I Smell Success!
DREAM TEAM 2004:
TODAY ON CNN/WOLF BLITZER, HOWARD DEAN SAYS HE WOULD GLADLY ACCEPT WES CLARK AS RUNNING MATE
Dean also beautifully ripped away at the out-of-touch DLC leadership.
He also firmly claimed that the U.S. flag doesn't belong to one of his supreme nay-sayers Tom DeLay and his wacko extremist ilk.
Some people Dean mentioned as trusted potential security advisors:
Joseph Hoar
Ivo Daalder
Susan Wright
Insults to Intelligence
It's Not too Late to Speak Out
by Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Excerpt:
"....While it is too late to prevent the misadventure in Iraq, the war is hardly over, and analogous "evidence" is being assembled against Iran, Syria, and North Korea. Yes, US forces will have their hands full for a long time in Iraq, but this hardly rules out further adventures based on "intelligence" as spurious as that used to argue the case for attacking Iraq.
The best deterrent is the truth. Telling the truth about the abuse of intelligence on Iraq could conceivably give pause to those about to do a reprise. It is, in any case, essential that the American people acquire a more accurate understanding of the use and abuse of intelligence. Only then can there be any hope that they can experience enough healing from the trauma of 9/11 to be able to make informed judgments regarding the policies pursued by this administration--thus far with the timid acquiescence of their elected representatives.
History is littered with the guilty consciences of those who chose to remain silent. It is time to speak out."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity---who are they?
Are they for real?
Answer: Yes, of course they are.
"Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, a group of retired spies, issued an open letter to Bush Monday reflecting the view of many in the intelligence community that the central culprit is Vice President Dick Cheney. The open letter called for Cheney's resignation...." Nicholas Kristof
Have you read "INTELLIGENCE UNGLUED"?
*It's a letter to President Bush, which charges the vice president drove the U.S. to war with a "campaign of deceit" -- and then the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity call for Cheney's head.*
Oh Where,
Oh Where Has Our Dick Cheney Gone?
Credit: www.vitalmusic.net
Oh Where,
Oh Where Can He Be?
They thought he might be here. But, no....
He's been out making hay while our sons die.
GET REAL, RUMSFELD!!
Someone get this nutty coot out of the Defense Department before it's too late! He's detached from reality!
Rumsfeld Seeking to Bolster Force Without New G.I.'s
By THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, seeking to increase the nation's combat power without hiring more troops, is poised to order a sweeping review of Pentagon policies, officials say. It will include everything from wartime mobilization and peacekeeping commitments, to reservist training and incentives for extended duty.
Your volunteers aren't toys, Rumsfeld. Quit playing games with their lives, drop the PNAC blueprint and get on bended knee and appeal to the U.N. for their cooperation and power-sharing in Iraq as you should have done all along. The pride of the Bush administration is taking American lives. That's shitty leadership, pure and simple. Sorry--someone's got to say it.
WE MAY FAIL
Pentagon / Bush Administration Utter Incompetency--
What A Damned Pity!
Fighting 'The Big One'
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Excerpt:
"....We may fail, but not because we have attracted terrorists who understand what's at stake in Iraq. We may fail because of the utter incompetence with which the Pentagon leadership has handled the postwar. (We don't even have enough translators there, let alone M.P.'s, and the media network we've set up there to talk to Iraqis is so bad we'd be better off buying ads on Al Jazeera.) We may fail because the Bush team thinks it can fight The Big One in the Middle East — while cutting taxes at home, shrinking the U.S. Army, changing the tax code to encourage Americans to buy gas-guzzling cars that make us more dependent on Mideast oil and by gratuitously alienating allies.
We may fail because to win The Big One, we need an American public, and allies, ready to pay any price and bear any burden, but we have a president unable or unwilling to summon either."
Buh-Bye, Bill Simon from your *fair-weather friends at the GOP!
*legal disclaimer: No, FOX News...I did not say fair and balanced-please oh please don't sue me*
OOPS--NOT ANYMORE!
Bill Simon does a total 180-degree within less than one week!
The future of his campaign obviously wasn't up to "the people" at all.
It was up to the guy Bill Simon was drooling over in the Meet the Press interview last Sunday....Karl Rove.
KARL? OH-I'M A GREAT ADMIRER!
Obviously, the Meet The Press appearance was Bill's last gasping chance before cuddly Karl cut Bill's throat.
Note--Even though I can imagine, if asked about the situation, Karl's comment would be:
"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"
Aug 17- MEET THE PRESS:
BRIAN WILLIAMS: "Mr. Simon, are you in this race till the very end?
MR. BILL SIMON: I’m in this race, Brian. I’m not under any pressure to quit.
The bottom line is this: What we need to do now is campaign hard for the next 52 days, give our citizens a message, a vision for the state of California. That’s the most important thing. We should have a series of debates. We ought to let our people make a decision. It’s up to the people. They’ve led this recall movement, Brian. This is no time for experts. It’s not time for politics. It’s time for our people.
MR. WILLIAMS: Would a telephone call from, say, to pick a name, a Karl Rove, for the good of the party, to streamline things, to make sure the GOP gets this Statehouse and holds it, have any sway with you?
MR. SIMON: Well, certainly, I’d be happy to talk to Mr. Rove. I’m a great admirer of his. But right now what I’m looking forward to is campaigning around the state which is what I’ve been doing the last week. And I know that our people are hungry for leadership, and Lieutenant Governor said, many millions of people voted for him. They voted for me, too.
...............................
OTHER SIMON QUOTES 8-17 on Meet The Press:
"Well, our people now know that I was right on these issues, Brian, and I believe that they’re going to embrace my vision and my solutions for the problems that beset California right now."
---OBVIOUSLY NOT.
"You know, I’m running hard, Brian, and I’ll just say this. I admire Mr. Dreier, but I’ve got other endorsements. This is not about endorsements. This is not about politics. This is about doing the right thing. That’s why our people are fed up because we’ve been having too much politics out here. We’ve been having too much emphasis on people saying this is the right thing, theoretically, to do in terms of who ought to run and who shouldn’t run. What we need to do is focus on the message. Where’s Mr. Schwarzenegger stand on the issues? We don’t even know. Why don’t we have a forum where we can find out where all our candidates stand on the issues? This election has got to be about the people. It’s not about politics."
---OBVIOUSLY IT IS.
"I believe, as has happened the last two campaigns that I’ve run, that the people are going to coalesce around me, and on October the 7th, I will be the winner."
--OBVIOUSLY YOU WON'T BE.
Because........
FROM CNN:
"Republican Bill Simon, who was a prominent rival to Arnold Schwarzenegger in California's race to recall Gov. Gray Davis, dropped out of the running Saturday.
"I come before you today to announce that I am withdrawing as a candidate for governor," Simon said in a videotaped statement recorded in Sacramento. "I strongly believe the desire of Californians must come before the aspirations of any single candidate. There are too many Republicans in this race and the people of our state simply cannot risk a continuation of the Gray Davis legacy. For these reasons, I think it is wise to step aside."
Buh-bye, Billy!!!
You were a L-O-S-E-R in 2002
and a L-O-S-E-R you shall remain,
so says the one you so greatly admire-- big ol' cuddly Karl.
Someone else will have to steal the governor's seat fair and square...but it won't be YOU, Monsieur Proven Loser!
Hey, Bush Administration--If you're going to keep our precious men and women in harm's way, how's about making sure they get everything they need to succeed?
Ample equipment, food and water (along with your immediate, earnest and humble attempts to get UN back-up) would be a good start.
If you can't do that, Then BRING THEM HOME NOW!
Fri, Aug. 22, 2003
Army short on replacement parts in Iraq
By ROBERT BURNS
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Army overcame enormous logistics obstacles in the successful march to Baghdad last spring, but sustaining the force has become a problem, a senior Army general said Friday.
Gen. Paul Kern, chief of the Army Materiel Command, cited as an example the Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, which he said has sustained so much wear and tear in Iraq that the Army is months' short of replacements for the steel tracks on which they travel.
Kern said the Army also is in short supply of replacement tracks for Abrams tanks, Paladin howitzers and other vehicles.
Similarly, the Army has had trouble supplying enough tires for Humvee utility vehicles and generators for electrical power, Kern said in an interview with a group of reporters at the Pentagon.
Kern said these shortfalls are being addressed and have not created a major combat readiness problem. He said they reflect the difficulty of maintaining a high pace of operations in Iraq at the same time the Army remains active in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world.
"The soul lives by that which it loves rather than in the body which it animates.
For it has not its life in the body,
but rather gives it to the body and lives in that which it loves."
St. John of the Cross
Tell ALL The Truth
Tell all the truth but let it slant----
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise.
As lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind----
Emily Dickinson
Truth Is Not Partisan
Letter to the Editor
Published August 21, 2003
Syracuse Post Standard
by: This Very Blogstress-Iddybud
Note: This was in response to the usual insulting commentary about how we citizens are unpatriotic, unfair, and politically spiteful for questioning the Bush administration.
"It's a pity the war is nothing more than a partisan issue to so many people in this nation. This is a matter of life and death to our most precious resource in America-our soldiers with their lives on the line every moment they remain in harm's way.
We seem to have gravely erred on the side of rosy optimism in Iraq. It's time to admit that and come together, regardless of our individual political persuasions.
Our Congress failed to ask some hard questions before they gave our President authority to make pre-emptive attack. We now learn that it was very easy for the Bush administration to have had serious doubts about the intelligence they used, yet they made the conscious decision to relay it to us in the 2003 State of the Union speech. We now learn that the CIA had soundly warned the Bush administration of guerilla war long before Vice President Cheney was on national television assuring us that we'd be warmly greeted as "liberators". There hasn't been one shred of evidence that Iraq was the imminent threat we were told they were-except for some rusty parts buried under a rose bush.
"American troops are dying in real-time. Let's conduct an investigation for truth in real-time."
I am tired of hearing that American citizens are "desperate", "haters", and "misinformers" whenever they began to ask for truth from their elected leaders. If truth is, indeed, the "greatest of weapons" as Mr Snyder states, then he and others like him should not resort to base partisan-level and insult American citizens for their search for the truth. It is an unsophisticated affront to our collective sense of the very ideal of American freedom and decency.
If we all had the same crystal ball Mr. Snyder seems to possess in his averring that "the truth will soon be known", then perhaps we would have no need to ask questions. Until we are all clairvoyant, I see no ludicrousness in asking reasoned questions and I see no conflict with the timing of those questions. American troops are dying in real-time. Let's conduct an investigation for truth in real-time. Terror has existed since the dawn of mankind. There is no endgame in sight to our war on terror.
If we wait until war on terror is ended, we will never have had the right to know what was true. America is made of strong and resilient people with a brilliant Constitution to match. As a nation, we will surely not fall apart by looking at ourselves with a clear eye-here and now. We have nothing to lose except more American lives.
Mr. Snyder says he trusts that Americans are not "fickle to believe false assertions". He is absolutely correct. Free passes are only given to those leaders who are deemed trustworthy. Our trust has been shaken for clear reasons and it's time to see the reality of the situation without insulting those who ask the hardest questions. There are no double standards and there is no prematurity when we have already committed our service men and women to war and after-the fact revelations and naturally-resulting questions arise."
FROM AISH.COM: IT'S TIME TO GET ANGRY
by Jeffrey Dunetz
Mr. Dunetz does a good job of explaining why we need to develop a better sense of moral conscience and clarity now..and see, with the veil fully lifted,
the need for intelligent and prompt action by our own U.S. government. The veil seems to be covering the minds of our own citizenry..and our own U.S. Representatives. Dear God...what has happened to our common sense of decency? These are very real and totally innocent people dying almost every day since the Intifada began. It hurts to think of what could have been resolved by now, had we all..each one of us... listened to our conscience and demanded action.
It's not too late. Write to your Representatives today...use your heart along with your head. Are those images on your FOX and CNN screens not striking you as real? How is it that we have become so dulled to the pain of others?
Excerpt:
"..One of the people my anger is directed at is the guy on the radio. He just described the bombing that targeted so many innocent children as part of the cycle of violence. I am upset because he equated Israel's killing of a terrorist to the blowing up of a busload of civilians who were going home from their evening prayers, as if there was no moral difference..."
It's also time to get more balanced moral clarity on the Progressive front.
Anything other than moral honesty and fairness will only prolong the nightmare.
Or: Honestly, kids...Wouldn't YOU build a fence if your neighbor wished you blown to bits?
One additional point regarding American politics:
I believe there is a confusion with some on the left in American politics as well as in the American media. I concur with many progessive political beliefs, but I don't believe the Israel plight gets a fair moral shake by today's "progressive". I'm definitely no FOX News fan..I think they are horribly biased...biased to great fault. Yet I see confusion there and everywhere in the media about the most important and volatile conflict in this world. If there is ever going to be a peace settlement while duly protecting innocent lives in both Israel and Palestine, we must realize that politicians like Howard Dean are not left-wing radicals.
Far from it--those who employ true terror are possibly more intimidated by the political rise of Howard Dean than they are by Bush. Howard Dean is not going to be able to be pinned down to these ignorant-yet-neat categorizations by the U.S. press. Howard Dean would be the best candidate for finding a solution to this dreadful problem. I believe he would pay far more than lip service.
An example of angst surrounding an emerging candidate who sees through the grey areas and would concentrate on an end to true terror can be found
here at an Al Jazeerah site.
If you see the media misrepresenting Howard Dean, let them know immediately. This could be the man who finally understands the priorities of those with moral conscience and who finally understands what needs to be done for the true protection of the innocent.
Yes--I am repulsed in knowing that a young idealistic American woman, Rachel Corrie, was run over by an Israeli tank. Her story was never sensationalized by the American media..not like the sordid tale of Gary Condit. Does this not also make you angry? A lack of media-focus on all these issues is pathetic..it shows us Americans as callous and uncaring, easily-distracted boobs.
I appeal to all who read this: Let media and your government know you are not this uncaring.
Poll: Dean's Support Jumps in New Hampshire
Howard Dean- 28%
John Kerry-21%
Dick Gephardt-10%
Joe Leberman- 4%
All results shown HERE
SEE HOWARD DEAN'S NEW SITE FOR YOUNG DEMOCRATS-- GENERATION DEAN --which seeks to reach out to and involve millions of young Americans who care passionately about changing their country.
See video of Dr. Dean's appearance at the Young Democrats of America National Convention in Buffalo, NY last Friday
JESUS, IT'S FALLING APART
IF WE AREN'T GOING TO MAKE AN IMMEDIATE PLEA TO THE UN FOR A NEW RESOLUTION AND ACCEPT WIDE UN INTERNATIONAL PEACEKEEPING, THEN BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW
I think of the folly of this Iraq adventure, and I think of the lies we were told to enable a bunch of possibly well-intentioned (misled)--and definitely greedy megalomaniacs to plan and execute a new world order. I think of the way our unelected President is an ignorant and bitterly comical marionette for
these men in the shadows. I see that Saudis and other Middle-Eastern nationals are preparing for a holy war against our American troops in Iraq- with increasing numbers of Islamists crossing Iraq's borders in preparation for a jihad, or holy war. I read about the bombing at the site of UN Headquarters in Baghdad and think about the way Bush has stupidly and stubbornly refused to accept or promote wider international UN peacekeeping in Iraq. I read about at least one soldier dying each day. I read about soldiers dying of heatstroke...getting a rationed one MRE and limited water each day..they're in hell and fake-patriots drone on about supporting those abused troops.
I see the Abu-Hafs of AlQaeda bragging about tripping up our electrical grid, causing blackouts over the northeastern US last week. (Maybe true/maybe not). Yet all I recall is being "reassured" by Homeland Security within moments of the lights going out that was that this wasn't an act by terrorists. This is interesting since they still don't know what the hell happened five days later. Homeland Security is only a name for a newly overbloated federal bureaucracy.
And now AlQaeda avers they'll target the White House next.
Osama is out there free and plotting. Probably laughing about the Iraq diversion to which Bush drove us.
It strengthened the Taliban. It strengthened Osama. It strengthened Islamic fundamentalist determination to rid their lands of occupiers.
The international support we could have had after 9-11 has been squandered by a war-crazed Bush.
It's getting fucking ridiculous now.
Is anyone out there getting angry yet?
The entire Bush administration has failed us by bowing to the PNAC and their ilk.
I believe we should bring our troops home now.
Proper plans for war were not made. Our men and women overseas suffer and may die because of it.
No--I didn't say BRING THEM ON.
I said:
BRING THEM HOME.
LIAR-IN-CHIEF:
"Shucks--I didn't really mean 'Mission Accomplished'--but don't ya think I looked really cool at the time?"
President Bush, revising his earlier characterization of the fighting in Iraq, said in an interview released yesterday that combat operations are still underway in that country
PLEASE READ THIS BRIEF ARTICLE CAREFULLY.
THINK ABOUT IT.
THEN ASK YOURSELVES WHY THE PRESS NEVER "PRESSED" BUSH ON THIS STATEMENT.
WHY WAS THERE NO FOLLOW-UP ANALYSIS OF HIS INCREDIBLY FALSE ANSWER?
ARE MEMBERS OF TODAY'S PRESS THAT STUPID?
ARE THEY AFRAID OF LOSING THEIR JOBS IF THEY ASK FOR BASIC TRUTH?
IS THIS PRESIDENT SUCH A BUMBLER THAT THE PRESS SHIES AWAY FROM PRESSING HIM...THUS ALLOWING HIM TO GET AWAY WITH BOLD-FACED LIES?
Excerpt:
"On July 25, President George W. Bush made a truly staggering statement to the press after a meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan: “The fundamental question is, did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program?
And the answer is, absolutely. And we gave him a chance to allow inspectors in, and he wouldn’t let them in. And therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power, along with other nations, so as to make sure he was not a threat to the United States and our friends and allies in the region.”
This statement is worth reading carefully. The president of the United States has stated, in a public forum, that he invaded Iraq because Saddam Hussein would not allow weapons inspectors back into his country.
So far as I am aware, this statement has not been the subject of any serious critical analysis in the mainstream American media......
SOME PEACE APOINTMENT!!
"Western European societies are unprepared for the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene ...
...all immigrants bring exotic customs and attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most."
Daniel Pipes
Daniel Pipes...the warped bigot who's about to get a recess appointment to the board of directors/U. S. Institute of Peace from GW Bush...because he'd never EVER pass through any other way!
* Opposition to his nomination has come from a number of newspapers, including the Washington Post, the Dallas Morning News and the Chicago Tribune. Pipes' nomination also caused controversy within the Jewish community. The Christian Right loves him, though. Bush panders at the expense of world peace and national unity once again.
From The Crisis Papers:
Bernard Weiner looks at Post 9/11 America Two Years On
America Two Years after 9/11:
25 Things We Now Know
By Bernard Weiner
Co-Editor, "The Crisis Papers."
August 18, 2003
"....As the presidential election run-up approaches, and if we do our jobs correctly, more and more citizens will add up what has happened to their country since the terror attacks of two years ago, and decide that Bush&Co. has to go -- preferably by resignation, but, if not, by impeachment or by the voters."
Killing Saddam
The summer blockbuster to come
BY TOM HAYDEN
"....It has been a bad summer for the Pentagon and the White House, but Saddam's death could be their summer hit. Nothing the growing number of critics can say compares to the potential public gratification and fortification of righteousness that the White House hopes to generate by the coming assassination. That the administration lied, that the occupation costs $4-billion per month, that we have antagonized our allies, that thousands of Iraqis are collateral damage -- all these venial sins will be forgiven, they assume, when Saddam is dead and gone. To seal the victory, at some later date, weapons of mass destruction will be discovered, both Bush and Blair assure us. That prospect should finish off the lingering critics and set the stage for a triumphal November 2004.
But what if the master plan is left unfulfilled? It seems unlikely, but Saddam may elude the Delta posse or already be dead. Or what if the pursuit climaxes in Saddam's ritual death, but the chaos in Iraq continues unabated? What if Saddam, living or dead, is not the deux ex machina behind the daily shootings and woundings of American soldiers? What if the occupiers are facing a vengeful Iraqi nationalism, not the remnants of the old regime?
There is an opening for the peace movement here. If and when Saddam is killed the question becomes, "Why should American troops continue to die if the dictator is dead?" If the ritual symbolizes victory, why shouldn't the American troops come home and leave the rest to the Iraqis? Why shouldn't Paul Bremer III declare victory, set a date for a national Iraqi election and a parallel American troops withdrawal? Or are American troops dying for purposes other than overthrowing the dictatorship?"....
Foreign Policy:
George Will separates the Conservatives from the Neo-Conservatives
I think Mr. Will has done a very good job deconstructing Tony Blair's
neoconservative rhetoric here and reforming it in the light of reality.
THE FACE OF NEOCONSERVATISM
Excerpt:
"...Blair seems to think: Boston, Baghdad, Manchester, Monrovia -- what's the difference? Such thinking is dangerous. Blair's argument is true only if it is trivial: "Ordinary" people choose freedom, democracy and the rule of law because those who do not so choose prove thereby that they are not ordinary.
But there are a lot of them in the world. Some of them are waging guerrilla war against American forces in Iraq.
Blair's thinking is Bush's, too. "There is a value system that cannot be compromised, and that is the values we praise," the president says. "And if the values are good enough for our people, they ought to be good enough for others."
But one must compromise in the face of facts, those stubborn things. It is a fact that not everyone is inclined to praise "the values we praise." And not every society has the prerequisites -- of institutions (political parties, media) and manners (civility, acceptance of pluralism) -- of a free society.
Bush and Blair and many people called neoconservatives believe that moral objectives in politics are universally applicable imperatives. If so, then either national cultures do not significantly differ, or they do not matter or they are infinitely malleable under the touch of enlightened reformers. But all three propositions are false and antithetical to all that conservatism teaches about the importance of cultural inertia and historical circumstances."
Lessons in how to lie about Iraq
The problem is not propaganda but the relentless control of the kind of things we think about
Brian Eno
Sunday August 17, 2003
The Observer
"....When I first visited Russia, in 1986, I made friends with a musician whose father had been Brezhnev's personal doctor. One day we were talking about life during 'the period of stagnation' - the Brezhnev era. 'It must have been strange being so completely immersed in propaganda,' I said.
'Ah, but there is the difference. We knew it was propaganda,' replied Sacha...."
