Ari Fleischer on Gannon:
"It's All A Bit Odd"Ari Fleischer knew of and about Gannon. But he didn't know he was a Guckert.
He said that, even if Gannon was a gay hooker, and a White House Press Corps reporter at the same time, it would have been AOK. It wouldn't have mattered.Even Guckert's ties to several sex Web sites and allegations that he worked as a male prostitute should not necessarily keep him or any other reporter out, Fleischer said. "The last thing our nation needs is for anyone in the White House to concern themselves with the private lives of reporters," he said. "What right does the White House have to decide who gets to be a reporter based on private lives?"
If allegations that Guckert ran Web ads offering his services as a male escort prove true, however, this would represent more than a “private life” issue. Asked what he thought about the recent revelations about Guckert's past, Fleischer said only, "It is all a bit odd."
A bit?! Yathink??!?
Americablog says: McClellan said he knew Gannon used a fake name. How did he know when Ari didn't?
AttitudesWhen Israeli warplanes attacked deep inside Syria for the first time in decades, here were comments from US ambassador to the UN John Negreponte and the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a bombing attack this week.
Quotes Regarding Israel's Strike in Syria
"The United States believes that Syria is on the wrong of the side of the war on terrorism. We believe it is in Syria's interest, and in the broader interest of Middle East peace, for Syria to stop harboring and supporting the groups that perpetrate acts such as the one that occurred yesterday."
- U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Negroponte
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Lebanon ... calls on the international community and the United Nations to restrain Israel and the Sharon government, which alone poses a danger to international security and peace by attacking a sovereign state and an effective member of the Security Council and the United Nations."
- The late and former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri
These are things that can't help but make you go hmmmmmmmm....
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David Frum is acting highly irresponsibly, in my opinion, for putting this out into the ether:"It might seem incredible that young Bashar Assad, if it was Assad, would choose the path of confrontation with the United States. And yet this is a choice he seems already to have made, by for example sheltering leaders of the Iraqi insurgency. And if he did give the order for the Hariri killing...."
This type of soft accusation is not only utterly irresponsible, but it falls in with the tried and true method that led us to unjust war with Iraq.
Spread rumor and innuendo.
Use manipulative liars like Chalabi to support necessary misleadings.
Depend upon your Right wing mouth machine to gear up. You've got your FOX, your NRO, your Rush Limbaughs. Go boys, go!
Have no facts or proof to back it up.
Lie if necessary. (Make them scary lies).
Use words like watershed, freedom, democracy. Use them like whores.
Make sure it all fits in with the NeoCon desire to effect a quick regime change in Syria...
and VOILA!
The Bush administration gears up with warnings for Syria to cooperate with the UN, even though Bush and his NeoCon administration have overtly stated that the UN is yesterday, it's powerless and it's nearly meaningless.
It's a path to war, boys and girls!
MoDo: White House Cred Hits Rock Bottom"At last month's press conference, Jeff Gannon asked Mr. Bush how he could work with Democrats "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality." But Bush officials have divorced themselves from reality.
They flipped TV's in the West Wing and Air Force One to Fox News. They paid conservative columnists handsomely to promote administration programs. Federal agencies distributed packaged "news" video releases with faux anchors so local news outlets would run them. As CNN reported, the Pentagon produces Web sites with "news" articles intended to influence opinion abroad and at home, but you have to look hard for the disclaimer: "Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense." The agencies spent a whopping $88 million spinning reality in 2004, splurging on P.R. contracts.
Even the Nixon White House didn't do anything this creepy. It's worse than hating the press. It's an attempt to reinvent it."
LINK- MoDo
Egypt: Democracy At What Price?"A bit of patience is sometimes wise--and now may be one of those times."
- Joseph Braude, from his article at TNR
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To what extent do we believe that Islamist victories are an acceptable price to pay for the arrival of democracy in Muslim countries?
Where Egypt is concerned, Joseph Braude causes us to ponder this question with his latest article at TNR Online. Mr. Braude is the author of The New Iraq: Rebuilding the Country for Its People, the Middle East, and the World.
The Muslim Brotherhood is a Sunni, Egyptian-dominated international movement which has been ratcheting up its anti-American rhetoric. In Egypt, a democratic government dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood would set back the cause of freedom that President Bush had so boldly championed in his second inaugural address.
For Egyptians, true democracy is on the horizon and Mr. Braude explains how and why, given the realities in Egypt today, it is worth waiting for.
Liberals are exceedingly weak and radical nationalists and Islamists are strong. This is a mess of Mubarak's making. But ironically, for reasons unique to Egyptian politics, Mubarak may also be the person best suited to clean up this mess, paving the way for liberal democracy in Cairo. And strange though it may seem, the longtime foe of liberal reform could soon have every incentive to do just that.
One of the aspirations of The Muslim Brotherhood is to undo the entire framework of Arab-Israeli peace.
Mubarak has long used the strength of the Brotherhood as an excuse for his authoritarian rule. But he has done more than merely talk up this threat--he has done his best to make it real by working to undermine Egypt's liberal movement and outdo his Islamist rivals on religious matters.
Political survival for leaders in the liberal movement in Egypt today must involve paying homage to the Brotherhood.
Ironically, Mr. Braude writes that "the skewed political environment that has been created by Mubarak's long years of anti-liberal manipulations would only be enshrined if free and fair elections took place now."
Democracy-enhancing projects would best be facilitated by Egypt's liberals themselves, such as opening Egyptian broadcast media to progressive voices, advancing a secular humanist agenda through the educational system, and opening the organs of the Egyptian state to exchange programs with democratic countries.
All of these will need President Mubarak's support and our patience.
I recommend a full reading of Mr. Braude's article at TNR.
- Jude Nagurney Camwell
Feds "Scooping" Up Leftover NeoCon Dirt?Get this:
Remember Douglas Feith, who was the No. 3 official in the Defense Department but surprised many by abruptly quitting "to spend more time with his family"?
It seems that some DOD/CIA types are frantically trying to cover someone's tracks over something or other (who knows what?). Now, I could be on the wrong track here, and I will say that clearly before I begin to talk about real and meaningful issues that don't make me look like a fan of conspiracy theories.
A team of five federal agents ( from CIA, DoD, and DoE ) showed up at the University of Washington to search through the archival papers of the late Washington Sen. Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson.
Where does "Scoop" Jackson come in? Feith's mentor was former Pentagon official and influential conservative policy advisor Richard Perle. And from 1969 to 1980 Perle was a member of Jackson's staff and at times his most influential advisor, dubbed by some "the Prince of Darkness" during that era. Perle is so close to the Jackson legacy that he remains a member of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation that the senator established.
from Campaign Extra
Background:When Perle was working for Senator Scoop Jackson, he was investigated by the Justice Department and found to have violated US policies relating to unlawful transmission of sensitive classified US information to Israel.
"Jackson's influence is more powerful now than when he was alive," said Charles Horner, who worked beside Mr Perle on the senator's staff, in his "bunker" - Room 135 in the Senate office building, from where they fought against detente and the peaceniks in their own party."
It's interesting to consider that Robert Novak (who outed Valerie Plame) found "common cause" with someone suspected of espionage.
At Kos, Dem in Knoxville wonders:"He [Scoop Jackson] was in the senate from 1953 until his death in 1983. Towards the end he was on the committee for Energy and Natural Resources - would this include Atomic Energy Commission / DOE type stuff? Maybe he knew something about nuclear technology transfer? Tie in with North Korea/Iran/Pakistan? I'm just making wild ass guesses - but why now? It might tie in with something that just happened?"
Eliot Abrams (who is son-in-law of NeoCon gurus Midge Decter and Norman Podhoretz) has been tapped to be head of President George W. Bush's Global Democracy Strategy. Abrams worked for Scoop Jackson. I wonder what might be lurking in Scoop's drawers that Abrams might have to hide?
Please understand these are only out-loud thoughts, but I can't help but wonder how we American citizens can go on with our everyday lives and not care that, deep within our White House, lies the seed of misguided idealism sprouted by those who have been accused of espionage. Worse yet, this cult has gotten us into an unnecessary war and is clearly still favored by our President.
Allow me to say that this could have something to do with the Hanford nuclear site in eastern Washington state. A Seattle newspaper had an advance story on the archive search'n purge.
Still, I suspect our government of assisting an ascending NeoCon to erase his past with another stained NeoCon who's about to walk the plank. Perhaps some of those documents will simply have to disappear.
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"First and foremost, we must bring down the terror regimes, beginning with the Big Three: Iran, Iraq, and Syria. And then we have to come to grips with Saudi Arabia. … Once the tyrants in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Saudi Arabia have been brought down, we will remain engaged. …We have to ensure the fulfillment of the democratic revolution. … Stability is an unworthy American mission, and a misleading concept to boot. We do not want stability in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and even Saudi Arabia; we want things to change. The real issue is not whether, but how to destabilize."
The NeoCon creed. You can look at up on Google and see which one said it. They're all alike. Either they're incredibly naive, or they're out for endless war. You decide.
And remember, it's your kids who will go to this war-without-end and die for these ideal-zealots. Come on, America. Your own child's blood must be worth at least the small amount of time it would take for you to look into this.
Try stepping away from Reality TV for a few moments.
