Bush is Still Misleading the Public About Iraq

Bush is Still Misleading the Public About Iraq

ParaPundit believes that President Bush's deceitful 4th of July speech for 2005 was an insult to the revolutionaries who founded the United States of America.

In that speech, Bush said:

"At this hour, our men and women in uniform are defending America against the threats of the 21st century. The war we are fighting came to our shores on September the 11th, 2001."

Defending America in Iraq? I wonder who the President thinks he's still fooling?

This past week, the PBS News Hour has been interviewing three soldiers and one Marine about their experiences in Iraq. On the News Hour last night, I heard Former Army Staff Sgt. Gregg Bumgardner say that he is disturbed whenever it is said that the soldiers are "defending America" because, before the war, Iraq was surely not the haven for terrorists that it has become today. In other words, Iraq was not the same threat as that posed by the 9/11 terrorists - and we created this new haven for terror by bringing the war to Iraq's homeland. Remember - this is coming from a soldier returning from Iraq, not from some armchair warrior. When the transcript becomes available, I will post a link to the comment so you may read the words verbatim.

At BOP - A Simple Plan for Democrats

At BOP - A Simple Plan for Democrats
Stirling Newberry has a simple and straightforward plan for Democrats to take back the House in 2006.

Elizabeth Edwards to Write Autobiography

Elizabeth's Writing Her Life
One of my favorite women in public life, Elizabeth Edwards [WaPo], is in the process of writing an autobiography, and I can't wait to read it.

Greensboro (aka Blogsboro) in the New York Times

Greensboro (aka Blogsboro)
in the New York Times

It's great to see Lex Alexander's transition efforts to convert the News-Record website into a virtual town square, along with Roch Smith's Greensboro101 recognized and discussed together in the New York Times.

As Billy Jones has said, with upcoming events such as ConvergeSouth on the near horizon, Greensboro (aka "Blogsboro") will no doubt remain the center of the Blogosphere for a long time to come.

Tar Heel Tavern #19

Tar Heel Tavern #19

At ..Slowly She turned.. you will find Tar Heel Tavern #19. Laurie's done a great job, and we can't thank her enough for volunteering to host on a Holiday weekend. Happy Birthday to 4th of July baby Erin Monahan!

Training the Future U.S. Resistance

Training the Future U.S. Resistance

Jonathan Schell points to the probability that, to the extent that the forces we are training in Iraq are opposed to a U.S. occupation, the ones we train today will be our resistance tomorrow. When will we learn?
Link - Truthout
Link- TomDispatch Commentary

Dems Shouldn't Have Compromised on Filibuster

Dems Shouldn't Have Compromised on Filibuster
..The compromise was a bad deal for Dems - They look like dogs on GOP leashes

Last May, I wrote about the Senate compromise on the Filibuster. I'd given the opinion that it was a "no-win" for the Democrats, and had they showed strong conviction, they could have stuck to their guns and avoided a politically fruitless compromise. The flame that was once a part of the Democrats' book of rhetoric seems to have been extinguished by political fear.

Raw Story reports that the compromise, in the long run, appears to be one that will prevent the Democrats from employing the filibuster against a staunchly conservative Supreme Court nominee if that particular nominee's philosophical views cannot amount to "extraordinary circumstances." The filibuster can be justified only on questions of personal ethics or character.

The way that this compromise was written, should the Democrats "renege" on the terms of the compromise, the Republicans can attempt to outlaw the filibuster altogether.

We're screwed. Who do I mean by "we"? Everyone except the radically conservative - which is probably one-fifth of the nation's voting population. (In 2004, a plurality of 22% singled out moral values -code for supporting a radically conservative agenda - as the issue of top importance.) Even the moderates lose out. Almost 80% of the voting population of the U.S. seem to have no champions who possess any real power in government today - a terribly frightening thought.

Some compromise. Nice work, you seven Democrats who entered into this snakepit of a decision.
Joe Lieberman
Robert Byrd
Ben Nelson
Mary Landrieu
Daniel Inouye
Mark Pryor
Ken Salazar

Washington Post article

Happy 4th of July

Painting by R.A. Hart Nagurney
(My mother)

Happy 4th of July

I realize he's no longer with the Yankees, but Orlando Hernandez (aka El Duque) has a weird pitching stance that caught my mother's eye, as an artist. She did her best to recapture that unique move - and since it evokes the spirit of the red, white and blue - along with baseball, America, Mom...everything but the apple pie...I decided to use it for my Fourth of July post.

"Patriotism is too often the hatred of other countries…. disguised as love of our own.”

- From a speech given by Senior Associate Dean Robert McClure/Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs/Syracuse University on February 4, 2002

If you have a moment, I'd like to remind you about
Intelligent Patriotism and what it means.

Karl Rove Outed Valerie Plame

A Heart-Warming 4th of July Story: Karl Rove Involved in Outing Valerie Plame

Karl Rove Outed Valerie Plame
...and All We Get Is His Denial and a Lousy T-shirt



"On the day that hell freezes over...."

- The Iraq war is a disaster. The Bush administration has tried to hide the fact for a long time. They would do anything to make themselves look as if they have conducted themselves properly. Paradoxically, they are being exposed as bitter hypocrites who will discriminately do "wrong" in order to appear "right".

- Valerie Plame was attacked because her husband, Joseph Wilson, blew the lid off the fact that the White House lied about the infamous Niger uranium. If you don't think Dick Cheney's top was ready to pop over what Joe Wilson was saying, you haven't been paying attention.

- I still think "fake journalist" Jeff Gannon (aka James Guckert) came along at too much of a coincidental time - and had his by-line on far too many damaging Joseph Wilson stories NOT to suspect that something shady was going on between the White House and Gannon.

- We learn that Karl Rove was directly involved in leaking Valerie Plame's identity to the American press.

- In October 2003, Karl Rove had told MSNBC's Chris Matthews that Plame, a CIA agent, was "fair game". So, who's ultimately responsible for the leak? If Karl Rove outed Valerie Plame to Robert Novak (the first schlump to report the identity), someone obviously told Rove that Plame was a covert CIA agent. That certain "someone" is likely more guilty than Rove himself. Prosecutions under the law are rare because they require a showing that the leak was intentionally disclosed and that the person leaking the information knew the government was trying to conceal it. You know darn well that Rove will claim it was unintentional. We know that's a lie, because we know Karl Rove's character all too well. Knowing that, however, does not a prosecution make. I don't think it would be a stretch to believe Dick Cheney may have told Rove. If so, then the Bush administration may have to burn the fatheaded Rove to save Cheney if push comes to shove. The only chance of saving one of them, if they can, is to let one hang. What about Bush himself? He hired an attorney to protect himself long ago, and there's been plenty of talk about the real reason George tenet and James Pavitt resigned. No matter how it works out, the White House leak of a CIA agent's identity showed that core standards and principles do not have a place within the Bush administration and that our national security can be easily compromised for cheap political retribution. George W. Bush and the closest people to him in his administration have been exposed as the filthiest scum in the history of American government.

- We can now be sure that everything is fair game in politics, even if national security is severely compromised and covert agents' lives are put at risk.

- We live in a time when the notions of justice and fairness are turned on their head. The lust and greed for power have elevated the Bush administration, and the class of citizens they divisively represent, to a level where there are absolutely no consequences to be paid for them to break even the highest law. Many bloggers on the left have lost faith that Karl Rove will pay any price for his treasonous actions.




- Dave Niewert is an important voice in the wilderness - a modern-day prophet who has warned Americans, time and time again, that fascism is working its way into our American government.

- Bora Zivcovic, a progressive blogger who I have had the opportunity to meet in person, has an important story and lesson for all of us. He and his family have been through a shameful time in human history - the Holocaust - a time when many of them didn't make it through to the other side with their lives. If you cannot trust the perspective of a person who has lost 42 members of his family to state-sanctioned murder, than I suggest that you may not be capable of trusting anyone. At the beginning of the crisis in the Balkans in 1991, Bora points to the fact that the Israeli press had recognized what the Westerners did not - the fascistic nature of Franjo Tudjman's new government in Croatia, and the reason is because the Jews have decided to never again become an invisible people whose persecution could escape the consciousness of humankind. Warning signs of fascism can come in the forms of underlying ideology "which can be coated in whatever symbols people are already used to - and proud of - including the American flag."
Bora says,

"Neither Nazism nor Stalinism sprung up suddenly out of nowhere. Both built up gradually, over the years, slowly acclimating the populations to the ever-increasing levels of totalitarianism, and utilizing the fears and emotional insecurity of the few to rein in the many....

....If you look at The 14 Defining Characteristics Of Fascism you will recognize that all 14 are at some stage of implementation by the current US government....

....I don't personally know Cheney and Rove (Bush is just a puppet, so he can be disregarded), but everything they have said and done so far suggests that, if they were living in 1930s and they were in position of power, they would have slaughtered millions. Nothing in ther behavior suggests the tiniest modicum of decency."

Bora sends all of us a warning, and our failure to heed the warning is going to cost every one of us our freedom.

- You may say, "How can Jude Nagurney Camwell believe she can turn a story about Karl Rove's outing of a CIA agent (and getting away with it) into a story about fascism - and expect anyone to take her seriously? Isn't she carrying this a bit too far?" The signs are here - and they are real.
Think of the law which was recently passed to outlaw the burning of the American flag.
Think about the rampant sexism that is causing great anxiety about Women's Issues with the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor.
Think about Karl Rove's recent public comments about "liberals."
Think about the Religious Far Right and how their Dominionist beliefs are being allowed to be pressed into American government.
Think about how Labor is being broken and Corporate power is being fed by the powers that be.
Think about the many ways the Executive has employed lies - to start a war or to mislead the public about that war's "success".
Think about fraudulent elections.
The White House sends carefully-crafted messages to divide Americans, and the dividing lines are based upon labels such as "liberals." Ironically, while the Bush administration and the special class they represent package their labels to make the public believe "liberal" means authoritarian and "anti-American," and while they stake a claim to ownership of the American flag, they become more authoritarian by the day, by their lies and their lustful usurpation of power. Fascism isn't obvious as it creeps in - it doesn't scream out to you - the heavy hand of nationalism doesn't leave you a billboard which you can put your finger on and say "Ah-Ha!" There are only clues. So, "How can Jude expect you to believe?" I don't have any great expectation, but I hope you will think about this carefully. It's the least that our Founding Fathers would have wanted you to do, and the best Fourth of July greeting I could possibly send to my fellow Americans.

If Karl Rove outed Valerie Plame and we're all asleep and nobody cares, this is a sure sign that fascism is alive in the United States today.

_ _ _ _ _

Sidenote:
Josh Marshall asks:

So just a question: Would Fitzgerald have pushed to get Cooper and Miller in the slammer if some other party in the White House weren't in a lot of trouble? And one last question: Cooper and Miller are very different kinds of journalists, swim in very different waters. Are they really in this jam for the same reasons?

From Third Estate Sunday Review:

"Karl, you're finally historically famous. Bully's Brain just became a footnote to history. Guilty or innocent, you'll always be mentioned as someone who ran a presidential campaign and was called before a grand jury to testify on outing a CIA agent. Kind of hard to wrap the flag around that, isn't it?"

Eliot Spitzer in Syracuse

Eliot Spitzer in Syracuse


Jude and Eliot Spitzer
photo by Mike Giarrusso

Sandra Day O'Connor Leaves - Battles Enter In

Sandra Day O'Connor Leaves - Battles Enter In

A storm is brewing over Washington, D.C.

John Dean warned us about what we see beginning today. George W. Bush has pulled no punches. He has been politically overt about hoping that Roe v. Wade is overturned.

Last September, John Dean had made the argument that the retirement of Supreme Court justices and the expected battles over the confirmation of their replacements should have been more more openly debated during the last campaign. Giving John Kerry the benefit of the doubt, he said that perhaps Kerry saw a danger in "playing politics with the judiciary."

Commenting that Democrats have lost their "bullying" talent, Dean commented that the Republicans, had they lost the 2000 election to a Supreme Court decision, would have "made the 2000 election the central focus of the 2004 election." Instead, Dean refleceted, the Democratic Party, "once a party of flame-throated cantankerous conservatives, no longer is very adept at the squeaky-wheel politics of incivility."

We know that Bush wants to see Roe v. Wade overturned. The only way to do so is for a new decision which would reinterpret settled law. Roe v. Wade is settled law. During the Presidential campaign, the issue of the Supreme Court resonated only with a small number of voters. It may not have scored John Kerry many political points. Yet, if Roe v. Wade is overturned, the public repercussions will be deafening.

My concern comes directly from John Dean's words. The flame in the Democrats' throats seem to have been extinguished by political fears. Their wheels have not been squeaking for quite some time. Will they be effective when the TV ads from the far Right begin? (And the issue advocacy ads have already begun).

Squeak, Democrats! Squeak!

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

WWW.UPorDownVote.com

LINK- In Washington, the looming showdown between legions of political activists already looks and feels more like a full-scale election than a Senate confirmation. That's no accident; both sides have been gearing up for a confrontation since President George W. Bush's re-election victory in November, if not earlier.

This time, the voters will be the members of the U.S. Senate. And the pressure from outside interest groups on those 100 lawmakers promises to be relentless.

"It's just going to be unbelievable," said former Sen. John C. Danforth, R-Mo., who acted as a chief defender of Clarence Thomas's Supreme Court nomination in 1991.

"The conservatives, especially the religious conservatives, are going to want a nominee who has been pretty much pre-cooked, somebody who they think they can count on, so they're going to be very hard to please," Danforth said. And the liberals, he said, "probably don't want almost anybody who President Bush would nominate."

Dana and Al Jibouri

Dana and Al Jibouri

Dana Pittard and Abdallah Al Jibouri are two people who, I am quite sure, never expected to be thrown together. And yet, they have come together in the strangest place at the strangest time.

Reading about their experience, I keep thinking about how much easier things might have been, had our President and his administration taken the proper steps to plan and cooperate with the international community, who held their hands out to us after September 11th. If any reader whose eyes should fall upon this blog thinks that I am happy to remind the public, day after day, of the great failure of the Bush administration to do this thing right, you couldn't be more wrong.

Most soldiers had no inkling of the history of the land to which they were assigned their mission, and we cannot fault them for what they have had to do. They had no idea what to expect. They were told what the American public was told - that they would be greeted, by Iraqi citizens, as liberators. Instead, they are approached by citizens saying "Thank you for getting rid of Saddam Hussein - now leave." And here they remain, well over two years after the fall of Saddam - unwanted.

I heard one Iraqi gentleman on a documentary I was watching called "About Baghdad", and he was metaphorically comparing Iraq to a theatre that has been boarded up for 20 years. The doors to the theatre swing open and there is new-found freedom within. Iraqis are joyous to think about the potential for the freedom within that theatre, only to discover that the occupier wishes to tear it down and turn it into a garish tourist trap. Who cannot understand their anger and frustration, after so many years of massacres and oppression?

We have gravely underestimated and misunderstood the hearts, minds, desires, and dreams of the Iraqi people. Men like Dana Pittard and Abdallah Al Jibouri, who call themselves "brothers", could be in Baquba today working small miracles. Instead, they both have to worry, every damned minute, about being assassinated. The Bush adminstration pretends they have nothing to do with that situation. They, and many members of Congress, are on total disconnect.

It's heartbreaking.

Iraq is Achilles Heel of the GOP

The abjection of our political situation is the only true challenge today. Only facing up to this situation in all its desperation can help us get out of it.

-Jean Baudrillard

Iraq is Achilles Heel of the GOP

I was reading a post at MJW Stickings' 'The Reaction' ,along with the discussion that follows in the Comments section. The topic, which is GOP desperation, was sparked by a Steve Soto piece at 'The Left Coaster', saying that, if VP Dick Cheney sees the need to "shoot at a fellow Republican [Chuck Hagel] over Iraq, it's because the Administration is headed into the dumper by its own making, and the GOP natives are getting restless.

John McCain has been called a "nutjob" by his own. McCain may attempt to marginalize activist/lobbyist Grover Norquist, but political insiders know about the influential Mr. Norquist and his Americans for Tax Reform. (For those who do not know him, Norquist is the man who wants to "cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.") Norquist condescendingly and disrespectfully referred to Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe as "the two girls from Maine". Norquist is attempting to introduce the label of
"ANTI-MAINSTREAM" into his attacks and arguments against moderate Republicans, whom he claims are "out of the GOP mainstream."

The co-opting of the word "mainstream" by radical conservatives will not fly in the face of reality.

Hearing these words of desperation from GOP activists, I sense that there is serious fear of the successful effect of many of the well-organized efforts of grassroots organizations such as DFA and Moveon.org. I can see that fear resonating throughout the right side of the blogosphere. Finally, someone on the other side has caught on to what the GOP has known for at least 20 years. People can harness great power when they organize and unite. The internet has made MoveOn.org an unstoppable powerhouse. Karl Rove has recently invoked their name, not in the hope of dividing the nation between GOP and Dem, but in the direct hope of dividing what he sees as the "traditional/centrist Democrats" from the progressive, free-thinking Democrats (Rove calls them "liberal", GOP code for Satan). Rove fails to realize that Democrats have caught onto the parlor trick known as "label-and-divide", and all it took was the Bush administration's tactical and strategic failures in Iraq to help Democrats (and many Independents) to pull back the curtain and reveal "The Wizard of Rove", aka 'Bush's Brain', for the fat-headed flim-flam man that he is.

A longtime Bush apologist named Joel Mowbray, who inspired Pat Robertson to emulate a terrorist and say he wanted to nuke Foggy Bottom, says that Bush, in his speech, "neither tried to justify the rationale for the war nor was there any shift in his position." I agree with that statement. There was nothing new, at least nothing of any value to Americans looking for a new strategy. You can feel Mowbray's fear of Moveon.org in the next statement:

While the speech contained little news of any sort, it did achieve a very important goal—one that is crucial in the face of the moveon.org crowd’s white noise campaign: it laid out in clear fashion the entire framework of what we’ve done in Iraq, what we’re doing now, where we’re headed, and most significantly, why it’s important that we prevail.

Mowbray is so lost in the fantasy that I find him to be amusing, as I would find a robot, a broken record, or a cult-film about zombies to be amusing.

In the face of all Americans who are paying attention to reality, the only thing that was made "clear" in the Bush speech was that he is never going to change; he will never have the humility and grace that is possessed by the kind of leader who could steer a united nation or the world community toward meaningful peace; and - after the Downing Street memo revelation and confirmation of his lies and misleading - he will never again have the trust of the citizens of the United States.

Bush may have three years left to limp along on his Achilles heel, but he's over and done.

Hear the words of......

"Hear the words of Osama Bin Laden....."

- - George W. Bush

Hear the Words Of....

"I wasn't surprised to hear Bush mention bin Laden. Bin Laden is a very convenient name for him. He totally ignored the name for years. There had been times when bin Laden is brought up, he says ‘Oh, well, I'm not really concerned about him.’ But he always knew in the back of his mind that he could trot him out whenever he wanted in order to justify virtually anything he is doing. Although, you know, you would have to be insane to go to war against North Korea, if he did he would surely be trotting bin Laden out for that, as well."

- - Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance

________________



Hear the words - My Short Poem

Why would your leader throw the words of a murderer in your face?
Why would he lift the killer's words, in his speech, to that much grace?
Why is he now recalling the one he allowed to escape as the towers burned..
When less than two years ago, he told the world he was not that concerned?



_________________

Hear the Words.....

Note: If you are wondering why on earth I'm repeating the words of so many American enemies, it's because I'd like you to think about their words - and ask yourself if any prior President of the United States would have asked you to take the enemy's deluded propaganda-words to heart.

- Hear the words of King George III, American Revolution

"A traitor is everyone who does not agree with me."

- Hear the words of Jefferson Davis, Civil War

"All we ask is to be let alone."

Hear the words of General Valeriano the "Butcher" Nicolau, Spanish American War

"My first action was to gather the peasant population and imprison them in concentration camps."

*well -he didn't actually say it - but he DID it!*

- Hear the words of Kaiser Wilhelm, WWI (.. on King Edward VII)

"He is Satan, you cannot imagine what a Satan he is!"...

"Germany's greatness makes it impossible for her to do without the ocean, but the ocean also proves that even in the distance, and on its farther side, without Germany and the German Emperor, no great decision dare henceforth be taken!"

- Hear the words of Nikita Khrushchev, Cold War

"What the scientists have in their briefcases is terrifying."... "We will bury you."

- Hear the words of Joseph Stalin, WWII

"If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves....

"...The people who cast the votes do not decide an election, the people who count the votes do.".

- Hear the words of Adolph Hitler, WWII

"The great masses of people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one."

"What luck for rulers that men do not think."

- Hear the words of Kim Il-Sung, Korean conflict

"Should any enemy attempt to infringe upon our country's freedom and our people's happy life, our People's Armymen will fight to the last drop of their blood to defeat the enemy and defend the country and the people to the bitter end."

- Hear the words of Pol Pot, Viet Nam War

"I want you to know that everything I did, I did for my country."

- Hear the words of George Bush!

"I wish I wasn't the war president. Who in the heck wants to be a war president? I don't.

Bush Speech: Covering the Day After

Bush Speech:
Covering the Day After

Juan Cole:

..There are no Iraqi military units that can and will fight independently against the Sunni guerrillas, so all those statistics he quoted are meaningless.

..The people in Fallujah and Ramadi were not sitting around plotting terrorism three years ago. They had no plans to hit the United States. Terrorism isn't a fixed quantity. By unilaterally invading Iraq and then bollixing it up, Bush and Vines have created enormous amounts of terrorism, which they are now having trouble putting back in the bottle.

..Maybe 8 percent of the fighters in Iraq are foreign jihadis. Of the some 25,000 guerrillas, almost all are Iraqi Sunni Arabs who dislike foreign military occupation of their country...Moreover, many of those jihadis fighting in Iraq wouldn't even be jihadis if they weren't outraged by Bush's invasion and occupation of a Muslim country.

TomDispatch.com:

No administration in memory has been quicker to lie in its own interests and never stop doing so, no matter what.

Arianna Huffington on Bush using 9/11 so many times in his speech, and David Gergen calling it Bush's successful "trump card":

It turns out that when the media abdicate their responsibility to tell it like it is -- like they and we all know it is -- and call a deception a deception, our leaders will take advantage of that and, yes, continue to deceive.

Which brings us back to Bush. So 9/11, which he mentioned, by the way, five times in his speech, is his trump card?

Here’s Wikipedia on what a trump card is:

In card games, trumps frequently figure in trick-taking games such as bridge, euchre, and spades. Trumps are cards (usually, all the cards of one particular suit) which rank above non-trump cards...

But this is not a trick-taking game. It’s war -- and a matter of life and death. And if your trump card is a universally acknowledged lie, what does that say about the deck you’re playing with?

At Democracy Now:

Fmr. Pentagon Insider LT. COL. KAREN KWIATKOWSKI Blasts Bush's Iraq Speech and Repeated References to 9/11

I was actually curious as to who he was addressing this speech to. I mean, there were so many things in there that just don't match with reality, whether it's the American strategy, why we're in Iraq, which was supposedly why he gave this address, to explain to the American people why this is worth it, and yet he didn't speak about any of those reasons.

Journalist Patrick Cockburn Calls Iraq a "Bloody Mess" One Year After Handover of "Sovereignty"

..in a way, the atrocities committed by Zarqawi has made it much easier for the administration to pretend that no news is good news. In fact, no news out of Iraq means that something so horribly dangerous is going on that nobody can report it.

Mother of Soldier Killed in Iraq: "The Best Way To Honor My Son's Death Would Be To Bring The Troops Home"

Iraqi Blogger Criticizes Western Media For Excluding Iraqi Voices

Rahul Mahajan: "Bush Trots Out Bin Laden to Justify Anything He is Doing"

..in order to bring any kind of clarity to this situation, the United States has to withdraw. If it withdraws and part of the settlement is, in fact, that all Iraqi forces that will negotiate with each other, which includes the mainstream politicians now, it includes most of the resistance, it includes Muqtada al-Sadr, but it does not include Zarqawi and people like that. Then as the U.S. is withdrawing, and these other factions can easily come together and negotiate and agree to deal with the terrorism problem they have. In the absence of a withdrawal, however, just the reverse dynamic happens, and more and more of the resistance factions feel as if Zarqawi is on their side.

Bush Speech: Nothing Has Changed

Bush Speech: Nothing Has Changed
See my remarks, written directly after hearing almost the same speech from Bush on September 7, 2003.

Excerpt:

BUSH:
"Two years ago [in 2001], I told the Congress and the country that the war on terror would be a lengthy war, a different kind of war, fought on many fronts in many places. Iraq is now the central front. Enemies of freedom are making a desperate stand there -- and there they must be defeated."


BACK THEN, I RESPONDED:
"The central front of a war on terror? Do you mean Pakistan? Saudi Arabia--where most of the 9-11 hijackers came from? Are you speaking of the Phillipines? Indonesia? Iran? Georgia? Azerbijan?

Are you saying the heart of terror was or is in Iraq?

Or are you saying you carefully CHOSE Iraq because she was the weakest nation, knowing you would "bring on" the terrorists from all these other regions once the pre-emptive attack began?

If that is the case, and it appears it IS the case from all you have said, then you were immoral and the cause of the Iraq war was unjust.

You told us, Mr. Bush, that Iraq's regime posed an "imminent threat". That is what you said.

You lied."

I had ended with my hope, which is an unrealized two-year-old hope:

The U.S. needs UN and international cooperation to lighten the overwhelming economic and military burdens.

Mr Bush, you also need desperately to counter these perceptions of U.S. unilateralism. Swallow this dangerous pride, Mr. Bush.
It's getting late.

See my comments from the same day, "HOW MANY "NEW EXPLANATIONS" WILL THERE BE FOR MAKING WAR UPON IRAQ?"

I feel hopeless after hearing the old new Bush speech. It was all hat - and no cattle. I listened for indications that Bush had a strategy - that he knew how to win - not just with slogan-words like "freedom" - but to tell us what winning will really look like. He obviously has no strategy, other than the losing one he's been pursuing for over two years.

Bush said "We will stay in Iraq as long as we are needed — and not a day longer." According to Donald Rumsfeld, that could be twelve years from now. Twelve more years - and not a day longer.

TRANSCRIPT HERE

Clear Path to Victory?!

Clear Path to Victory?!
President Bush will speak to the nation tonight. With no expected move, on his part, to change in the incompetent strategy in Iraq, President Bush expects us to believe there is a clear path to some imagined victory. Prior statements from his administration serve to prove a lack of clarity and historically proven inaccuracy.

NYT-

[Scott] McClellan suggested that Mr. Bush would not signal any change in military or diplomatic strategy. Instead, he said, the president will emphasize that Iraq is making progress despite the mounting loss of life, and that the United States cannot allow the understandable concern about the violent insurgency to deter it from completing the job.

______________

Why I am on a 'clear path' to not being convinced:



Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
Feb. 7, 2003, to U.S. troops in Aviano, Italy:

"It is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld:
Sunday, June 26, 2005-

"That insurgency could go on for any number of years. Insurgencies tend to go on five, six, eight, 10, 12 years. Coalition forces, foreign forces are not going to repress that insurgency."

Vice President Dick Cheney-
March 16, 2003, on Meet the Press:

"I think it will go relatively quickly...(in) weeks rather than months."

Larry King, to Vice president Dick Cheney, May 30, 2005, about the Iraq war:

It's not going to be a 10-year event?

Vice President Dick Cheney:

No. I think we may well have some kind of presence there over a period of time. But I think the level of activity that we see today, from a military standpoint, I think will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.

_________________



The only quote that makes sense in the whole bunch:

Zbigniew Brzezinski, US National Security Advisor during the cold war conflict, on Saturday, June 25, 2005:

"Patriotism and love of country do not demand endless sacrifice on the part of our troops in a war justified by slogans."

Shelby Foote Has Died

Shelby Foote Has Died

Sadly, I just learned that novelist and Civil War historian Shelby Foote has passed away. He was 88. His sweet southern drawl and keen knowledge pulled me into the stories which Ken Burns put together so well in his Civil War series. I thought he was a beautiful man, in every way. He will be greatly missed.

Headlines

Headlines

Chinese Bid for Unocal Adds Fuel to Fire
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Google
Bloomberg
Reuters
LA Times

These moves highlight a startling trend of aggressive competition between the established economy of the United States and the speeding locomotive of the Chinese economy. China's dependence on petroleum imports (already 40% of its demand) is rapidly growing. With the likelihood that all domestic oil production will peak by 2020 or sooner, industry pushes China and the rest of the world into a cold war of finite resources.-LINK-Your Village Voice

Anonymoses - Charlotte's Billy Graham is the exemplar
"Forget all those fakes. Billy is the real deal, and he apparently showed it in New York."

WRAL.com:
Poll: More N.C. Residents Disapprove Bush's Handling Of War
Poll Conducted by WRAL and News-Observer, Raleigh, NC


Audit questions $1.4b in Halliburton bills
Expenses at issue from Iraq contracts
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff, June 28, 2005

U.S. Sen. Feingold Calls on Rumsfeld to Stop Collecting Personal Information of High School Students
(wisdems.org)

Feingold pushes Bush for withdrawal timetable

Steve and Jen's News Blog - Fight the FEC!
- "People are journalists by their actions, not their tools."
- "Once they make rules about what people can say, they won't stop. Unless the blog is campaign-related, they need to leave it alone." - Steve Gilliard comment


Fred Phelps "has only to look in the mirror for evil"
Metro West Daily News, by Deborah Gauthier
(Phelps promises to picket the funerals of the "Godless fag American soldiers when the pieces come home.")

Kidnapping in Italy
A few months ago, Jeanne at Body and Soul wrote about a controversy in Italy over the CIA's apparent abduction of an Egyptian imam in Milan. The man was rendered to Egypt, where he was reportedly tortured. An Italian judge's office has announced that he has ordered the arrest of 13 CIA agents involved in the kidnapping.
At War and Piece, Laura Rozen has an update. With half the CIA's Italian ops' cover and real names all over the Italian press, which has come from considerable help from the Milan prosecutor's office, is this revenge for the US's killing of Italian agent Nicolo Calipari? Or a battle between agencies in the Italian government?

Don't Miss:
General admits to secret air war
By Michael Smith

Raw Story:
The Unofficial War
(Raw Story’s tracking of the unofficial war graphic

Brad Blog: Congressional Members to Hold 'Downing Street' Town Hall Meetings on July 23rd!

AfterDowningStreet.org:
Downing Street Minutes to Hit House Floor
Your help is needed. Please contact your Congress Member right away and ask them to contact the Judiciary Committee staff and commit to taking part.
Phone: 1-877-762-8762


Axis of Logic:
Why the American Press Remains Paralyzed

'Spikes of Activity' In The DSM
Saturday, June 25, 2005

PSoTD:
Tracking the Congressional roll call for investigating the Downing Street Memo


Ex-Guantanamo inmates allege Holy Qur’aan sacrilege
(this is not much different than the infamous Isikoff Newsweek article)
Related:
NYT: "Senators Laud Treatment of Detainees in Guantanamo"
("Operation Happy Talk" - "Whether or not people are being fed orange chicken," Ms. Musa, of Amnesty International, said, "does not get at the heart of the issue." [TCI]


New York Times continues to pimp the Judy Miller case as world shattering, it matters to you news
The Common Ills

Ayn Clouter at the American Street - Check out the wittiest satire to come along in the wake of the wishy-washy Ten Commandemnets decision.


"Seek and You Shall Find"

Colonial Theater Reborn in Fredricksburg, VA.
A Fredericksburg theater troupe teamed with Historic Kenmore recently to give four performances of an 18th-century Restoration comedy on the lawn at Kenmore.

Art experts seek long-lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci
AP/Globe and Mail June 20

Recent Events Clearly Prove That Race Still Matters
Wilmington Journal 6/27/05

WTOP News: Hull-Less Barley Makes Beer Tastier
As we look at gas prices and our dependency on foreign oil, this could be another big boost to agriculture. Hull-less barley is easier on ethanol production equipment because it is less abrasive.

"We got in the wrong way. Let's get out the right way."

Iraq: "We got in the wrong way. Let's get out the right way."

I believe this will be a very effective soundbite. It will be part of a new MoveOn.org campaign. Regardless of what fathead Karl Rove says, MoveOn.org has had it right all along. They get to Karl - and it shows. By invoking their name, he aims to make them poison to mainstream Democrats. I certainly hope they won't buy into Karl's attempt to cow them. They needn't be afraid, if they trust the hearts of fellow Democrats. This is an important time in political history - for political courage, conviction, and fierce defense of the people who are not afraid to show it.

I wanted to share a letter I had written to my Congressman James Walsh today. I have removed some personal information for my own privacy.

Dear Congressman Walsh:

On the day before you voted "YES" to the Iraq War resolution in October, 2002, I had called your office to entreat you not to do so. I recall getting emotional - even though I'd tried to hold back. I was upset because I had followed developments closely - solemnly studying and analyzing known facts and opinions. I knew this war was wrong and that our President was misleading you. I am so sorry it has come to this sad point - with the Downing Street memos revealing that all I had anlayzed and personally concluded was true.

I cannot abide by what I know this President has done, Congressman Walsh. I just cannot do it. It isn't possible, in a moral sense, for me to turn my head and forget the damage that has been done by a President breaking faith with the American people.

I am asking you to examine your own conscience. I have many relatives, including my own father.. who are veterans of American wars. We look to the people who lead this nation to do what is right.

Please do the right thing. This madness in Iraq cannot go on. The civil war we've unleashed (and contributed to) with our inadequate show of force, poor planning, strategic incompetence, compounded by the bold-faced lies told by our leaders - only serve to weaken and endanger our military men and women - and our nation's reputation around the world.

I would ask you to join many of your Republican counterparts in the House and press this President for a timetable to get us out of this liars' mess.

Although I realize how politically fragile you feel, a refusal to press for an investigation into questions that the Downing Street memo have raised would not engender a lot of respect for the moral courage I thought you might have.

We're out here watching. We, the American public, know what's happening. The fantasy being played out in Washington, D.C., with a deliberate denial of the horror we see every day on our television screens and no real plan for short-term success, is becoming more and more damaging to you folks in the Congress every day. Your aproval rating is somewhere near 19%. Why is there such a "disconnect" between what is real and what is being fantasized by so many Republicans today? Do you think the public doesn't see it? When did we stop being one America? Why are decent and intelligent people who are paying the closest attention ignored? Why would you care to play a willing part in this great fantasy?

You are a politician, but you are first and foremost, a human being. Could you look me in the eye in another year or two and tell me that you need my son to be drafted to (or to volunteer for) a war which you believe we can be truly proud to fight?

I hear Donald Rumsfeld saying that the insurgency will last another twelve years. Then, I hear our President saying he refuses to set timetables for our departure from Iraq. It isn't hard to understand how any rational person could surmise that we stand a chance of having to send our military men and women to Iraq for twelve more years unless we move definitively toward an exit strategy.

Please, in the name of God and what is right - truly right for our nation and its reputation and inner-strength - act now.

Thank you for listening.