Bush Flip Flops on U.N.

Bush Flip Flops on U.N.

..about that permission slip.....

"In the global war on terror, as in Afghanistan and Iraq, President Bush has brought many allies to our side. But as the President has made very clear, there is a difference between leading a coalition of many, and submitting to the objections of a few. George W. Bush will never seek a permission slip to defend the American people."

*Crowd cheers wildly.

--Dick Cheney, RNC speech, 1 Sept 2004

*Many allies?!



The vice president mocked and derided the U.N. at the RNC earlier this month to the crowd's gleeful cheering. President Bush gave his weekly radio address today and without elaborating, said that he'd visit the U.N. later this week and offer "some additional proposals to expand prosperity and accelerate the march of freedom in our world."


He added: "Never in the history of the United Nations have we faced so many opportunities to create a safer world by building a better world. For the sake of our common security, and for the sake of our common values, the international community must rise to this historic moment. And the United States is prepared to lead."

He's speaking to twin crowds.
Flippy floopity floppity.

"Oh, please, U.N., may I have a permission slip to obtain your assistance at this "historic moment"-- when my lack of ability to lead the optional war in Iraq is bringing about too much negative news for which my pal Karl Rove can no longer think of fitting excuses?"

Signed
Your bestest friend George

Cartoon / Hitchens

Credit: Steve Bell

"I become irritated or disgusted only when anyone attempts to enlist these now voiceless dead for their own purposes. Respectful silence would be a far better response."

--Christopher Hitchens

I respectfully and wholeheartedly disagree with Mr. Hitchens. Those deaths mean everything to our political reality and cannot be swept under the rug for any critic's values or personal satisfaction. Perhaps I can write a flowery poem for Mr. Hitchens and he will see my point.

NYC gets black eye for RNC protester detention

NYC gets black eye for RNC protester detention

Preventative detention: Tactics used to manage the NYC arrest process to keep arrested protesters away from judges and in police custody until President Bush spoke on the last night of the convention.

"Some of the people were seen on national television. There was a serious threat in Madison Square Garden..."

Michael C. Cardozo, speaking about 12 people who got onto the floor of Madison Square Garden during the RNC and disrupted a speech by a White House aide.

Yes, some of the people were seen committing serious offenses on the floor of the RNC. The most obvious threat to anyone's safety was this guy. He was liable for kicking a woman after she was pulled to the floor of the RNC. That, my dear readers, makes the Parlock clan's crocodile tears over a torn sign look "girlie-man" by comparison. I'll cry tomorrow...or as soon as the Gallup polls stop cheating.

Where Is The Outrage?

Dead Soldier's Mother Arrested
Where Is The Outrage?


Police haul a grieving mother away

Howard Dean on Bush/Assault Weapons

Howard speaks..

Howard Dean on Bush/Assault Weapons

Howard Dean's common sense is keen and he pulls no punches. His aggressive gumption and spirited bluntness (along with one scream) are what caused his presidential candidacy to burn and burn out, althought I submit to you that, as a Democratic candidate, he was far clearer on his Iraq stance than his then-opponent John Kerry.
He wrote an opinion piece this week on the failure to renew the automatic weapons ban, and I think he hit the nail directly on the head.

This week, Bush has benefitted politically by his silence as Tom Delay worked his voodoo to ensure that our American streets would become far less safe.

Some of my readers will tell me it's all about hunting the range where the deer and the antelope play. Perhaps we'll carry the first kid who dies from a wound produced by one of these legally-purchased guns to your doorstep for your inspection and you can have a chat with that kid's mother. Or the first cop who gets knocked off--why don't you have a chat with his widow about your home on the range?

The red states are running the show,
causing red, red blood to run
through streets of blue state cities
all for the love of a gun.

Home, home in the target's range
where the gangs and the terrorists play
where seldom is heard one common sense word
and Bush bows to the whims of Delay.

--Iddybud

Howard Dean excerpt:

Where I come from, chief executives are supposed to lead. Where I come from, when the chief says he supports something and his party controls the House and the Senate, what the chief really wants, he gets.

I would have more respect for President Bush if he had come out and said, "I changed my mind, and I'm not supporting the reauthorization of the assault-weapons ban."

But, he did not do that. America needs a president with the real courage to say what he believes -- no matter what the latest poll numbers show.

LINK

The Truth Will Not Be Televised

The Truth Will Not Be Televised

The truth will not be televised,
but you will see it trickling in
to this blog, drip by drip,
until the river of truth flows
through a canyon of hard-won hope.

--Iddybud

Scott Lewis, an Army Reserve sergeant home after 15 months in Iraq, spoke just a few words.

"We need some new ideas in Iraq," he said. "People criticize John Kerry for changing his mind about Iraq, but I think that's actually a strength. And I'm a Republican."

Doug Madory, a recently discharged Air Force captain, was the last. He spent four months in Iraq, but most of his deployment was spent in Italy.

He spoke of the way Italians embraced American servicemen in brotherhood after Sept. 11 and said, "President Bush squandered a good deal of that support all through Europe by rushing headlong into Iraq. George Bush should be held accountable. . . . People around the world are with us, but are not with George Bush."



From David Broder, 16 September

Dan Rather!? Where Was the Outrage When...

Dan Rather!? Where Was the Outrage When...

Laura Rozen is feeling intimidated when it comes to reporting on any news which may be construed as unfavorable to American power these days.

I want you to read her statement, and then I have a question upon which you may ponder and discuss with me:

The neocons call those reporting unfavorably on Iraq, on the FBI counterintelligence investigation of alleged espionage, and who allegedly leaked US Iran intel to Chalabi, etc. "McCarthyites". But who's really McCarthyite?

Let's be clear about what is going on here. They are trying to intimidate people from reporting on an existing investigation. To act as if it does not exist, as if that will make it go away. They are not just saying the allegations are not true, which they have a right to say, if that's their opinion. They are obviously not the judge or jury. They are trying to make it illegitimate to even report on the investigation at all. As if reporting on its existence is in and of itself an unethical act.

Think about it. Would they also want us not to report on allegations of, say, Saudi espionage in the US, or of Congressional investigations into terrorist finance? No, they champion that.

What about French espionage at, say, NATO? We've heard of those cases during the Kosovo war. No, they champion reporting on that.

They just want to prevent reporting on an existing investigation into who allegedly leaked US Iran intel to Chalabi and Aipac. Does that investigation make some of those people uncomfortable? Sure. Does that give them a right to try to threaten and intimidate people trying to report on it? To understand and report what the investigation is about? An investigation, after all, that the reporters did not create, but government agencies did?

That's insane.

Question: Where was the outrage?

The Dan Rather flap is flitting all over media creration. It is saturating and drowning the American consciousness. It is sating the right wing pundits.

Where was the outrage when Bush's lies were exposed and we reached the tipping point when we realized there would be
no WMD found,
there was no imminent threat from Iraq,
there were to be no flowers nor would there be roses,
that civil war was fast approaching, a scenario which the Pentagon (unbelievably) never saw coming,
that over 1000 of our trusting troops' lives were erased by a sick foreign policy, manipulation of known-to-be shaky intelligence, and a poorly planned pre-emptive attack?

Where was the outrage?

Rather than crying for Rather's lather (pun intended), why is the American public not appropriately aware of the facts about what has become a far worse security mess than Vietnam ever was?

Is it because anyone in the media who dares to cross the Bush administration and/or the Neocons are turned to anti-Semitic toast the moment they get a bit too appropriately noticeable?

Consider me the canary in the coal mine.
I think some of us are in danger by speaking freely here in America.
You're free as long as you stick to the right-wing/neocon talking points.
I sense that our first amendment freedoms are not only being manipulated, but are being absolutely throttled by the fear of recrimination of a most personal nature. No tin foil hats here, people. This is the way it is in America at this sad moment in our history

Our troops may not realize it, but lately they are only fighting for 50% of America's freedom.

RIP: Johnny Ramone

Godspeed, Johnny

RIP: Johnny Ramone

Johnny Ramone has died at the age of 55. Losing a five-year battle against prostate cancer, he died in his sleep at his Los Angeles home yesterday afternoon. He was surrounded by family and friends. Along with his wife, Linda Cummings, friends including Pearl Jam rocker Eddie Vedder, singer Rob Zombie, Lisa Marie Presley, Pete Yorn, Vincent Gallo and Talia Shire were gathered at Ramone's bedside yesterday.

Annan: Iraq War Was Illegal

Annan: Iraq War Was Illegal

From a BBC World News Interview with Kofi Annan:

Owen Bennet-Jones: So-you don't think there was legal authority for the war?

Kofi Annan: I have stated clearly that it was not in conformity with the Security Council - with the UN Charter.

Jones: It was illegal?

Annan: Yes, if you wish.

LINK TO INTERVIEW TEXT

LINK TO VIDEO OF INTERVIEW

Edwards: No draft with John Kerry presidency

Edwards: No draft with John Kerry presidency

"There will be no draft when John Kerry is president."

--Senator John Edwards, speaking in Parkersburg, W.V. yesterday, when asked whether the draft would be reinstated

Theocracy Watch: Pennsylvania Speaking Tour

Theocracy Watch: Pennsylvania Speaking Tour

Are We Becoming a Theocracy?
How Dominion Theology Is Subverting the U.S. Constitution

Beginning this Saturday in Pittsburgh, PA, Joan Bokaer of the Theocracy Watch website, along with a team of volunteers, will be on the road, making presentations meant to inform people in Pennsylvania and New Jersey about the disturbing rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party. In this talk, the speakers examine dominionism in U.S. government, tracking the key players in this movement and exposing their plan to remove the barriers between church and state and replace the U.S. Constitution with Biblical law. Joan’s meticulously researched evidence—in the form of congressional voting records, party platforms, speeches, legislation, and media reports—illustrates just how dramatically their seizure-by-stealth of much of the political system has succeeded.

The speaking tour schedule is here.

NBC Won't Have DNC Revisiting Bush Interview

NBC Won't Have DNC Revisiting Bush Interview

They won't play partisan politics...and maybe they figure it was damning enough for poor George the first time around. -wink-

NBC's lawyers are working on rendering silent the "Meet the Press" footage used within this DNC ad. CBS has not yet said if they will or will not ask the DNC to cease the use of the "60 Minutes" footage with Ben Barnes in the same ad.

Progressive Leaders Endorse Kerry, not Nader

Nader's Top Endorsers from 2000 Urge
"Swing States" Support for Kerry

The swing states are getting a clear message from top Progressive leaders. In a recent proclamation, the message is:

Vote for Kerry, not Nader.

See a partial list of signers here.
These are not pantywaist progressives.
These progressives are the real deal. Among them are Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Cornel West, Rabbi Michael Lerner, and Norman Solomon.
They're the big guns of progressive politics and they are stressing the necessity of strategic voting in swing states this time around.

Meanwhile, that progressive-hugging fellow (grin), Jeb Bush, is trying his hardest to give his brother a "leg-up" on the election by overseeing a senior Republican-appointed official ordering Nader's name reinstated on the Florida ballot.

Bush's Failure

Bush's Failure
Iraq Storms Toward Tragedy

Ahman Mohammad, his chubby, 20-year-old face scarred with burn marks, his arms charred to the bone, lies on a blood-stained bed at Karkh Hospital and tries to make sense of the day’s horror, etched in his mind like a Hieronymus Bosch painting.

"Human beings were piled one on top of the other like pieces of meat," he says, shivering. "I’m all choked up with shock. I saw it with my own eyes."

Today's Scotsman editorial documents the many failures on the Iraq war, and recommends:
-The administrations in the US and Britain need to focus on Iraq as their number-one priority
-Elections must go ahead as soon as possible, in order to isolate the insurgency.
-The security situation in Baghdad must be stabilised as soon as possible. If that means more coalition troops being deployed, so be it.

The Scotsman also has a piece by Borzou Orzou Daragahi (in Baghdad) about distraught Iraqis, who are are blaming the US as more innocent blood is shed. Hossein Ali Hossein is a 41 year-old train driver who was sitting in a tea shop when an explosion occurred. He said: "This was a peaceful, modest lower-middle-class neighbourhood where everyone cared about everyone. I was born here. This explosion has changed everything in this neighbourhood forever."

Last, at the Scotsman, Colin Freeman gives us a brutally honest assessment of the lie "turn-over of sovereignty" has become. Iraq is listing towards total anarchy, and the fact that US troops regularly give the enemy an easy hiding--killing scores, sometimes hundreds at a time--is no comfort.

The bullish confidence of George W. Bush boasting of his successes at the election rally podiums is startling in contrast to the news coming out of Iraq.

K Street: Exclusiveness of American Avarice

K Street: Exclusiveness of American Avarice

While you shell out your hard-earned tax dollars to the Federal government, the fat cats of K Street hire the washed-up Republican Congressmen who took major corporate contributions for many years, ensuring a continuity of the great mammonite partnership-- the Republican/Corporate oligarchy.

They have plans for your tax dollars and they don't
care what your ideology might be.
It's not about you or your democratic freedom.
It's about their power and their agenda.

Seven figures isn't too bad for a position with the K Street Project, a GOP-led effort to persuade lobbying firms to hire Republicans in their top positions.
Democrats are virtually persona non grata.

Go K Street.

Maybe we'll soon see more tax breaks that encourage businesses to buy Humvees for delivery vehicles.

Woo-hoo. Celebrate.

Dan Rather Isn't Running for President

This is not Dan Rather

Dan Rather Isn't Running for President

I think Dan Rather should ask Marian Carr Knox, the 86-year old retired Ellington AFB secretary who worked for Lt. Col. Jerry Killian to give him an exclusive interview. I have a feeling she'd be a fascinating woman. If there's a mea culpa due to the American people over this memo authenticity flap (and I think there may be), it could be offered with a healthy dose of 'first-hand witness'. She might be characterized by those who wish to destroy her credibility as a sweet but confused old lady, but I think most Americans would love to see her side of the story.

In the LA Times, Lt Col Killian's son Gary D. Killian ('bless his heart') is trying to impugn Marian Carr Knox's credibility, saying:

"I had more time to talk to my father and know what he thought about those things than Ms. Carr, bless her heart."

I don't buy this sugared-up line of thought at all. I believe there are plenty of things we discuss at work that we never carry home to our children and our spouse. (Unless we're incredibly obsessed with our careers).

The story is a circus. Killian's son admits to being partisan (toward Bush) and so does Marian Carr (anti-Bush).

Ben Barnes' daughter thinks he lied, but she admits to having a strained relationship with her father. (It makes you thankful for having a good family relationship. Hell hath no fury like a daughter scorned).

The Bush campaign and the bloggers who love them best have been successful in getting the media to blur the actual content of Ben Barnes' message (he got Bush into the Guard so he could avoid Vietnam) with the Dan Rather memo circus.

Editor and Publisher reveals a disturbing story, leading me to believe that someone may have been trying to manipulate CBS (not that CBS shouldn't have known better):

USA Today has revealed that it, too, received letters and memos purportedly written in the early 1970s by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, Bush's former commander in the Texas National Guard.

USA Today, like CBS, has refused to say how it got them, beyond saying that it was "from a person with knowledge of Texas Air National Guard operations. The person refused to be identified out of fear of retaliation. It is unclear where the the documents, if they are real, had been kept in the intervening three decades."

This may or may not be the same person who leaked them to CBS. Like the CBS documents they are copies, not originals.

See:

USA TODAY: Amid criticism, CBS stands by its reports

USA TODAY: Memo debate eclipses content

The World Is Drifting Toward Tragedy with Bush

The World Is Drifting Toward Tragedy with Bush

"Today, we heard more of the same distortions from the President about the situation in Iraq. George W. Bush keeps saying that things are getting better even when we all know that's just not true. The fact is, no matter what he says, all of us can see for ourselves what's happening in Iraq - we can see it on the front pages and on the nightly news. But why would we expect George Bush to level with us about Iraq? He never has. So I'll be straight with you: things are getting worse. More than a thousand Americans have been killed. Instability is rising. Violence is spreading. Extremism is growing. There are now havens for terrorists that weren't there before. And the Pentagon has even admitted that entire regions of Iraq are now controlled by insurgents and terrorists. The situation is serious and we need a president who will set a new direction and be straight with the American people."

--John F. Kerry 9-14-04

Kristen Breitweiser Endorses Kerry

9/11 Widow Kristen Brietweiser
Endorses John Kerry

"I don’t really know what happened to him. I don’t know whether he jumped or he choked to death on smoke. I don’t know whether he sat curled up in a corner watching the carpet melt in front of him, knowing that his own death was soon to come or if he was alive long enough to be crushed by the buildings when they collapsed. These are the images that haunt me at night when I put my head to rest on his pillow."

--Kristen Breitweiser, speaking about her husband Ronald, who died on 9/11/01

I believe this is one of the most important endorsements John Kerry could have received. Kristen Breitweiser has often been the topic of my conversations here at Iddybud. She was featured in my second and third anniversary 9/11 blog presentations.I respect her greatly for having had the fortitude and persistence in speaking out for the 9/11 Commission at a time when the Bush administration was doing nearly everything in their political power to put a stop to it. Kristen asked the right questions. She expected answers, as any of us women who might have lost their husband or family member might expect the government to answer our questions.

Kristen wanted to know why her husband Ronald had to die that beautiful horrible day in September.
She wanted to know if our governmental agencies were doing their job on that fateful morning.
She only wanted to know.

Kristen has said she finds it strange that Bush would pin his re-election hopes on an event like 9/11 because she thinks it was the chief failure of his administration. She said the highly critical Sept. 11 commission report should be enough to make any politician think twice about invoking the attacks.

"I don't understand how 9/11 can be a platform for his re-election," said Breitweiser, who voted for Bush in 2000. "Every day that goes by since Sept. 12 I see as a squandered opportunity by the administration in fixing problems everyone knows need to be fixed."

Freedom Thieves: Shays/Meehan/McCain/Bush/Kerry

Freedom Thieves:
Shays/Meehan/
McCain/Feingold
Bush/Kerry

Most of the Shays-Meehan campaign finance reform favored politicians' organized interests over individual liberty.

Suing the FEC over 527s reveals these Congresspeople as Americans with a divested interest in seeing my speech--and yours--cut down to silence.

Special interests belong to American individuals--and not to the members of Congress as a cartel.

If their lawsuit is successful, these 527 groups will be forced to register as political action committees and thus be confined to using hard money only. If 527s are outlawed, there will be other ways for these groups to form legally.

My emphasis here? I firmly believe that all these politicians are doing is showing us their contempt for American voices having a power equal to that of Congresspeople's favorite lobbyists and corporate contributors.

An oligarchy cannot stand when individual voices break down the shrouded concentration of corporate power through individual freedom of speech. In this case, "money" is the same as "freedom" for individuals as much as "money" is "freedom" to corporate special interests.

They've wasted our hard-earned tax money and become embedded with the lobbyists of Washington D.C. for too long. Their regrettable use of pork-barrel spending to lure PAC money has made political competition nearly impossible.

American individuals have found a powerful political voice in the 527 option. I'm not surprised that members of Congress and President Bush and his challenger John Kerry would be intimidated.

But to see them sue to cut off our individual voices--it's criminal. It runs against all tenets of freedom and liberty. Free speech can harm no one except the most corrupt Representatives, when all is said and done. Americans should be trusted to form their own common-sense opinions in an atmosphere of sheer freedom.

I pray the Supreme Court will find a way to legally accomodate the American individual and not the D.C. cartel.

See this editorial that praises Bush for his "progressive" stand on 527s. What is wrong with this picture? It's thievery of American freedom in the name of bipartisanship. Why is this one of the only issues on which Congresspeople can "get along" when it runs contrary to individual freedom?

Have you noticed that neither Bush nor Kerry has asked their supporters to discontinue 527 activity immediately?

Russia Going Back to Authoritarian Rule

Russia's Democracy: Another Casualty of the Iraq War

During Ronald Reagan's presidency, the spell of Communism was broken and the Berlin wall came down.

During Dubya Bush's presidency, Russia turned back toward Soviet rule.

It's nothing surprising. Russia's been sliding back toward Soviet-style rule for years now.

What should be shocking is the fact that our president watched Russia slide back toward its ocean of Soviet illness and has done nothing to abate the undertow. The sands of democracy erode beneath the Russian people's feet.

The Bush administration has squandered many opportunities to keep Russia from sliding back toward authoritarian rule. What was our foreign policy toward Russia? Did we even have one?

The leverage the U.S. had before 9/11 was softened like mashed potatoes by the (greatly restrained) State Department in order to attempt to get Russia's cooperation on Bush's Manichaean war on terror. The Bush administration deliberately looked the other way, knowing fully well that Chechnya was a victim of Russia's cruel denial of human rights.

Russia agreed to help us in Afghanistan. In the tradition of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, Putin had been consistently pursuing wide-ranging security cooperation with dominant Western powers--especially the U.S. Then came Bush's disastrous Iraq war, which contributed greatly to a near-total breakdown of trust of the Bush administration--in over half of domestic America and abroad.

Bush's dogmatic insistence and race to unilaterally take out Saddam Hussein caused him to proceed with blinders, neglecting a diplomacy that was sorely needed and inviting distrust of America and inviting right-wing radicals-East and West- to follow America's pre-emptive lead. Putin recognized the Iraq war (and rightly so) as a war evocative of the Cold War-era rather than a new and necessary type of warfare where we don't rub out regimes, but instead rub out terrorist networks.

That breakdown in trust has led to Russia's falling away from democracy and contributes to European instability which endangers our nation's interests in Central Asia. It has lead many in the world to believe that the Bush administration's National Security strategy did not take into serious consideration the fact that the Berlin Wall had fallen in the first place. It's no wonder all nations of the world (except for three) hope there is a change in American leadership this November.

As historians look back with retrospect, Bush's greatest historic error will have been his alliance with Neoconservatives--rabid Russia haters who hide themselves in 'freedom-fighters' clothing while placing Israel's interests above America's best interests.

As punishment for their refusal to join America in the Neoconservative war on Iraq, Russia was made to appear, by frothing Bushite propaganda, as little more than a thief-nation which robbed in the name of the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food program (when myriad nations, including the US, reaped untold benefit from the same easily-corruptible program).

Any morally-trained child could tell you that, if you alienate a friend in need, that friend will slide into despair. If we hold liberty as our American mainstay, the people of Russia should have been considered friends. We should have acted, in accordance with the America's best interests, to ensure that the people of Russia remained free. As overwhelmingly troubled as the old U.S.S.R. was, Ronald Reagan understood that, unless you employed diplomacy with hope and good faith, you will never forward America's best interests.

Colin Powell has been kept on a short leash by the president and allowed himself to be used badly in the lead-up to the Iraq war (in the name of loyalty to the president). Shamefully, Powell has been the most-wasted American asset.

While I truly believe Ronald Reagan acted in his nation's best interests, I believe Bush has acted with contempt for America's best interests, or at best, Bush has simply been an incapable leader.

This is only one glaringly dreadful consequence of failure of American leadership. Faltering US/international relationships and the quickly disintegrating Israeli-Palestinian relationship, the rise of Fundamentalist popularily in Muslim states, and the growth industry for new terrorists are more examples of failure in American leadership.

Not only has Bush admitted the war on terror is unwinnable, we've lost Russia's democratic promise. Putin has, in effect, coopted and encouraged the right-wing flank of the Western political spectrum and the Bush administration is a beautiful example.

Wartime restrictions on citizens' freedoms in the US have allowed Putin and his pro-Kremlin media, through America's example, to recast Russia’s domestic dictatorship of the law as a standard towards which the US itself has allegedly turned.

Bush-supporters are afraid to look into the sterile eyes of the truth, because what would stare back at them would shatter their frozen, false beliefs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
See Washington Monthly for Robert Kagan's statement on the issue of democracy in Russia.