We've known about this long before Paul O'Neill confirmed it.
Today's Drudge Report top-headline goes like this:

"FORMER TREASURY SECRETARY PAUL ONEILL SAYS INVASION OF IRAQ WAS PLANNED IN THE FIRST DAYS OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION LONG BEFORE 9/11, IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW SUNDAY ON "60 MINUTES"

This big news flash on the Drudge Report is something we have known for a long time. Why is it that, just because Paul O'Neill suddenly says so, it's now "legitimate" and headline-worthy whereas before it was left-wing lunacy?

I guess the reason the dusty old news is worthy of a headline today is because a Bush insider finally lets a truth pass over his previously-sealed lips (GASP).

May 4, 2003 /Iddybud:

LADIES AND GENTS- MEET YOUR WAR CABINET

9-11 was not caused by Saddam Hussein....
Hussein (granted, not a great guy) was nowhere CLOSE to having
WMDs that would threaten our national security...
but 9-11 was the perfect catalyst..the
"springboard to a dream" for the PNAC.
Jude 2:28 PM May 4, 2003

".."I owned a horse once. I loved him better than my own son," said Yusuf Majid, 58, a dignified but threadbare man who was eagerly pressing against the fence to watch one race. "Here in Iraq, times are bad, security is bad, work is bad. The only things we have to enjoy are these beautiful horses...."

Daily Times/Pakistan Op-ed:
Postmodernism and Islam: After 9/11? —Professor Akbar S Ahmed
The challenge to postmodernism did not come from the expected quarters. It came from George W Bush and Osama bin Laden...

"...postmodernism is, if nothing else, is resilient. Ideas of universal acceptance, compassion and understanding are difficult to erase. While Islam is being demonised by many in America as a religion of terrorists and extremists, books on Islam are doing brisk business at the bookstores.
Maulana Rumi, a Muslim mystic born centuries ago in what is now Afghanistan, is one of America’s favourite poets. Rumi’s example in itself is evidence the spirit of postmodernism still survives the Grand Narrative.
Indeed, it is desperately needed in the violent and anarchic world that September 11 has engendered. The predicament of living in the early part of the21st century will be assuaged by the promise and practice of universal compassion and understanding that lie at the heart of both postmodernism and Islam."

YES! Harkin Endorses Dean!



"He's the Harry Truman of our generation"
-Iowa Senator Tom Harkin on Howard Dean

Harkin blogs on BlogforAmerica.com after endorsing Dean in IA - Credit: photo by Ryan Witt/ DeanforAmerica.com

NostradamIddy Predicts-
October 31, 2004
U.S. ASTRONAUTS FIND SADDAM AGAIN!
THIS TIME ON MARS!!!

These are especially the times I realize we need new leadership

"Iran is ready to negotiate with all countries, and America is no exception," Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said on state television. "If it adopts a new approach to Iran and is ready to interact with us based on mutual respect and the principle of equality, the atmosphere will change remarkably."

This is a great opportunity. I am hearing great messages of hope from leaders of Iran, Syria, Libya (although I have nothing but disgust for the appeased terrorist Osama Bin Laden Mu'ammar Gadhafi).

On one hand, we have Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld and their track record of reliance upon (and involvement with) the NeoCon "no diplomacy" gang. They are a stubborn, mean lot. They refuse to play well with others. They would have failed Kindergarten...and I'm not joking about that.

On the other hand, we have hope. We we know now that will entail new U.S. leadership.

Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself

When a big head on your cable news TV screen (you know the type-perfect coif/chiclet-white teeth/doe eyes/glossy plastic-puffy lips) is telling you that the sky is falling and the code is yellow and the big bad wolf is out to kill you, kill you, kill you, kill you, ........

...remember that FEAR is POWER.


"An invisible man was gonna blow up the world yesterday. He didn't show up for his flight. But we know he was gonna do it. Chances are YOU would've died! The great Bush saved the world. We're all gonna die!"

I'm sick of the hopelessness and fear-mongering which is promoted on our media today.
Aren't you?
Did you ever think the Bush administration may LIKE you to remain afraid...feeling powerless? Needing them to take care of you?
The great hope of our Founding Fathers was self-government.
How is it that we have forgotten?

We, the People, have the POWER to take back our country and make it a place of hope once again, we need to remember the words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (from his first inaugural speech):

"...This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Read the words of someone who doesn't happen to be American. Get some perspective, people.

"The sun set on the British Empire and we've pretty much managed to deal with it. You'll cope. And you'll cope a lot better if you start remembering that all those people coming into your country are mostly your guests rather than your enemies, and that they've come to visit the Land of the Free, a beacon of fairness and democracy in this benighted world...
.....Vigilance is an ongoing low-key kind of thing that involves people quietly observing and doing what needs to be done, not this arm-waving 'we're all going to die if we don't stop every brown-skinned person coming into our country' hysteria. Your country boasts continually about its intelligence gathering, yet from here I can't help thinking that your intelligence gathering isn't very effective if you can't actually find the people you're looking for – the ones who you claim to know about – without harrassing everyone else along the way.....

Helen Thomas: Remove Arrows from Dean's Back
Cocco: A Goal for Dean: Push a Multi-Faith Theme
Madison Capital Times: Dean's Right on Saddam
Lindorff: Dean and his Democratic detractors


Helena Cobban to U.S. Government: Grow Up/Stop lying and rewriting History/Recognize your place in the world

Grow up and get used to it, babe. People are still chewing and stewing about 1876.
Perhaps the readers at World Net Daily have forgotten about Sam Tilden vs. Rutherford B. Hayes, but historians are
still arguing the legitimacy of that one.
If you think people aren't going to be talking about Bush v. Gore in 2004, you're plum nuts.
Of course the GOP would be wary to respond.
Their guy won by one dubious vote (by hijacking robed partisans instead of the People) in a case never worthy to be used as precedent for any other future case that could be called "legal".
Rightwing screechmonkeys kept telling Dems to "get over it"...now I have to tell the rightwing screechmonkeys to get over it themselves. Criminy, their man won.
Grow up, already. Take the consequences of the dubious action, crybabies.

Gephardt and Kerry's desperate teams read the New York Times Pop-Schlock Op-Eds, Too
See?
Now, what did I predict just yesterday?

Oh, man..these hacks are so predictable....everything I said came true!
Look at what Gephardt's manager wrote to Dean manager Joe Trippi..in part:
"..In the past several weeks, it has come to our attention that your campaign in Iowa is engaged in an effort to violate caucus rules and send out-of-state supporters to pose as Iowa residents and caucus in cities and towns across the state.
First reported in Newsweek (November 22, 2003; enclosed), one of your staff members has contacted us to confess that efforts to send non-Iowans to caucus is indeed a critical piece of your "perfect storm" strategy. Despite your campaign's claim in the Newsweek story that action taken to organize out of state voters were those of a single "kid from Burlington," we have learned that the problem is much deeper than that....An op-ed in yesterday's New York Times (January 7, 2003; enclosed) correctly points out that one doesn't need "a valid voter registration card or proof of residency -- any identification at all -- to take part in Iowa's caucuses. [sic]..."
Letter and reply in entirety here.

Did I peg these selazoids or what?????

Not a word of these accusations are true. I volunteer on the Dean team...they are on the square about everything they ask us to do.
It's nothing more than opportunist filth borne of gossip journalism. Kudos to Dan Savage and especially the new Enquirer-style editors at the N.Y.Times! Bring Jayson Blair back! Woohoo.

By the way, I doubt there's a shred of truth to this sleazy accusation. It looks like a grande play on wording.

Powell Slams Carnegie Think-Tank Report on Iraq

...but Powell accepted policies on Iraq that he believed were calamitous. He is diminished as a result

Why should we now put our faith in the Sceretary who cried 'Wolf'?

Sure you do, rightwing screechmonkey, sure you do
I knew it would take these whiners about a minute to capitalize negatively on the Maidstone Club/Dean connection after reading Mark Singer's New Yorker piece.
Meowwwwww!

Did you ever ask yourself:
'What will David Frum look like in another 30 years?'



Wonder no more.
ANONYMOSES has developed new technology to allow you to glimpse into the Frum future.
It's amazing...absolutely amazing!

New Yorker/Mark Singer
Howard Dean--Running On Instinct
I'm going to sit in my comfy chair and read this new Mark Singer article about Howard Dean. It's in my January 12, 2004 edition of the New Yorker (which just arrived in my mail).
I wanted to make you aware that it's on the internet...so you can read along with me!
*I wish you could see the childhood photos of Governor Dean and his family.*

BBC News-"Your Party":
Howard Dean is the Inspiration for New British Political Party
"...The idea grew out of a disillusionment with mainstream politics, and a desire "to do some good, to make a difference". He also insists that Your Party is not a slave to any existing political ideology.
"There is no single political idea. It doesn't sit somewhere on the political spectrum.
"We believe that there should be some structure there which represents people on an issue-by-issue basis. We believe that should be a part of the political landscape."

New Republic is Decidedly Part of the Stop-Dean Machinery

They endorse Joe Lieberman
On the same day, they make a case for Wesley Clark.
(Seems oddly contradictory, doesn't it?)

As Dean supporters, New Republic's assault upon the intellect and morality of Howard Dean is incredibly insulting to OUR intelligence and OUR morality.
Quote: "The problem with Dean's vision of the Democratic Party is more than electoral; it is intellectual and moral."

To this, I can only reply that both Lieberman and Dean are intelligent, honest, moral men.
They have a difference in their views on how the Democrats conducted themselves over the past three years.
When it all falls out, we will be left behind to take those differences in ideology and let the chips fall where they may.
It is entirely out of line to make a moral issue of the differences.
After the heinous awakening in September, 2001, in the end, the choice between Lieberman and Dean is all about the ease with which the Democrats facilitated Bush's unnecessary (non-terror-related) war. Over 500 of our troops are gone now. We can't bring them back. Oh Lord, I wish we could. But we can insure we have a leader who won't hawkishly lead us (and our children) by the nose to another unnecessary war. The greatest case for Dean vs. Lieberman began in October, 2002. It is a matter of trusting the intelligent and reasonable intuition of a leader. We'll have rough waters to navigate over the next eight years. I trust Howard Dean the most. I'm confident most Americans will agree with me as we go through the nomination season.

Here's what I think about this New Republic Statement knocking Howard Dean:

"The Democratic Party is racing back to the '80s.."

If they mean the 1780s, they may be right.
Howard Dean is reminding us all what the Constitution means and that we, the People, have a vested interest in participating to create a healthier democracy. Our ideas matter..not the ideas of the "New Democrats" and the "DLC".....but all of us.

Take a look at this beauty from the New Republic endorsement:

"Liberals resent Lieberman's moralism."

That, my blogdom friends, is what we call a crock of shit (please pardon the French).

KOS has commentary about the TNR endorsement. He used the first phrase that came to my mind after reading the
schlocky piece: Did I mention TNR sucks?


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

UPI Analysis: Is Clark on the Skids?

"...Why did retired Gen. Wesley Clark "take a Sherman" and bow out of consideration as Howard Dean's vice presidential running mate Sunday? Clark is clearly "going for broke," still convinced he can grasp the Democratic presidential nomination. But it does not appear to be a wise strategy.
....For Clark is being unexpectedly whipsawed from two directions. He now finds himself fighting a political war on two fronts, and he is losing both of them.....
....All this could yet change. Clark might after all defy the polls and humble Dean as he expected to in the South and West. But so far, the poll numbers and the other data flowing in from the field all point against it. Clark is not breathing down Dean's neck. The cold, icy ghost of Al Haig's presidential meltdown is breathing down his..."

Shame Upon our Nation:
Dr. Rafil Dhafir- Locked up in the Bush administration's "war on terror"

His "crime" was to help desperate Iraqis.

"....WHILE SADDAM Hussein remains locked up at an undisclosed location in Iraq, another Iraqi man is behind bars in Jamesville Penitentiary in New York state. The jailer in both cases is the U.S. government.
Dr. Rafil Dhafir has spent over nine months in various prisons in the area around Syracuse, N.Y. He was arrested on February 26, 2003, by federal officials for violating the International Economic Powers Act. This law prohibits individuals from providing material aid to the Iraqi people.
Dhafir has been targeted because of his work with the U.S.-based charity organization Help the Needy. Help the Needy was founded in 1994 with the intention of soliciting money for the starving and oppressed people of Iraq...
Was he just one more casualty in the government’s ruthless drive to war? Was this arrest and the intimidation tactics used against thousands of Arab-Americans and Muslims in this country simply a way to "shock and awe" potential antiwar activists into submission? Was Dhafir targeted to deflect attention away from Bush’s obsession with overthrowing Saddam Hussein?...
...In the final analysis, Dr. Rafil Dhafir is no criminal. Rather, he is a hero for his compassion, bravery and dedication to humanitarian causes. His victimization by the U.S. government should serve as a clarion call to alert us to a government and justice system that has turned the world of heroes and criminals upside down. "

-Dhafir has been an American citizen since 1972, but he was born and educated in Iraq. He is also a prominent member of the Muslim community in Syracuse, N.Y., and a much-respected doctor specializing in the care of cancer patients.-

Middle East/Food for thought:
Peace threats--Columnist asks why no peace-plan is "serious" enough for Sharon
"...The EU-Syria multi-billion euro Economic and Political Agreement is to be signed early this year.
This requires Damascus to implement its economic reform plans. Hence, the way forward for the young Assad is to continue to bombard Israel with peace threats..."
- Mustapha Karkouti, former president, Foreign Press Association in London

~~~~~~~~

Syrian President Assad's recent comments about nuclear proliferation have not helped to secure the
EU-Syrian Political and Economic agreement. (Assad had said he would not agree to destroy his chemical weapons unless Israel abandoned its undeclared nuclear arsenal, estimated at between 100 and 200 warheads. "Unless this applies to all countries, we are wasting our time," he'd said.)
The agreement would open the European markets to Syria, which was an isolated Socialist country. This could be a wonderful opportunity for Syria. I hope they don't blow it.
The European Union still believes that change must come from the young Syrian president who believes in modernism and reform. The delay in this track caused by Assad's negligent comments disappoints European friends who regard Syria's isolation as a setback for the region, and the West. We should all hope President Assad realizes the importance of this agreement and the dangers of WMD proliferation.
I think our own American leadership has been very poor in the area of stemming nuclear proliferation. We've neglected old treaties and have not bothered to reach out to the international community to reach any consensus of new ideas.
Worse yet, the Bush administration has alienated much of the international community and shown the U.N. that they are virtually nothing to us other than a useless hurdle.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Syrian President Bashar Assad began his visit to Turkey ­(the first by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in the 1940s). Many ­have hailed this visit as “historic and optimistic.”

Assad interview on Syria's relations with Turkey

~~~~~~~~~

Link between Syria and Spider-Man and Wal-Mart?
By J.R. Labbe/JWR
"A shopping spree turns into a geo-political awakening"

General Pervez Musharraf has a long, dangerous road ahead of him

Dean has not ruled out a "middle-class tax cut," but that the details have not been completed and the policy would not be announced until after primary voting has begun.

Some of Dean's economic advisors believe he should propose his own tax cuts for the middle class — both to ease the economic strain on working families and to avoid giving Bush an opening to run similar political ads. LINK

Josh Marshall on Davis Brooks 1-6 column

A Word About the 1-6 David Brooks Column
I just noticed that Josh Marshall wrote about the January 6 Brooks column and had similar things to say....in his own unparagoned way, of course. See Talking Points Memo.

"...One of the greatest rhetorical and moral challenges of opinion writing is how to respond to or critique aggressively dishonest or tendentious arguments. One part of you wants to discuss the underlying issue with its complexities and ambiguities intact
--- and every issue has complexities and ambiguities. But, in battles of ideas, decibels and clarity matter. And, to take up a different sort of metaphor, the niceties of conflict resolution are hardly appropriate or sensible if you’re trapped in a dark alley with a couple mafia goons...
A case in point is the increasingly brazen tendency for conservative columnists to label any critical discussion of neoconservatism as a form of anti-Semitic diatribe."

Thank you, Josh.

FLUMMERY Rocks!
This site has my TTLB New Blog Showcase vote..it's very funny!
Flummery: Howard Dean Says Something

Guardian: Carnegie group says Bush made wrong claims on WMD
Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday January 8, 2004
"...The Bush administration will today be accused of "systematically misrepresenting" the threat posed by "Iraq's weapons of mass destruction" in a comprehensive report on post-war findings.
The report, by four experts on weapons proliferation at the respected Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, is likely to reignite calls for acommission to look into the government's pre-war intelligence claims."


Washington Post article

Whoa! What happened? I stepped through the looking glass and......

The Five Hundred
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Thursday 8 January 2004

Fuzzy Math
"..The number of wounded American soldiers shipped home fails to find a consistent count. Some say 2,000, others say 9,000, and still others say 11,000 and rising. Another generation of shredded American veterans has been born, honored when the country needs heroes to inspire the next generation into enlisting, but forgotten the rest of the time, left to pinch pennies and rub the stumps where their healthy young legs used to send them running and leaping and dancing through a life they surrendered in a blinding flash of pain and light.

The number now stands at 487 Americans killed, according to figures provided by the Department of Defense. The Army Times, a reading staple for the enlisted ranks, had different numbers before the New Year. Jimmy Breslin, columnist from Newsday, wrote on December 30 that the Army Times said, "There were 506 killed by the time the newspaper closed last Friday. Since then, another seven have died. The newspaper has said this is the deadliest year for the U.S. military since 1972, when 640 were killed in Vietnam." That makes 513 Americans killed before the ball dropped in Times Square. Add the six who have died since then, and the number becomes 519. Even on this most important tabulation, the numbers are fuzzy...

There is no accurate accounting of the civilians who have died, but a cross-section of the math places their count in the tens of thousands. They died in their homes, shocked and awed before the fire took them. They died in the streets, fleeing the storm. They died in their beds from wounds, or disease, or despair."

David Brooks is falling in line (sheep-like) with the newly attempted Bush administration appearance to separate itself from the Neo-cons

What an intellectual weakling David Brooks seems to be. I'd expect something far more reasonable from him...some clue to show me he's not a victim of dependent thought.
I find it intellectually dishonest for Brooks to claim that there is an anti-Israeal component to any American's complaint about the troubling influence the PNAC has had with the Bush administration.
Brooks moans:
"..the people labeled neocons (con is short for "conservative" and neo is short for "Jewish") travel in widely different circles and don't actually have much contact with one another."

So who died and left David Brooks the judge and jury of who's an anti-Semite, already?

I am a liberal American who wants to see American support, fairness and safety for the people of Israel...and a solution to the two-state plan... and I realize it should NOT involve negotiating with terrorists. Now, how do we define terror?
Ariel Sharon was personally responsible for the slitting of the throats of many Palestinian villagers (see: Sabra and Chatila/Kibya/Commando Unit 101). Like Arafat, he's no stranger to terror. What if Bush had once ordered (and participated in) the slitting of throats of innocent people before he ever came to power over our nation? It would be like trusting Col. John Chivington to strike a peace negotiation with the Native Americans after the Sand Creek Massacre. Bush may be a puppet-warrior, but when he was (s)elected in 2000, we knew he had shirked violence as a young (AWOL) man. He's a tough-talking marshmallow chickenpuff. Not so with Sharon, I'm afraid. What I really hate to see is Bush patterning his war on terror based upon any Sharon-like unilaterlist tactics. It's a recipe for hate everlasting...war everlasting. When these leaders..Sharon and Arafat.. love and respect their duties to their respective citizens more than hating one another, perhaps real negotiation can take place.
Perhaps I'm anti-terrorist or anything remotely associated; perhaps I'm not fond of the Likud party; perhaps I am not fond of the American version of Likud (the Perles/Frums) infiltrating American foreign policy. Likud is a political party, by the way...not a people.
Someone should remind David Brooks. He may be confused..ignorant..deliberate?
Here's my point: No one can ever have the right to call me anti-Semitic...not David Brooks..not G-d Himself.

I'd tell Brooks to stop his false generalising about the Jewish-American population. They aren't all Richard Perles, nor are they all supporters of Douglas Feith or avid readers of William Kristol.
Sorry, David Brooks..those aren't requirements in G-d's pro-Semite playbook...only in the cheapshot partisan's playbook.

I find Brooks' apparent effort to divide us by his racist talk to be factionalising, condescending and ignorant. It's typical of the pop-schlock Conservative writer of today..abandoning honest intellectualism for factionalizing generalisation. It's no wonder we are so politically polarized in America. How shall we ever be able to help the people of Israel when we have these N.Y. Times pundits creating false suspicion and creating further divide between Americans? How can we look with any judgement toward people in foreign lands when our own house is so filled with partisan hatred?

Bush is worried about re-election..has the taint of the PNAC on him...can David Brooks help remove the scent of a Neo-Con? Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum...I smell the stench of Perle and Frum

Brooks also sounds absolutely daft in trying to portray the NeoCon philosophy as something that was never welcomed into the White House or their policies. Richard Perle and Douglas Feith are just two examples of people employed by the Bush administration to assist in consulting (and forming) U.S. foreign policy.

I'm highly suspicious of a new political trend here..perhaps a Bush re-election tactic.. in light of the fact that, on the Today show this morning, I heard there were going to be guests who "had the ear of the Bush administration, but now are criticizing their foreign policy". I thought to myself.."Hmmm....you mean NBC is actually going to put someone on the air who openly rips away at the Bush foreign policy? Whoa..I'm going to have to tune in....". So I waited. Guess who came on? Richard Perle and David Frum. What a joke! They stopped just short of saying we'd be warring with these nations in order to effect a regime change. Diplomacy was absolutely not in the cards with their way of thinking. All they wanted to do was to criticize the State Department (so Bush doesn't have to) and make way for filling Colin Powell's spot in 2004 (should Bush be re-elected) with a NeoCon-friendly hack who will submit to a regime change policy (ie:WAR) in Iran, Syria, and who knows where else?

Ready for the draft, American citizens?
American parents: Are you ready for your boys and girls to go to war?

Yes, yes..I know they're only teenagers now. But in another four years with George Bush, we'll need them
NOT in college classrooms (there won't be jobs for them or money for tuition)...Bush and Richard Perle will need them
to participate in the violent spreading of their co-opted and prostitutionalized version of democracyand freedom.
Keep reading David Brooks. If you believe his theory about reasonable people being "full-mooners", you'd best start preparing your children for an endless, unjust, and dirty, violent war that people like David Brooks (through his race-baiting conspiracy-theory-conspiracy-theory) consciously choose not to put the brakes on.

I'd like to tell Brooks to take his outright accusation of Americans like me being anti-Semitic and shove it. I'm absolutely appalled. He's way out of line. It's high time we start calling these people on such unfair commentary.

Here's a corker from Brooks:

"It's true that both Bush and the people labeled neocons agree that Saddam Hussein represented a unique threat to world peace. But correlation does not mean causation. All evidence suggests that Bush formed his conclusions independently."

To this, I say, most unequivocally, bullshit.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Read Karen Kwiatkowski's take on this issue.
She knows what's happening. She worked amidst it all.

".....The Frumster and Richer Perle have produced a book that finally reveals "their blueprint for what could become the Bush administration’s agenda in the war on terrorism." My dear, dear boys! Are you saying that in a fit of electoral excitement, young Dubya has already begun to diverge from your neo-Jacobin empire mongering? Is he beginning to exhibit a certain lack of concentration on cementing the White House-Likud Alliance? I mean, who could have predicted that in an election year?" ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~




Victory of the Loud Little Handful
by Mark Twain


The loud little handful - as usual - will shout for the war. The pulpit will - warily and cautiously - object... at first. The great, big, dull bulk of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why there should be a war, and will say, earnestly and indignantly, "It is unjust and dishonorable, and there is no necessity for it."
Then the handful will shout louder. A few fair men on the other side will argue and reason against the war with speech and pen, and at first will have a hearing and be applauded, but it will not last long; those others will outshout them, and presently the antiwar audiences will thin out and lose popularity.
Before long, you will see this curious thing: the speakers stoned from the platform, and free speech strangled by hordes of furious men...
Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.

Mark Twain, "The Mysterious Stranger" (1910)

The anti-Dean hatespeech is firing up on the right
..and the funny part is that anybody could take any sentence from this N.Y. Post hate-piece and put George W. Bush's name on it.
George the Coward. George the Fascist. Blah, blah.
This, my friends, is the real anger.
Howard Dean offers hope. His fiercest critics employ the very tactics of which they accuse Howard Dean.
Come and see the real anger when they know they know they've got nothing more..especially in the hope or reason department.

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

The Club for Growth (the club for killing social democracy) is said to be getting ready to air a new ad. SEE AD HERE!
I hope Iowans appreciate being categorized and pandered to as redneck bumpkins by the Club.
Pssst--there are plenty of foreign car dealers, Japanese restaurants, and coffee-lovers in Iowa these days. They've even got those pesky old movie theatres where they can still catch an admiring glimpse of California's new GOP darling Hollywood-type.

In another article about the ad, it says: "That ad's just another stereotype of Iowans by people who think we all live on a farm and eat nothing but corn," grumbled Desirae Coker, 18. A body-piercer at a tattoo parlor, she was reached by phone at her other part-time job, creating lattes and cappuccinos at Java Station in Davenport, Iowa.

Not so,[Stephen]Moore said. "We're not at all ridiculing Midwesterners. What we're trying to do is poke fun at the cultural elite who are the real supporters of the Howard Dean program," he said.

But Coker didn't think so. "In a way, it's kind of like insulting people who are into piercing and coffee-drinking," she said. "It's like, they made some ad to criticize me?"

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

"Something irrational comes over Republican governors when they start fraternizing with their Democratic counterparts. A few years ago when congressional Republicans were trying to cut the capital-gains tax and reform welfare — two issues that tremendously benefited states — the governors issued a whiney statement complaining that these policies might hurt the poor because federal payments to the states would be cut."

-Stephen Moore (President of "Club for GrowthKilling Social Democracy") in an article written with fellow social-democracy-killer Grover Norquist

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

Arianna Huffington is all for Dean!

New Feature on Technorati-Top 100 Interesting Newcomers
I found this while doing a search.
Fellow League-of Liberals member Futurballa is on today's top 100.

Writer Dan Savage Accuses Dean supporters in Iowa of outright intent to cheat.
The NY Times editorial staff obviously finds this great fodder for gossip. I can just see William Safire and Joe Lieberman salivating now. Drrrrrip...drrrrrrip.
While I scour their pages for more information on the candidates' actual stand on issues..in their own words...I get tabloid-style gossip-mongering.
This attempt at humor is a poorly-masked and insulting accusation (insinuation at best) about the intent of honestly energized (hard-working) campaigners for Howard Dean. (Dean's not named in the column, but anyone with at least a pea-sized brain can figure it out).
Nothing against Dan Savage (he's funny and adorable...and amusingly disgusting for what he admits to having done in Iowa past)...but how about some substance from the NY Times? I mean, we're not all cheaters like Dan admits to being.

I've been turning to the Boston Globe and Washington Post first lately.
Paul Krugman and Bob Herbert are the shining columnists at the NY Times.
Frank Rich is still interesting..I don't see enough from him.
Safire's full of himself (Note: I didn't say full of sh-t..that recent Dean-attack column on the Biblical Job could have put a wildly spinning insomniac to sleep )...David Brooks doesn't apply enough solid reasoning behind his conservative arguments...All Thomas Friedman talks about these days is Poland (what's the obssession with Poland?)...Maureen Dowd is a sourpuss hiding behing her often-destructive line of humor.

William F. Buckley continues his washed-up rant against Howard Dean

"....He [Dean] puts too great a strain on us with his novel ideas about how to redirect America's destiny..."

I suppose, to the hopeless and the poor fearful fools who allow the orange threat level to wipe out the memory of the Constitution of the United States, this may be true.

I saw Gore Vidal virtually bitch-slap Buckley on an old tape of a debate from the late 60s. It was a real cat-fight with Vidal coming out the clear winner. With his great wit, Gore Vidal smilingly turned Buckley into a vitriolic spewing monster. It was priceless. (There's a 15-second clip of it here). I'd love to bitch-slap Bill the whiny Dean-hater myself..if not only to wake him up. Buckley's a wash-up. Retirement is always an option after the 2004 election...I don't think the flab around his jaded ego will energize him to do that anytime sooner.
~~~~~~~~~~~

"A narcissist is someone better looking than you are."
- Gore Vidal

*Here's a wonderful Gore Vidal reference website*

Long Train's Journey into Night

"Journeys are the midwives of thought" -Alain de Botton
The India Times' Bachi Karkaria writes a personally erotic accounting of a communal experience.
~~~~~~~~~

Food for thought:

"If only we could apply a travelling mind-set to our own locales, we might find these places becoming no less interesting than, say, the high mountain passes and butterfly-filled jungles of [Alexander von] Humboldt's South America."
-Alain de Botton



"One can leave the self through the senses. It is through the senses (though not exclusively) that one perceives what is outside the self--and then these perceptions confirm something within the self, of which one was previously unaware. This confirmation is mysterious--it's one of the sources of the human sense of mystery. The whole world is mysteriously within us."
-John Berger

Transcript of NPR Democrats' Radio Debate January 6, 2004
HOWARD DEAN ON IRAQ:
"I didn't want to go into Iraq in the first place. I thought it was a mistake. I thought that Saddam Hussein did not pose the kind of danger to the United States that, say, the Soviet Union did. But now that we're there, if we pull out precipitously, we may end up with a much greater danger.
Al Qaida was not in Iraq before, but they are now, almost certainly. And if we pull out precipitously, or if we give over the Iraqi government to the Iraqis precipitously, and Al Qaida establishes a foothold in Iraq, we have a much more serious problem in terms of our defense than we did before..."

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

JOHN KERRY and CAROL MOSELY BRAUN on Pakistan:

CONAN: Senator Kerry, Pakistani officials are accused of trading nuclear weapons technology to other countries, including Iran, North Korea and, as we heard today, possibly to Libya as well. Pakistan is also an essential American ally in the war on terrorism, and you look at the map, it's crucial to any continuing operations in Afghanistan.
How do you balance those two issues?

JOHN KERRY: It's complicated, but you have to balance them and it's even more complicated than that. There have been two attempts on the life of President Musharraf. The specter of an Islamic radical state with nuclear weapons is unacceptable for the world.
And that is what is at risk in Pakistan today.
Pakistan has, frankly, misled the United States and the world with respect to its proliferation responsibilities for years. I remember meeting in Washington with President Zia, and he lied to my face about what they were doing with respect to nuclear weapons. And that's when we put sanctions in place on Pakistan as a consequence.
I believe that you have to walk a very fine line, but I am convinced we can be tougher with Pakistan. There are steps that we could take now to deal with the northwest component where Osama bin Laden is. We know he's up there. We have not pushed hard enough.
And I think there are combinations of initiatives we could take with India that would also help us resolve the tensions in that area.

CONAN: Ambassador Braun?

CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN: "Senator Kerry is exactly right. When Benazir Bhutto was president she swore directly to us that there was no nuclearizing going on, and we saw the O-rings on the Chinese boat in Karachi's harbor.
The fact of the matter is, Musharraf overthrew a democratically elected government there. We have to work with the Pakistanis but be very clear about the fact that our interests and their interests may not be coherent. There are rumors even that bin Laden is hanging out in the northwest territories there.
So the fact of the matter is, we have to, you know, take advantage of our -- we have to relationship-build even with bad people, but at the same time we have to be very clear about who it is we're dealing with."

Jimmy Breslin: The New American System Of Justice

This article's such a beauty that I'm posting the whole thing here...
Copyright 2004 Newsday, Inc

Jimmy Breslin
The New American System Of Justice
January 4, 2004

"Forward!" I commanded.
"I'm not going there," the cabdriver said. He stopped in the middle of the street, short of Columbus Circle.
Just ahead was a wall of guns, a neon arsenal, around the big new rich hotel, the Mandarin.

In all my time in my city I have never seen this many guns. Not just little guns that you fit in a holster. But great big cannons that were being held by men peering out from under helmets and dressed otherwise for battle.
"They look like they're afraid that someone is going to get killed," I said.
"Me," the cabdriver said.
This was on New Year's Eve, after our 140,000 troops captured Saddam Hussein and made America safe for freedom and liberty and democracy.

Later, in the flow of the news, here was the mayor of Las Vegas, the great Oscar Goodman, waving at the sky to show the air power over the Strip. Try to hurt Oscar's hotels and that arm goes up in the air and brings down an air strike.
Also, he cheerfully reported the available firepower on his streets. Once, Oscar stood in front of a defendant, Nicky Scarfo, and told the jury, "I want you to concentrate on one thing: Forget the gun."

After Saddam's capture, there was a weekend of propaganda. We examined Saddam Hussein for scarlet fever in front of the world. The Pekingese of the Press raved about the government and its soldiers. Saddam is in the can. We are safer!
On the day he was found, an American soldier was killed. After that, 10 more were killed in a week. We just lost four more on Friday. Bring 'em on, Bush the president says. Yes we will, Iraqis say.
The Homeland Security raised the alert to orange. Planes from other countries were canceled. Specific passengers were the dangers. There was a baby with a rattle that they thought could blow up America. All passengers went undetained and unnamed. If they knew who they are and we know who they are, who are we keeping it a secret from?
The secret keepers could be the same speechwriters who wrote Bush's State of the Union speech last year about weapons of mass destruction. I make it 7-5 that they will use one of these planes as proof of success against terrorists.

On the other side of politics, Howard Dean, Democratic candidate for president, didn't think Saddam Hussein's capture made us any safer in America. The other politicians screamed that was un-American. It was John Kerry who said, How could Dean dare say that we were not safer now? Kerry is so sure we're safe that he mortgaged his house the other day to have the money to say Dean is a traitor. This is only before the first primary and Kerry goes for the roof over his head. He seems ready to go naked on these primaries.

Howard Dean then said that he was old-fashioned and he didn't think you could judge or punish Osama bin Laden until you had a trial and found him guilty.

Suddenly, politicians and the news industry shouted, What are you talking about innocent until found guilty? How can this man Dean say that bin Laden deserves a trial? They said that this was a perfect illustration of Dean talking without thought. And completely un-American, too.

In 1945, they had the Nuremburg trials for Nazis who had killed tens and tens of millions, and had judges, witnesses, evidence and defense counsels. Just the other week, one of the Democratic candidates, Wesley Clark, testified in the Hague at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia.

Yet Joseph Lieberman, who is a peripheral candidate now and thus a nasty little man, said that because he relies on the Constitution, Dean is a weakling who would melt in the face of George Bush.
John Kerry and Dick Gephardt were wildly opposed.
Yet all Dean has to do in this big Des Moines debate today is ask each candidate, "Are you in favor of sentencing bin Laden before you have a trial?"
Let them answer in front of a country that is better than they are.

My friend, David Greenfield, a top lawyer in Manhattan who takes on murder cases, was reading some of this over the holiday. He was saying, "This is insanity. I thought everybody knew that no matter how high the crime or the criminal, the punishment phase always must follow the trial. These people, they want off with his head and we'll see if he's fit to stand trial."

The newsmen ought to be asked, too. Story after story said that Dean had made another gaffe; he had called for the Constitution to be used. I read some temporary insanity in a column by Robert Novak that totally omitted the Constitution. He is mentioned because he is big enough. The rest are Pekingese of the Press with fleas.

After this came every old Democratic job-holder hoping for a comeback and knowing Dean isn't the man to bring them back.

I made Joe Lockhart the model for all the old job-holders. He is a former Clinton flack, which made him the press agent for a red light house. He explained Monica Lewinsky to reporters. He is one of those news business failures who took up dreary government press agentry. John Gregory Dunne, who just passed away, always described the type as "the main-chancers who work for politicians more than the politicians themselves."

Lockhart said, and the news reporters copied, "It's the unplanned, offhand comments that often seem to play a critical role. You've got to be able to become a master of the game, not someone who just rails against the game."

Here is a flack whose last client was Bill Clinton, who lied under oath in a federal court.

In order to protect yourself from terrorism by politicians, you best pay attention to things like the American system of justice. We did pretty good with it. I'd hate to try it without it.

Don't miss this video...click on the photo.

If Schwarzenegger lived in Singapore..... youch!


"hubba hubba" -- -->"yyyyy-owwwwww!"

Mad Turkey?


"I ate beef today and will continue to eat beef"
-G.W. Bush

Randolph Holhut/American Reporter:
Right-wing 'screech-monkeys' newest Dean smear-tactic: He's 'crazy'




Krauthammer, Chavez, Novak, Coulter, Charen...the line forms on the left for your electroshock treatment. Zzzzzzappp! Screeeech! ;)

"....Dean spoke up about this when the Democratic Party's was cowering in fear. That has been the reason why Dean is the frontrunner and the reason why all the mudslinging against him has had almost no effect.
....let the RWSMs [RightWingScreechMonkeys] call Dean insane. They only look like nuts themselves by doing so.."

Eternity is one of the three
Absolute aspects of G-d.

G-d is eternal, ever-existing
and forever self-existent.

Time is an illusion, there
is only an Eternal Every
Changing Now!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Globe and Mail: Are there parallel worlds?



Dan Falk details how string theory -- the so-called theory of everything -- might explain the structure of the universe. Of course, for it to work, there have to be a few extra dimensions.



'Why are they there?' 'What happened to them?' 'Why don't we notice them?' 'What are their consequences?' 'Do they do anything useful?'
~~~~~~~~~~~
Kabbalah and String Theory

Going off-road:
U.S. State Department policy on Israel is on shaky ground with Israel


I have several references for your reading pleasure, beginning with some rich tongue-in-cheek humor.

"...Hamid and I agreed that since neither one of us had the money to go to Geneva, we would sit down right there, in Secaucus, New Jersey, to negotiate our treaty. So while the rest of the guests were eating their choice of salmon with a mustard sauce or Beef Wellington with baked potato, Hamid and I got down to negotiating world peace, or as we call it "The Secaucus Peace Plan". We based the plan on the Geneva treaty that Mr. Powell supports.." -Jeff Dunetz/JWR- LINK

"...Opus Vey was a major player in the creation of the Oslo Accords, and most recently, they have been working to though their people in the U.S. State Department, trying to convince the Israeli Government that by turning the Temple Mount and the Tomb of Rachel over to Palestinians they will finally achieve peace. They need to be more careful though, the lack of consistency in State Department Mid-East policy is starting to make people a little suspicious..." -Jeff Dunetz/JWR - LINK

"...The premise of the Geneva agreement is that Israeli surrender will bring Mideast peace. It would require Israel to relinquish land, weaken its security, and yield tangible assets to the Palestinians. In exchange, the Palestinians would pledge to stop killing Israelis. Sound familiar? It's the 1993 Oslo formula all over again: Israel trades concessions on the ground for unenforceable Arab promises of peace." - Jeff Jacoby/JWR - LINK

On Howard Dean:
Dean must clarify his Middle East plans and intentions to convince Jewish voters..they will not settle for spin or generalisation. Media needs to concentrate less on his gaffes..ask the real/hard questions. - See article by Jonathan Tobin/JWR - LINK

On same-sex partners' rights:
"....(Jerusalem) A bill to give same-sex partners limited rights passed its first vote in the Israeli Parliament Monday...Under the legislation each partner in a common-law couple would be entitled to damages in the event of the death in an accident of one of the partners. The bill redefines "spouse" to include same-sex couples...."-LINK

The Secret of Bush Popularity-



THE 'S' FACTOR

I want Karl Rove to have nightmares equal to the ones he has given so many Americans..don't you?

This race for the Democratic nomination must come down to a Howard Dean/Wesley Clark team.
It's never been clearer to this volunteer democratic advisor. ;)

"Clark is the one that Karl Rove has nightmares about."
-VOICE OF THE PEOPLE / Chicago Tribune

~~ ~~

Wesley Clark should be very careful when raising/conjuring up doubts re:the electability of Dean

Watching Clark on Russert this past Sunday, I had some concerns. Now, I am not naive and I know politics is not a pretty game.What bothered me was the deliberate distancing..the moving away from any association with Howard Dean by Clark. I wouldn't say this if I didn't have a world of respect for General Clark, which can be evidenced by my letter to Clark urging him to become a candidate early last summer when he was in the decision phase. I think he's making a crucial mistake for the future of Democratic party. Ostracizing or politically isolating Dean simply isn't going to succeed. Far too many are already committed and devoted to newfound grassroots strength thanks to Governor Dean. If the DLC is betting those Dean supporters will cut and run, they're in for a rude awakening, I'm afraid.

I am not privvy to the inside doings at the DLC, nor do I have inside information about any of the Democratic campaigns. I have sensed, however, intentional snubbing and animosity toward Howard Dean by the DLC for a long time now. I've talked about it here on Iddybud-blog and the Free Thinker's Page.
Whatever the DLC beef is with Dean, it's time for them to realize he is, in all reality, the frontrunner with the public.
It's time to allow him far more room for respect instead of resorting to tawdry tactics to smear him in the all-too pliable press. Here's a fact for the DLC: Howard Dean has been sent to the head of the line by a heck of a lot of "little people" with "little pocketbooks and little wallets". Everytime the DLC tries to nail Dean, they put a nail in their own coffin.

Dean supporters aren't the only ones who recognize what
the DLC is doing. I heard more about it by (accidentally, trust me) tuning in to Rush Limbaugh today. He was talking about this Harley Sorenson article. (Quote from Sorenson: "To win in November, it appears, the Democrats will have to defeat not only the Republican candidate but also the saboteurs in their own party, the Democratic Leadership Council...")

Rush Limbaugh makes me want to puke my guts out most of the time, but ...damn.. if I didn't nearly see his point today about the DLC making a sabotaged spectacle of the Democratic race ...

This is bad, DLC. Bad news.

If Wesley Clark is associating himself with the DLC, I would remind him that there is currently a frontrunner who has been bought and paid for by the largest number of the smallest individual political contributors ever. That fact should be guiding General Clark....along with his heart.

The team of Howard Dean and Wesley Clark will be like the fable about the sticks that are fragile when held individually, but unbreakable together.

Dean and Clark will be virtually non-stoppable...unbeatable.

Any other combination will be a loser in 2004.

If the DLC's Al From (and any of his associates) f---s this up for us Democrats, he could never be forgiven. Bush is the worst President in history..the biggest liar of all time...and by all that is reasonable, it should be a cakewalk to deny him another four years. (Then again, some naive fool said Iraq would be a cakewalk, too).
What Al From and the DLC are doing when they urge their candidates to frame Dean as "the unelectable" is blatantly disloyal to the Democratic party itself...all for the sake of faction. Al From knows VERY WELL that Howard Dean is no more left than any of the DLC candidates.
Norman Solomon wrote this about the DLC last June:

A recent memo by a pair of DLC honchos, Al From and Bruce Reed, linked the party's progressive-leaning activists with "elitist, interest-group liberalism." The salvo is laughable. It would be difficult to find any organization of Democrats more deserving of the "elitist, interest-group" tag than the DLC, which has long been funded by oil, chemical, insurance and military-contracting corporations -- and has served their interests.

At least Howard Dean is honest. He came in out of the blue and enchanted many a disenchanted Democrat. The DLC might point their finger at Bush and blame him for the disenchantment, but they'd best begin to realize we are disenchanted with many a Democrat as well. The anti-Dean candidates scream about how STRONG they'll be, yet they've proven themselves as 98-lb weaklings for the past 3 years..succumbing to Bush policies at every turn. So..guess what? When DLC-darlin' Joe Lieberman says he'll be tough next year, we ask: "Where were you when you could have PROVEN THAT TO US?"
Anyone out here...from righty Rush all the way to progressive me can see the forest for the trees.

Al From and the DLC should understand that sabotage of Election 2004 will not be taken lightly by grassroots Democrats

*By the way, I think Clark did a wonderful job today laying out his tax-ideas.

GOP Crisis: Illinois GOP isn't conservative enough for Grover Norquist

A group of conservative stalwarts has made it a top priority to "reform" the state Republican Party..The Illinois Center Right Coalition is leading the effort with the help of prominent Washington insider Grover Norquist...[Norquist] said the party has traditionally shunned conservative values.
"One of the reasons why Illinois has been weakening for Republicans is that the Republican Party there is still pre-Reagan," Norquist said. "It's not an anti-tax party, it's not a small government party. It's a we-were-born-north-of-the-Mason-Dixon-line-so-we're-Republicans party. It is a party without ideological foundation from the establishment's perspective. It never had the Goldwater revolution that other states had."

Their solution is simple: dump state party chairman Judy Baar Topinka (a moderate Republican with socially liberal views)
and Republican National Committeeman Bob Kjellander (he was in charge of five Midwest states in 2000, all of which Bush lost). Bob Kjellander prefers to call his critics "rapid extremists" rather than conservatives.
Kjellander said, "We've got this small band of naysayers who would just rather tear down than work positively. But I'm not even worried about that because they're such a small incestuous group."

This Norquist-style extremism will wind up severely damaging the GOP nationwide... especially in the North.

"They seem to have established this litmus test of what it means to be Republican, and if you don't adhere to that test, they don't make room for you," Illinois Republican Party spokesman Jason Gerwig said of the conservative critics. "If that's how they feel, that's more at their end than our end. We want Republicans to win at the White House and the courthouse. We want everyone to be involved."

To the disenfranchised Republicans...may I suggest Howard Dean as a great alternative? You are more than welcome at the table.

William Buckley the hopeless, the jaded

Buckley rips away at Howard Dean in his own unique fashion:

"...To share time in national forums with the thaumaturgist from Vermont, who with a bright and engaging smile waves his hand eastward and proclaims an end to the problem there by simply shipping our boys home, does two things to the other contenders. They want to say: Stop! stop! stop! The world doesn’t work that way! There are terrible, ridiculous complications! etc. etc...."

Frankly, we could use a bit of a thaumaturgist. A majority of this country believes they've been used and manipulated by the Bush administration. Knowing you've been used and manipulated does not generate a trustful, secure, or hopeful feeling. A hell of a lot of people are not satisfied with the level of participation offered by Bush and/or the Washington business-as-usual. Our voices are not being heard..our wishes are not being adequately translated through our representatives. A lot of people realize that it is, in part, due to an oppressive GOP majority. I am not talking about this mythical far-left Bush-hating 20% of the electorate the mainstream media is tossing around ad nauseum...I wonder where this myth began? Who's tossing out these talking points? Our journalists, it seems, have become either incredibly reliant/lazy...or have lost proper perspective. Pehaps it's a combination of both.

William Buckley's been around a long time. I suspect he's a jaded old conservative. At least he doesn't hammer the tired "angry Dean" schtick. To the contrary, Buckley accuses Dean supporters of being fantasy-struck starry-eyed optimists. Hell, Bill Buckley. I'll take hope over all the other dreadfully minority-ignoring (stick-it-in-your-face/screw you) politics that have been thrown at us by the Bush administration any day.
Why on earth do you think Dean is on TOP?

Notice William Buckley portrays Howard Dean as smiling/bright....Dean surely doesn't sound like an angry fellow to me...how about you?

I think Buckley, like many other pundits, journalists, and even our Washington representatives need to start thinking with the mind of the upcoming generation rather than mocking them for entering the political process.
It seems that, once the younger citizens get on a roll with democratic spirit, they became a bit of an enemy. The jaded old politicos become fearful that things might change. Change is overdue. I, for one, am damn proud of the younger generation interested and empowered by Howard Dean. Even if Dean never secures the nomination (which I believe he will), look at the good he's done for our democratic future.

Calling Howard Dean's ideas "baby-talk political solutions" in light of the comparisons that could be made to any of the Presidential candidates' ideas (including Bush) is nothing more than a blatant attack on one for the benefit of the others.

"...Howard Dean’s exhilarating nostrums have got the headier members of the young Democratic population absolutely carried away with enthusiasm. Is there any sound on earth more pleasing than END WAR? Or, ELIMINATE POVERTY? And the First Amendment guarantees free speech even if it is hypnotic..."

Dear heavens...had our founding fathers felt as bored and hopeless as Bill Buckley, we'd still be Limeys.
We see through you, oh jaded, fearful and tired old Bill.
We even feel a bit sorry for you.

The ABCs of the Iowa Debate




A- Add new people to the voting ranks......Howard Dean

B- Better trade policy needed.......John Kerry

C- Commercial airplanes being escorted by fighter jets..are we safer; really?......Howard Dean

D- Dems-I told you NAFTA was a bad idea all along!......Dennis Kucinich

E- Engagement: Sustained engagement in leadership is an element missing with Bush. Inconsistent prescence
is a Bush hallmark......John Edwards

F- Fear is power......Carol Mosely Braun

G- Get out of Iraq......Dennis Kucinich

H- Hope-not anger......Howard Dean

I- I'll never privatize Social Security......John Kerry

J- Just CAN'T cut and run (from Iraq). We have responsibility......Carol Mosely Braun

K- Kerry on Bush administration and 'No Child Left Behind': "They're faking it."......John Kerry

L- Labor: Rights of workers around the world need to be proptected for NAFTA/WTO to work in the American farmer's
......best interests.......Howard Dean

M- Misadventure in Iraq......Carol Mosely Braun

N- Negative ads: You must defend yourself. Stand up to attackers like
Tom DeLay.......John Kerry

O- Overthrow/Capture of Saddam Hussein makes the world safer...... Joe Lieberman

P- Power Belongs to the People.......Howard Dean

Q- Question from Edwards to Kerry: Are you saying you're the only one who has a health plan?
.......Kerry replies: Time magazine called my plan a 'big new idea'. I'll have 97% of Americans covered in 3 years.

R- Roadmaps-Show the Arab world and terrorists we mean business......Joe Lieberman

S- Supplanting Iraq for the War on Terror......John Kerry

T- Taking action in Iraq was the best decision to keep the American people safe......Dick Gephardt

U- Unbelievably intrusive mandate: Bush's Leave No Child Behind ......Howard Dean

V- Very important: Asking middle class-did your kids' tuition go up with Bush? Health care costs go up?
We need to shift tax priorities. Most of middle class worse off with Bush. ......Howard Dean

W- Waste/Military Spending......Dennis Kucinich

X- Xtra Xtra/Hear all about this: I've balanced a budget, provided health insurance for citizens in my state, delivered healthcare. ......Howard Dean

Y- Yes to trade--no to protectionist positions ......Joe Lieberman

Z- Zo zayeth Braun: Bush 41 said "No new taxes!"; Bush 43 said "No new jobs!" ......Carol Mosely Braun

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

BONUS TOP SEVEN:



#1- Most desperate show of hyperbole:
Joe Lieberman's dramatics on the Howard Dean sealed-records. It was as if to say: Please unseal the records so I can find fodder to attack you some more...please oh please..whine..why won't you do it?

#2- Saddest/most worthless attack between 2 people:
Dick Gephardt's attack on John Edwards over trade. Gephardt made a mistake on Edwards' record (Edwards was not in the Senate when NAFTA was decided -- and he pointed out he had campaigned against it). Edwards nearly asked for an outright apology...which he never came close to getting from Gep.
Edwards was a complete gentleman throughout the debate. I was impressed by his performance today.

#3- Most TIRED (and tried) attack:
Dick Gephardt's attack on Dean for 90s-era medicare.
"If I hear Dick Gephardt attack Howard Dean on Medicare one more useless time, I think I'll puke."
-Iddybud October 10, 2003

#4- Best soundbites:
Carol Mosely Braun's got it goin' on in that department..hands down.

#5- Worst Comparison by any stretch of the imagination:
Joe Lieberman comparing TinPot Saddam Hussein to BadBoy Joseph Stalin.
Stalin killed 20 million of his own people, historians have concluded.

#6- Best Self-Defense
This must go to Howard Dean, who had to defend himself all day long.
I especially appreciated his composure and reply that he was standing for the rule of law when Kerry attacked him for
the Osama Bin Laden comments last week. I'm not sure how I would have reacted hearing Kerry twist my words (such as the horrific and perverted version of Dean's statements to Diane Rehm/NPR on December 1st about the Saudi Arabian-9-11 mystery.)
Governor Dean showed he was not an angry defender..he quietly and firmly stood up for himself. Kerry looked like the attacking oaf again. I wonder when he'll learn?

#7- HOWARD DEAN TALKING ABOUT THE 7TH YEAR OF HIS ADMINISTRATION! :)

~~
Adam Nagourney's NY Times article is here

Pakistan is a Powderkeg

I have a prediction for 2004/2005 based upon reasonable speculation. I think we're going to see an Islamic-fundamentalist political uprising in Pakistan. Given the fact that President Musharraf has narrowly escaped assasination twice in the past month, I think we should be very concerned about the future of keeping/counting on Pakistan as a trusted ally in the war on terror. When you consider the fact that Pakistan already has nuclear-weapons capability and has shown a willing propensity for selling secrets and materials to places such as Libya and North Korea, we can't continue to look away.

Kashmir may prove to be a more dangerous and volatile proving-ground for hate-based religious fundamentalism than the Gaza strip. Muslim and Hindu peoples of Kashmir had lived in relative harmony and friendliness since the 13th century when Islam first became the majority religion in Kashmir. The Sufi-Islamic way of life that ordinary Muslims followed in Kashmir complemented the rishi tradition of Kashmiri Pandits (Hindus), leading to a syncretic culture where Hindus and Muslims revered the same local saints and prayed at the same shrines. Kashmiri Pandits were driven from their homeland after a campaign of intimidation and harassment was launched against them by the military-wing of the Islamic terror-employing secessionists.

It may serve concerned people of the world well to read the history of the Kashmir region.

Ignominous defeat suffered by Pakistan in the war of 1971 and loss of East Pakistan without gaining Kashmir has been rankling in the minds of people and rulers of Pakistan ever since. Cadets of Pakistan's military academy at Kakul are known to swear an oath that they will avenge the defeat of 1971. That explains why the military budget has been continously rising even though Pakistan has been cut to half in size and population. It has also been pursuing its nuclear program in a determined way and is reported to be in possession of a few atom bombs and nuclear war-heads.

While it was secretly hoped that Pakistan would implode and partition (a destiny for which it seemed to be headed before the U.S. took them on as allies in the war on terror), India can no longer hope for such an easy solution to the Kashmir question. The war on terror has warped the "settled" facts of history and reliance upon old predictions. (We know there are no settled facts of history).
It helps to remember that Pakistan is not a nation-state. It is an unnatural and unhistorical country with its borders drawn in the name of religion.
Pakistan (through Musharraf) has gained political clout and financial support for supporting the U.S. after 9-11.
Yet, look at how the 9-11/U.S. support has affected the people of Pakistan.
Let's face it, Musharraf's cooperation has made him extremely unpopular in Pakistan with those who harbor anti-American foreign policy resentment. (And there's a lot of it, whether or not we choose to overlook it in favor of support for the war on terror).
There has been tremendous pressure and threat (from U.S.) to anti-Islamic fundamentalists in neighboring countries Iran and Afghanistan. You can safely bet Islamic fundamentalists in Pakistan are feeling the threat...and
are empowered to politically survive because of it.
The Kashmir situation increases the threat to Islamic fundamentalists...Hindu reactionaries use sloganeering and war mania against Pakistan to seek popularity. As a reaction to Hindu fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalism gains popularity in Pakistan.

In the near future, you will see an upsurge in Islamic fundamentalists struggling for post 9-11 power. Will the fundamentalists take the power in Pakistan? Recent elections have indicated that they well could do so. Before 9-11, I think we could have safely said no because of the balance of forces in the Pakistani state. However, after 9-11, we see assasination attempts on the President and a constant growing of popularity (with the people) of fundamentalist political rule. Musharraf has recently agreed to cease control of the military (effective December, 2004) to ward off a coup by a fundamentalist section of the army, which was surely on its way to happening.

If Musharraf doesn't take of the militray outfit soon, all hell may break loose.

In most recent news, [Former Prime Minister and Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples party] Benazir Bhutto said that the mathematics of the recent vote of confidence in Pakistan proved once and for all that General Musharraf did not have legal votes for a Presidential confidence vote and that he was illegally and unconstitutionally holding the office of the Presidency. (Sounds like America 2000 albeit the differences in process ;)

One example of prior news of Pakistan on Iddybud blog

Unlike the White House Coward, Tony Blair Moves Freely About Iraq
..in Az Zubayr

... in the light of day, no less. No turkeys. No big stories about going in like a cool brave secret agent under cover of darkness.



Az Zubayr was a place of sorrows

Az Zubayr is a place of need

Wow--Britney Spears Got Married!!!


..and I voted for TTLB New Blog Showcase! Juggernaut of Love: The Red Apprentice (An Altruist Ideal)

Barney's First Dog Blog: My Great White Powder Adventure! (by Barney)

Iddybud named a "blogger's blog" by Ecosystem-gazer--
See Chris Lydon's The Blogging of the President
"....there is a hidden pattern in the numbers that says interesting things about the blogs and their connections...
....The list of the "bloggers blogs" is also interesting, I've labelled these "inward facing" blogs, because they have high cachet inside the blogsphere...."

~~~~~~~~~~

While at Chris Lydon's site, see Matt Stoller's piece on David Brooks.
After reading it, proceed to the Mahablog, where you'll find an interesting critique of a recent Brooks column.

Pop Quiz: Who remembers the name
Imad Hage?
*Hint: the Bush administration doesn't want you to know the name Imad Hage...unless, of course, you can associate it with the name of a criminal or a terr'ist.*
"....Hage said by telephone Thursday from Beirut that he intends to return to the United States in a few weeks to fight the charges, which he suggested were only brought after news surfaced of his involvement in the Iraqi peace deal. "I think I am caught between various people with different agendas," Hage said. "I think they are blowing it out of proportion because somebody wanted to discredit me early on and unfortunately this thing became public."

My blog entry from November will refresh your memory.

Who's Hijacking Jesus?
No, not Howard Dean...
it's Dick and Lynne Cheney!

Christ was hijacked long ago, with countless imperial and other brutalities carried out in His name.



It was religious and civil authorities who put their heads together and ended up torturing and executing Him.
Why?
They considered Him to be a danger.
His message directly challenged empire.

"And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"

Nice Christmas card message, NeoCon Crusaders!

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

Pat Robertson: God tells me it's Bush in a blowout
so sayeth Maru
Please read Maru's hilarious take on Pat's divinely expired prediction.

Bush is Beatable....Pass It On

Bush is Beatable....Pass It On.

Why Bush May Well Lose in 2004

From Jan 4, 2004 NY Times magazine article:

"...the Bush administration stands very, very far from the foreign-policy mainstream: "....liberal Democrats, conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans have more in common with one another than any of them have with the Bush administration.
.... the administration's claim that 9/11 represents such a decisive break with the past that many of the old principles no longer apply is right -- but the new principles need not be the ones the administration has advanced. A different administration could have adapted to 9/11 in a very different way. And this is why national security should be, at least potentially, such a rich target of opportunity for a Democratic candidate...

So, it seems the Democrats have many reasonable talking points to use to their advantage...

"...Why is so much of the world against us? -- is, in fact, the starting point for the Democratic critique of the Bush administration. The sheer velocity of the change from worldwide sympathy to worldwide antipathy is almost incredible, and while much of the new anger comes from the very nature of our superpower status, the conduct of the Bush administration has plainly had a lot to do with it as well....

Just think about where we might be today if we hadn't alienated most of the civilized world...and if we had paid closer attention to limiting weapons-proliferation as a truly multi-lateral-force (I don't mean the Togos and Latvias--I mean a force with the moral strength of this world.)

".....All the major candidates continue to press the loose-nukes issue as an opportunity to demonstrate that the old distinction between hawk and dove is an artifact of another era. In a major foreign-policy address delivered last month, [Howard] Dean accused the administration of being ''penny-wise and pound-foolish when it comes to addressing the weapons-proliferation threat'' and proposed a tripling of spending in the area -- an idea lifted from the hawkish ''American Security Policy'' document -- with an equal amount to come from America's allies....."

"....''The line of attack is not Iraq, though there'll be some of that. The line of attack will be more, 'What have you done to make us feel safer?' I'm going to outflank him to the right on homeland security, on weapons of mass destruction and on the Saudis,'' whom [Howard] Dean promises to publicly flay as a major source of terrorism. ''Our model is to get around the president's right, as John Kennedy did to Nixon.''...

No doubt-the world changed on 9-11. Was the Bush administration "up to" facing and tackling the multi-faceted and sophisticated task of responding? After experiencing the lead-up to the Iraq war, the thumbing of the nose at the UN, and the aftermath of the initial combat phase, I would have to say they blew it (in a post 9-11 sense).


"...The underlying critique offered by Democratic policy experts is that the Bush administration, for all its bluster about how 9/11 ''changed everything,'' has in fact not adapted to the transformed world into which it has been catapulted and is still chasing after the bad guys of an earlier era. The administration understands war, but not the new kind of multifaceted, globalized war that must be fought against a stateless entity. As Ashton B. Carter, a Defense Department official in the Clinton administration, puts it, ''We've done one thing in one place'' -- or two, counting Afghanistan. What about the other things in the other places? What about diplomacy, for example? Do we have some means beyond threats of military action to induce Iran and Syria to stop sponsoring terrorists? Do we have some means of persuading the European allies to toughen judicial processes so that terrorism suspects can't walk away -- a United Nations treaty, for example?.."

...but...even with all these facts laid out...even with the knowlege we have the worst President in U.S. history, how could we fathom that the Democrat base could lose the Democrats the 2004 election? How could they blow it? How will they get their act together?

".....Clark understands the lessons of the post-cold-war world as no other candidate does. But the post-cold-war world has already been superseded, at least from the American point of view, by something quite different -- the post-9/11 world...

....The difference between the idea that international law, multilateral institutions and formal alliances enhance our power -- the Wilson-F.D.R.-Truman-Kennedy idea -- and the view that they needlessly constrain our power, is a very important difference indeed.....

..... With the very important exception of Iraq, the major candidates hold essentially the same views. Hawkishness or dovishness on Iraq thus does not correlate with some larger difference in worldview, as, for example, the left and right views on Vietnam once did...... O.K., then, it doesn't. And yet it sure feels as if it does. Iraq has, in fact, become the Democratic manhood test.


...The Democrats seem trapped between two irreconcilable impulses, or litmus tests. This is especially obvious, and painful, with figures like John Kerry, who has tried to have it both ways....You can imagine two very different solutions to the irreconcilable-litmus-test problem. If the capture of Saddam Hussein leads to a rapid improvement of conditions in Iraq, the Democratic litmus test could change, and the party could nominate a candidate who couldn't be stereotyped as soft. And if, alternatively, conditions in Iraq fully disintegrate, the general election litmus test could change, and Howard Dean could prove to have been prescient.....Strong and wrong beats weak and right -- that's the bugbear the Democrats have to contend with..."

Let's remember the quote from the beginning of this article:
"....liberal Democrats, conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans have more in common with one another than any of them have with the Bush administration.
Democrats: Capitalize on this fact!

Ralph Hall:
GOP-lite goes full-tilt GOP
An Obvious Move By the "Stop-Dean" Activists in the GOP
(Why are the GOP and DLC trying so hard to stop Dean?)

Tom DeLay hates Howard Dean with a passion...and we know it.
The GOP is attempting to do permanent damage to Howard Dean in the South.

"....House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said Democrats are "reaping what they've sown."
"Their leaders have lined up behind Howard Dean's brand of angry, intolerant politics. They've made their message clear: 'moderates need not apply' and that's a sad trend for a once-great party," DeLay said...."

Perhaps it's high time for politics to fall out into natural lines of ideology.
For example, what on earth is Zell Miller doing calling himself a Democrat...Southern or otherwise? He's a party traitor and belongs with the Republicans... and we know it.

At the same time, Olympia Snow and Lincoln Chafee (just two examples) are
Democrats at heart..and we all know it.

I think we'll be seeing more activity like Ralph Hall's and Jim Jeffords' over the next few years.