDATE: Carpetbagger Report weighs in on Lioeberman's statements.

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UPDATE:See DHinMI's Letter to Lieberman at Daily Kos

Article on Richard Clarke brought to you by the same woman who all-too hastily brought you Chalabi's lies about WMDs

The New York Times has sunk to a new low. Miller should be writing classified ads instead of giving us serious news. The Times buried the story, no less. As mentioned on The Howler blog yesterday:

If you still don’t know what the New York Times has become, this morning’s edition puts your questions to rest. Richard Clarke is found at the bottom of page A18, where his startling new book and 60 Minutes interview are treated by White House stenographer Judith Miller. Before offering an abbreviated listing of Clarke’s striking claims, Miller gives unnamed Bush officials plenty of space to speculate about his troubling motives..

The assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin

"When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there. . . . Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
— Luke 23:33–34

"Let the terrorist die unshriven.
Let him go to hell.
Sooner a fly to God than he..."
--Jewish writer Cynthia Ozick


Poof! There go the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Here comes cooperation between the many militant Palestinian factions to wage attacks. Hamas will respond in Israel, we can have no doubt. Violence will surely escalate.

My first reaction is a bitterly sarcastic "Nice going, Mr. Sharon." Then, the conflict of conscience settles in. At the Anonymoses blog, Dave says:

As Dag Hammerskjold once said: "Forgiveness breaks the chain of causality." Something like that. It is no longer acceptable that the rich and powerful can want to fight, but the poor and powerless are the one who, in every way, pay.

Can Palestinians keep their rage under control, and actually forgive?
Can Israelis?

Some problems are solved. Some are resolved. But some are simply dissolved.

Here's to a renaissance of conscience...that subtle organ that has been bred out of us. It may be necessary, but will certainly be a welcome addition to our jaded personalities.

Dave's thoughts on conscience bring to mind something Emmanuel Swedenborg said:

"We have a conscience about what is good, and a conscience about what is fair. Our conscience about what is good is our inner self's conscience, and our conscience about what is fair is our outer self's conscience. Conscience about what is fair is doing things according to civil and ethical law from an outer love.

I'm certain the Israeli people are conflicted about what is good and what is fair when they see their children blown up while just trying to make their way home on the city bus. The Jewish faith is a likely guide to the conscience of the state, albeit a democracy (much as American governance is guided by those whose Christian faith runs through their ethical decision-making minds, whether some of us would like to admit it or not). That state-conscience must rule by what they believe is fair in "outer-love" for the society. So--do we imagine the assassination as "fair" in the conscience of the Israeli government? It is up to the individual to decide. There is no right or wrong answer, I'm afraid.

I think Sharon acted hastily. Yet--I am conflicted..and if I understand Swedenborg correctly, I know am not alone.

Because of this assassination, I know there will be dreadful retaliation. More violence. Reinforced and enhanced terrorist cooperation. I wonder if imprisoning Yassin would have made any difference. He was a 68-year-old man, though. A quadriplegic, no less.

Israel claims the policy of assassination will continue. No one is immune.

Alas, here I sit thinking aloud. Moral clarity....moral clarity..why do you elude us, tease us, betray us?
Is forgiveness more powerful than moral clarity?
Is turning the other cheek a political possibility? Or would that be too crazy-Christian a proposal?
Could forgiveness be more powerful than terror?

Is there any real virtue to hate?

Preliminary Rulings From 9/11 Commission

The most important point to remember, in my opinion, is that we had a pre 9-11 world and a post-9-11 world. Those worlds are nearly strangers to one another.

Point from the AP article:

Both civilian and military officials of the Defense Department said that neither Congress nor the American public would have supported large-scale military operations in Afghanistan before Sept. 11, 2001.

The GOP Clinton-witch-hunters would have gone all 'WAG-THE-DOG' on Clinton if he'd asked for a ground war on terror. They would have called him a distractor.

Here's one small example from a 1999 article about Clinton and his terrorism warnings:

"...Bill Clinton is riding high since his "not guilty" verdict and, unfortunately, the Republican Congress is letting him get away with his foreign and domestic grabs for power. Kosovo is much more important to Americans than just pictures on the evening television news about a faraway conflict.

First, it's a "wag the dog" public relations ploy to involve us in a war in order to divert attention from his personal scandals (only a few of which were addressed in the Senate trial). He is again following the scenario of the "life is truer than fiction" movie Wag the Dog. The very day after his acquittal, Clinton moved quickly to "move on" from the subject of impeachment by announcing threats to bomb and to send U.S. ground troops into the civil war in Kosovo between Serbian authorities and ethnic Albanians fighting for independence.........

Second, by putting U.S. troops in Kosovo, Clinton is provoking terrorist attacks by Islamic radicals connected to Saudi renegade Osama bin Laden, who has declared a worldwide war on Americans. Fanatics bent on jihad against the "Great Satan" United States could hardly ask for a more tempting target than Americans deployed close to terrorist bases in northern Albania.

(note: It appeared Schlafly would rather have had us appease than fight so Bin Laden wouldn't bother us. In reality, Schlafly was wrong, anyhow. Bin Laden was supportive of Albanian Muslims/KLA, and curiously, so was the U.S.).

..Even more dangerous, entering the Kosovo war may provoke terrorist retaliation within the United States. It's not only our U.S. troops who will be put in mortal danger. Bin Laden has stated unequivocally that all Americans, including "those who pay taxes," are targets.

(note: So we should have appeased Bin Laden??)

Clinton predicted on January 22 that it is "highly likely" that a terrorist group will attack on American soil within the next few years. He is using this risk as the excuse to create a Domestic Terrorism Team headed by a military "commander in chief," with a $2.8 billion budget. We should not underestimate the deceit and deviousness of Clinton's plans to use aggressive presidential actions to wipe out public memory of his impeachment trial......

(note: An excuse. Hear that? Using terrorism as an excuse.....what a fool.)

Clinton has already issued a Presidential Decision Directive to authorize military intervention against terrorism on our own soil. Secretary of Defense William Cohen said in an Army Times interview that "Terrorism is escalating to the point that Americans soon may have to choose between civil liberties and more intrusive means of protection."

Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre has been floating the idea of designating a unit of U.S. troops as a Homelands Defense Command to take charge in case of a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Hamre argues that the military's role should be formalized under a four-star general, and he has even speculated about creating a bi-national command with Canada called the "Atlantic Command."

The far-reaching nature of the plans being discussed within the Clinton Administration is indicated in the Autumn 1997 Parameters, the scholarly publication of the Army War College. The article predicts that "the growing prospect of terrorism in our own country . . . will almost inevitably trigger an intervention by the military." The article casually adds, "legal niceties or strict construction of prohibited conduct will be a minor concern."

(note: General Tommy Franks recently said the same thing about those "legal niceties".)

The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 is supposed to protect us against a President using the Army to enforce the law against civilians. The spectacle of the military patrolling the streets of U.S. cities is something that should happen only in totalitarian countries and in movies like The Siege....."

--Phillis Schlafly [Schlafly Report March, 1999]

This is how divisive politics helped bring about 9-11. Shame on all who participated then..and now.

Tough love: Walter Cronkite to John Kerry

Mr. Cronkite repeats the message I was sending last Friday in my article titled "Wishing for a less cloudy forecast- John Kerry Needs to Clear Up".

Mr Cronkite addresses Senator Kerry:

Certainly your sensitivity to nuance, your ability to see shades of gray where George Bush sees only black and white, explains some of your difficulty. Shades of gray don't do well in political campaigns, where primary colors are the rule. And your long and distinguished service in the Senate has no doubt led to genuine changes in some positions. But the denial that you are a liberal is almost impossible to reconcile.

When the National Journal said your Senate record makes you one of the most liberal members of the Senate, you called that "a laughable characterization" and "the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in my life." Wow! Liberals, who make up a substantial portion of the Democratic Party and a significant portion of the independent vote, are entitled to ask, "What gives?"

Let's hope Senator Kerry listens.

From Logos Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture
Four Challenges for Moral Theology in the New Century
by Michael S. Sherwin, O.P.



Secularists please indulge me in my theological diversion here. I found this article to be politically attractive from a Catholic/Christian standpoint. It begins by the author invoking four challenges for us to befriend as metaphysical poet Richard Crashaw spoke of in his poem entitled “Wishes to His (Supposed) Mistress". In place of the mistress, theology is carefully set. In light of our persistent confronting of the challenges of history, of nature, of graced moral development, and of the spiritual life, we may see the truth of Crashaw's poetic insight within ourselves.

From American Prospect:
Don't feel sorry for
Colin Powell
He has no one to blame but himself

...On the most critical issue confronting the United States, the rise of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, Powell helped Bush implement a course of action conceived by the neocons. What he didn't do -- because he couldn't -- was propose a different course of action that might have led to the same goal of political reform in the Arab world but that wouldn't have involved waging an unpopular war on a trumped-up pretext, a war that has extracted an enormous cost in American lives and American prestige. Bush, by most accounts, is an impressionable sort -- "malleable," as one Bush family friend uncharitably puts it -- but selling him on an alternative vision would have required actually having one, which Powell plainly did not. That alternative vision -- hardheaded about the dangers facing the U.S. but aware that the war on terrorism can't be won without international cooperation -- will have to wait for a Kerry administration.

Scalia quacks mockingly at justice and democracy

The arrogance! They must either think the American public is incredibly naive or that we just don't care.
I haven't talked to one person yet who thinks Scalia's refusal to recuse himself from this case looks good for him, the Supreme Court, or Cheney.
Who the hell do these people think they're kidding?

Le Monde:
The America that will vote for Bush

I found this article to be quite interesting because the writer raises realistic points that Democratic stategists are seemingly failing to grasp or take seriously. Those voters who embrace the falsity of the right wing populists aren't some extremist group. They are everyday "Joe-Americans".

Excerpts from the article:

Republicans are still the party of corporate management, but they have also spent years honing their own populist approach, a melange of anti- intellectualism, promiscuous God-talk and sentimental evocations of middle America in all its humble averageness....Bush is merely the latest and one of the most accomplished in a long line of pro-business politicians expressing themselves in the language of the downtrodden.......This right-wing populism works; it is today triumphant across the scene; politicians speak its language, as do newspaper columnists, television pundits and a cast of thousands of corporate spokesmen, Wall Street brokerages, advertising pitchmen, business journalists, and even the Hollywood stars that the right loves to hate.......The all-Americans despise the affected elites, with their highfalutin ways and that’s why they vote for plainspoken men like George Bush..........liberals refuse to take backlash populism seriously. They simply don’t bother to answer the stereotype of themselves as a tasteful elite, seeing it as a treacherous and obvious deceit mounted by the puppetmasters of the right...........they believe that conservative populism is merely camouflage for racism, which they believe to be epidemic in the US. The problem, they think, is neo-Nazis or right-wing militia types like Timothy McVeigh. That’s the real expression of middle America, the thing we ought to be investigating.

Political obsession with behavior:
"...without the so-called "libertine" or "secular humanist" enemy, as the Christian Right would call them, where would the Republicans be?"

Step right up-
get your Dubya action figure

Blogger Con II
Coming April 17th

Anonymoses on the nobility of Richard Clarke

Excerpt:

A Renaissance of Conscience?

But I think there will be a renaissance of conscience, if you will. And that those who know things will come forward, and realize that their loyalty too has been abused. And that lives are being lost needlessly, and because of incompetence, greed perhaps, and pressures which simply should not have been allowed to enter into the decision-making process, while those that should have been...were ignored.

NYT Magazine
Al Franken, Seriously

..He wants to have Paul Krugman, Kevin Phillips and the Clintons as guests. Also Gary Bauer, G. Gordon Liddy, Chris Rock and Michael Moore. He wants to feature national-security experts. He wants it to be in part a homage to old-time radio. He plans to have Bob Elliot, one of his radio heroes, come on to revive an old character.........Though he says he is interested in sticking around, Franken has reportedly signed only a one-year contract. ''I'm doing this because I want to use my energies to get Bush unelected,'' he told me. ''I'd be happy if the election of a Democrat ended the show.''.......... Franken, who is 52, was born in New York City, but he was raised in the heartland of liberalism: Minnesota. He counts the Minnesotans Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy and Paul Wellstone among his political heroes......

What we knew about Pakistan-one year ago and what we're doing today

To the Bush administration:
Don't ever try to tell the American public that you didn't know what Dr. Khan and the Pakistani government were doing.
The big story broke on February 2 of this year. Talk about late-breaking news.

A year ago on Iddybud:

The UN has documented that in October 1990, i.e. just two months before the US-led Operation Desert Storm to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait, Dr. Khan allegedly offered Iraq through an unnamed intermediary the technology to "manufacture a nuclear weapon". Baghdad said it rejected the offer fearing an American trap, and Pakistan denied the offer as a fraud. But the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) listed it as a key unresolved issue in a 1999 report to the UN on Iraqi arms programs. In light of the potential for further radicalization in Pakistan - and especially after the experience of after Sept. 11, 2001 – it is only to be expected that the US will want to become physically involved in the safekeeping of Pakistani nuclear weapons; reports suggest it may already have some kind of guardianship role. If acknowledged, of course, any such development could have a devastating effect on Musharraf's rapidly deteriorating domestic credibility.

Sunday Herald UK: "Ask No Questions"

The US press may finally be realising it was hoodwinked over the war … but the coverage of Madrid proves it hasn’t learned

I consider this opinion to be close to all I've been believing and stating about the American media since I premiered this blog over a year ago. When you read the summary of editorial positions of the principal Scottish and UK newspapers in the run-up to war in Iraq, you may see a startling variance in opinion from what we saw in the American press.

Excerpt:

Headlines have told their story. “Iraq’s arsenal was only on paper” admitted the Washington Post recently. “So, what went wrong?” Time magazine wanted to know. Even the right-wing Wall Street Journal was obliged to report that: “Pressure rises for probe of pre-war intelligence”. The cat was out of the bag: they’d been had. Yet why had publications with vast editorial resources been such easy marks? And why had sceptics and dissidents been silenced?

The answer to the second question is simple: the great American newspapers censored themselves. They became, if you like, patriotically deaf. In the post-9/11 atmosphere they had no editorial strategy for coping with George Bush’s moral authority, and no editorial will to devise one..

_________________________


This is my own statement from March 25, 2003:

I think we need to carefully consider the daily-changing reasons, fabrications and innuendo our own government has thrown out into the ether in order to justify this war.
The visions of cheering, dancing sugar-plums and Iraqis waiting with open arms and open hearts for their liberation.
People were led to believe this would be the case. The media reinforced that vision every day.

It just isn't so.

A lot of things the government has been telling us haven't turned out to be "so".

When we fail to question, we fail as a democracy.

We just can't assume a sense of blind loyalty and think our best interests are at the heart of all this.

Op-Ed News: Why are we in Iraq? Stupidity? Bad Judgement, Lies? Deceptions?

Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism chief to President Bush, has released new information on how the Bush White House failed to heed the warnings of national security officials, were slow to act on these warnings, were quick to blame Iraq and were unable to make the long sought after connection between Iraq and al Qaeda.

Independent: Rumsfeld 'wanted to bomb Iraq' after 9/11


Did you know?

Could the devastation of September 11 been diminished in any degree had the government’s information been made public in the summer of 2001?

On July 5th, the government’s top counter-terrorism official, Richard Clarke stated to a group gathered at the White House, “Something really spectacular is going to happen here, and it’s going to happen soon.”

The group included the FAA, the Coast Guard, the FBI, the Secret Service, and the INS. Clarke directed every counter-terrorist office to cancel vacations, defer non-vital travel, put off scheduled exercises and place domestic rapid response teams on much shorter alert.

“Frankly, I find it outrageous that the president is running for re-election on the grounds that he’s done such great things about terrorism. He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something.”

--Richard Clarke [Sunday Herald]

Newsday: 100,000 at NYC rally as protests gather nationwide


AP photo-NYC 3-20-04

In the early afternoon, [Mayor] Bloomberg estimated the crowd at about 30,000. But organizers said later that number had grown to more than 100,000 people, stretching for more than a dozen blocks through Manhattan.

One year on, and still the hard core march the world over. [Independent UK]


See a wonderful summary of the day's events in New York at Hanging Out With the Duchess

Norman Solomon asks

"And henceforth, the only honorable course will be to stake everything on a formidable gamble: that words are more powerful than munitions."

--Albert Camus

Excerpt from a new, insightful article by Mr. Solomon:

Key questions of the past are also crucial for the future.

** For instance, can the United States credibly wage a "war on terrorism" by engaging in warfare that terrorizes civilians? (Close to 10,000 Iraqi civilians have died because of the war during the past year.)


** Does the mix of mendacity and deadly violence from the Oval Office really strike against terrorism, or does it fuel terrorist cycles?


** And, in the realm of news media, how many journalists are willing and able to go beyond reliance on official sources enough to bring us truth about lies that result in death?

Wishing for a less cloudy forecast-
John Kerry Needs to Clear Up

This dischord in the pact of things,
This endless war 'twixt truth and truth,
That singly held, yet give the lie
To him who seeks to hold them both...

- Boethius

Re: AP: Dean nod mixed bag for Kerry
By Nedra Pickler

The same brutal honesty that Howard Dean brought to the political forefront is recommended, by some political advisors, to be publically shunned by John Kerry. I'm all for honesty. Until we can all be brutally honest about matters, liars and media-manipulators will continue to prevail in these horse races. A Dean-shunning by Kerry would be a vote for Bush, in my estimation. Kerry needs more political clarity. He's being pegged as a waffler on key issues...and let's face it, to the non-trained political ear, he comes off sounding like one. I may not love his message, but GOP Campaign Chairman Ed Gillsepie's not lying when he drags out his political ammo. All the GOP has to do is show the clip of Kerry saying he voted for the $87 billion for the troops before he voted against it....or display Kerry's statement upon voting "YES" to the Iraq resolution in October 2002. I have a trained political ear. Even I failed to glean a clear message or direction from that statement.

President Bush may be an overly simplistic simpleton in some eyes, but we must remember that most Americans want their messages as simple and clear as they can get them. I trust John Kerry supports our troops and I know he voted "No" on the $87 billion because he was demanding accountability from the Bush administration. However, all many Americans will see is that silly statement he made about "for-before-against". There are often two or more rationally acceptable sides to our stories...even relativity is a two-faced Janus...but humans tend to need to be reassured with straightforward consistency when the message is pitched over their home-plate.

--Howard Dean is clear and straight. He's been excoriated for it in the media..even by the likes of Democrats like Bruce Reed of the DLC. What a shame upon the DLC. The AFSCME boss called Dean "nuts".

--Bush is clear and misleading...and he's been rewarded and honeymooned by the same media that destroyed Dean's candidacy...and will destroy Kerry's if he's not smart. Stop shunning the honesty of Dean. Dean has stuck by the Democrats and has greatly furthered their case against Bush. In my opinion, they'd be lost in the woods without him.

This isn't "Dean-lost" sour grapes. I'd really love to see straight and clarifiying messages from Kerry.
He needs to change or face a loss in November.
This is not a Kerry-bash. This is tough love.

By the way, I think Howard Dean would be a tremendous representational asset to the spirit of the American people by serving as John Kerry's Vice President. He's the eidetic 21st-Century Paine or Jefferson, never losing sight of the fact that America is only as good as each individual in whom our Creator gifted those certain unalienable Rights.

They're coming at you firecely, Senator. Kerry. There has never been a more important time to embrace and incorporate the honesty of those who are your political friends.

See:
Weekly Standard: Kerry's Uncommon Touch
Besides the flip-flops, John Kerry has another big problem: how his life in the Senate has prepared him for connecting with ordinary Americans

ALTERNATIVE HEADLINES

Poland Says It Was 'Misled' On WMD

Twilight of the Neocons- Richard Perle has begun to panic

Independent: Arab journalists walk out on Powell over US shootings

Reason interview: Meet Hizbollah-
The Party of God's MP talks about Islam, Iraq, and the war on terror

Ecnomist.com- The next American empire- George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld have pledged to change the way America's armed forces are distributed around the globe. What do they have in mind?

NYT: For Children of Gays, Marriage Brings Joy

Prague Post: Deconstructing a president- Citizens regard Czech President Vaclav Klaus' image as more vital than his political views

Paul Krugman: "...Most Americans, I suspect, still don't realize how badly this apparent exploitation of the world's good will — and the subsequent failure to find weapons of mass destruction — damaged our credibility..."

Today in history...

1860- William Jennnings Bryan born in Salem, Illinois.
Related site: The Scopes Trial
Related current Events: County that was site of Scopes Trial Wants to Charge Homosexuals


Battle of Bentonville

1865- Civil War, Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina.

Have you seen The Gadflyer ?


The Gadflyer is a new progressive Internet magazine. At their website, they promise it will be provocative, critical, and iconoclastic. It will cover politics and public affairs from a fresh perspective, offering journalism, analysis, and commentary from a new generation of writers.

I recommend Amy Sullivan's article on getting tough with progressive constituencies, Paul Waldman's article on getting tough with the Right, and Sean Aday's article on getting tough with the press.

The age of the wimpy liberal is over! Who knew?

Know this: Vote for Bush and we'll be going after Iran soon
*It's just a knowing thing*

Listen to Michael Ledeen and Richard Perle. They aren't just suggesting a possibility of future war with Iran. They are telling you it shall be unavoidable from their points of view. Unfortunately, the thesis they've wrapped their foreign policy ideas around has been warped by a pesky thing called REALITY.

But who cares about reality, right? I mean, it didn't make a hill o'beans of difference to our President.

I hope the Balkans don't explode again. Milosevic is gone, but hate lives on

This time the Serbs are the victims of Albanian agression. Turn, turn, turn....
If KFOR can't get a grip on the situation, we may want to see a comeback of General Wesley Clark in some capacity. Vice President or Secretary of Defense, perhaps? Clark knows the Balkans. He'd be invaluable to the effort it's apparently going to take to get this situation lined up in America's best interests. I wish it weren't so, but there is no one in the Bush administration I trust anymore to handle such a volatile situation.

Slice o'life






I'd vote for Mickey Mouse if he was running against George Bush - anyone but Bush."

--May Duke





*Be careful what you wish for, May!*

Howard Dean will officially announce his new advocacy group Democracy for America tomorrow.

A great Central New York resource for information on Howard Dean is at NYCO's blog.

Seen Shakespeare's Will? Want to?

HERE

Are there any descendants of Shakespeare alive today?

Shakespeare had three children: Susanna (1583), twins Hamnet and Judith (1585). Hamnet died in 1596, aged eleven. Susanna married John Hall in 1607, and had one child, Elizabeth, born in 1608. Elizabeth was married twice, to Thomas Nash in 1626, and to John Bernard in 1649. However, she had no children by either husband. In 1616 Judith married Thomas Quiney, by whom she had three sons, Shakespeare Quiney, who died in infancy, and Richard and Thomas, who both died unmarried, early in 1639 within a month of each other. Legitimate descent from Shakespeare is therefore impossible. It is possible, however, to claim a relationship through his sister, Joan. She married William Hart some time before 1600 and there are many descendants of this marriage alive today, in both male and female lines.

Donald Rumsfeld-
Caught on tape

A year ago today, the Bush Administration was making its final push toward war in Iraq. We know now that much of what we were told about the threat that Iraq posed was untrue. And rather than own up to their distortion of the facts, Bush administration officials are denying they ever said such things. But this Sunday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld got caught blatantly contradicting his past statements, and MoveOn.org has the video clip. Click the link on the title above in order to see it.

ONE Year Ago--
TWO Views Ago on IDDYBUD..

Read these two points of view. Consider all that has occurred over the past year. Draw your own conclusions.


"We will not defeat or even contain fanatical terror unless we can carry the war to the territories from which it is launched. This will sometimes require that we use force against states that harbour terrorists, as we did in destroying the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

The most dangerous of these states are those that also possess weapons of mass destruction. Iraq is one, but there are others. Whatever hope there is that they can be persuaded to withdraw support or sanctuary from terrorists rests on the certainty and effectiveness with which they are confronted. The chronic failure of the security council to enforce its own resolutions is unmistakable: it is simply not up to the task. We are left with coalitions of the willing. Far from disparaging them as a threat to a new world order, we should recognise that they are, by default, the best hope for that order, and the true alternative to the anarchy of the abject failure of the UN."

--Richard Perle
NeoConservative, former Pentagon warhawk (was chairman of defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld's Defense Policy Board). Mr. Perle was the who said last November to an audience in London:
"I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."
Mr Perle is the co-author of "An End to Evil-How to Win the War on Terror"
[ American Conservative Review HERE ]

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


"Many of you believe this must happen because you have been told, time and again, that Saddam Hussein possesses an awesome arsenal of mass destruction weapons that he will gladly give to terrorists for use against us. Your belief that this is so stems from your loyalty – the President has told you it is true, and so it must be true. It is fearful indeed to consider weapons like this in the hands of terrorists.
You must know, however, that no proof of either prohibited weapons possession or connections to terrorism on the part of Saddam Hussein has been offered by the administration. They have made many accusations, and offered chunks of evidence, but over the last weeks and months each and every bit of evidence put forth has been debunked. Sometimes, the press has proven them wrong, sometimes the weapons inspectors in Iraq proved them wrong, and sometimes our own intelligence services proved them wrong. No proof offered by the Bush administration has stood up.
None."

--William Rivers Pitt, columnist, addressing Americans who may have been "on the fence" about the right and wrong of the just-begun pre-emptive war on Iraq.


TODAY'S HEADLINE: Bush warms to new UN resolution on Iraq
*would Mr. Perle see this as 'giving in'
to the terrorists?*

In the news

-> Bomb Destroys Baghdad Hotel, Kills Dozens



-> On St. Patrick's Day:
'Religion and Politics - Separate or Inseparable' - John Bruton

Politics, therefore, involves compromise in a way that religious teaching never does. But at what point must the necessity of compromise be made subject to principle, principle based on religious belief? My own view is that matters involving the taking of life are ones where politicians should always vote on principle, principles that for many politicians will derive from their religious beliefs. Other less serious, less irreversible, matters of social and economic policy are ones where the necessity for compromise can be given equal or even greater weight...

-> Bush aide disclaims 2 GOP lawmakers' remarks on Cuba

-> "NBC News has obtained, exclusively, extraordinary secret video, shot by the U.S. government...."


Video here

**OK---How did they they obtain this "exclusively, extraordinary secret
video"?? I wonder if it's as authentic as this one was?

-> Reuters: Democrats Tally 'Misleading' Iraq Statements

-> ThousandReasons.org Opinion re: Presidential Campaign: George Bush: Liar

-> NYT: Powell Reassures India they'll keep getting American jobs.

-> Bank of America Plans Job Cuts of Up to 13,000

-> Washington Post: Spain Campaigned to Pin Blame on ETA
Despite Evidence to Contrary, Basque Group Was Focus in Blasts
*You cannot get caught in a lie of this magnitude on an issue of this importance, and expect to get reelected.*

-> "SPAIN"- Dave Ross Commentary/Seattle, WA

Al Qaeda wants to scare Europe into keeping its distance from the United States.

But that's crazy! You can't give into terrorists! Spain should know that -- heck, Spain DOES know that - they've been fighting Basque terrorists for years.

So how is it that the United States, a victim of terrorism itself, is suddenly like Kryptonite?

We won the war in Iraq! We continue to rebuild the place! We killed Uday and Qusay! We captured Saddam! A new poll in Iraq says 70% of Iraqis expect things to be better off a year from now! By any definition that is a victory!

The only possible explanation is... that the people of Spain decided winning in Iraq ... has nothing to do with stopping terrorism.

And saw last week's attack as the final proof.

-> Judge Denies Al-Arian Free-Speech Claims

A Florida Federal district judge says fund-raising does not have constitutional First Amendment protection and rejects defense motions to strike the words "terrorism" and "terrorist" from Professor Sami Al-Arian's indictment. In a case where an American citizen gives to a charity, do the very words "terrorist" not ring loudly of wildly prejudicial treatment? I can see this one going to the Supreme Court. I have observed shades of similar questionable judicial treatment given to a highly-respected and beloved oncologist here in upstate New York, Dr.Rafil Dahfir, who chose to give to Iraqi charity...certainly no terrorist.

-> Electronic (ES &S) Voting Machines are sure to bring about a democratic disaster this fall
*Even if Bush (or Kerry) lose by narrow margins in any given district in the nation, think about how the GOP (or the Dems) may use information like this to contest voting results. Look at what happened in just two parishes in Louisiana in the most recent (November 5, 2003) elections..

In Louisiana, the two parishes (counties) that paid more than $3 million for 700 ES&S Votronic touch-screen voting machines suffered “countless problems” with the new machines, ac cording to The Advocate of Baton Rouge. The ES&S machines “plagued voters and the clerks of court staffs in Ascension and Tangipahoa, the only parishes that use the new machines other than for absentee balloting.”

Ascension Parish Clerk of Court Hart Bourque said Wednesday that more than 200 machine malfunctions were reported.

“A mechanic would fix a machine, and before he could get back to the office, it would shut down again,” Bourque said. “Unless we find a solution, next fall there’s no way we can vote.”

Tangipahoa Parish Clerk of Court John Dahmer said: “I can’t say every precinct had a problem, but the vast majority did.” Dahmer said at least 20 percent of the machines malfunctioned.

-> David Corn/The Nation: The Best--or Worst--of Bush's Iraq Whoppers

-> AP: 9/11 Panel Calls Bush, Clinton Officials
Hell, no..Condi won't go.

-> AJC: Trust in U.S. erodes abroad
Survey of foreign nations shows many doubt intent of anti-terror campaign

What's going on in Iraq?

I just read the strangest story: U.S. Unloading WMD in Iraq reports an Iranian News Agency

A reliable source from the Iraqi Governing Council, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Mehr News Agency that U.S. forces, with the help of British forces stationed in southern Iraq, had made extensive efforts to conceal their actions.

I would hope we would not plant phony evidence.

Liberty and Justice for all

THIS IS LIBERTY??
--Easier Internet Wiretaps Sought
Justice Dept., FBI Want Consumers To Pay the Cost

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

THIS IS JUSTICE??--
--Prosecutor sues Justice, Ashcroft
--A Real Case Of Snakebite
How a trophy terrorism prosecution morphed into a big mud fight

What you see may shock you


This is a very moving story that should be told and allow you to judge for yourself. Our President is claiming 9-11 as some sort of political leadership-victory for his campaign. You may or may not see it that way after viewing some of these facts.