Wishing for a less cloudy forecast-
John Kerry Needs to Clear Up

This dischord in the pact of things,
This endless war 'twixt truth and truth,
That singly held, yet give the lie
To him who seeks to hold them both...

- Boethius

Re: AP: Dean nod mixed bag for Kerry
By Nedra Pickler

The same brutal honesty that Howard Dean brought to the political forefront is recommended, by some political advisors, to be publically shunned by John Kerry. I'm all for honesty. Until we can all be brutally honest about matters, liars and media-manipulators will continue to prevail in these horse races. A Dean-shunning by Kerry would be a vote for Bush, in my estimation. Kerry needs more political clarity. He's being pegged as a waffler on key issues...and let's face it, to the non-trained political ear, he comes off sounding like one. I may not love his message, but GOP Campaign Chairman Ed Gillsepie's not lying when he drags out his political ammo. All the GOP has to do is show the clip of Kerry saying he voted for the $87 billion for the troops before he voted against it....or display Kerry's statement upon voting "YES" to the Iraq resolution in October 2002. I have a trained political ear. Even I failed to glean a clear message or direction from that statement.

President Bush may be an overly simplistic simpleton in some eyes, but we must remember that most Americans want their messages as simple and clear as they can get them. I trust John Kerry supports our troops and I know he voted "No" on the $87 billion because he was demanding accountability from the Bush administration. However, all many Americans will see is that silly statement he made about "for-before-against". There are often two or more rationally acceptable sides to our stories...even relativity is a two-faced Janus...but humans tend to need to be reassured with straightforward consistency when the message is pitched over their home-plate.

--Howard Dean is clear and straight. He's been excoriated for it in the media..even by the likes of Democrats like Bruce Reed of the DLC. What a shame upon the DLC. The AFSCME boss called Dean "nuts".

--Bush is clear and misleading...and he's been rewarded and honeymooned by the same media that destroyed Dean's candidacy...and will destroy Kerry's if he's not smart. Stop shunning the honesty of Dean. Dean has stuck by the Democrats and has greatly furthered their case against Bush. In my opinion, they'd be lost in the woods without him.

This isn't "Dean-lost" sour grapes. I'd really love to see straight and clarifiying messages from Kerry.
He needs to change or face a loss in November.
This is not a Kerry-bash. This is tough love.

By the way, I think Howard Dean would be a tremendous representational asset to the spirit of the American people by serving as John Kerry's Vice President. He's the eidetic 21st-Century Paine or Jefferson, never losing sight of the fact that America is only as good as each individual in whom our Creator gifted those certain unalienable Rights.

They're coming at you firecely, Senator. Kerry. There has never been a more important time to embrace and incorporate the honesty of those who are your political friends.

See:
Weekly Standard: Kerry's Uncommon Touch
Besides the flip-flops, John Kerry has another big problem: how his life in the Senate has prepared him for connecting with ordinary Americans

ALTERNATIVE HEADLINES

Poland Says It Was 'Misled' On WMD

Twilight of the Neocons- Richard Perle has begun to panic

Independent: Arab journalists walk out on Powell over US shootings

Reason interview: Meet Hizbollah-
The Party of God's MP talks about Islam, Iraq, and the war on terror

Ecnomist.com- The next American empire- George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld have pledged to change the way America's armed forces are distributed around the globe. What do they have in mind?

NYT: For Children of Gays, Marriage Brings Joy

Prague Post: Deconstructing a president- Citizens regard Czech President Vaclav Klaus' image as more vital than his political views

Paul Krugman: "...Most Americans, I suspect, still don't realize how badly this apparent exploitation of the world's good will — and the subsequent failure to find weapons of mass destruction — damaged our credibility..."

Today in history...

1860- William Jennnings Bryan born in Salem, Illinois.
Related site: The Scopes Trial
Related current Events: County that was site of Scopes Trial Wants to Charge Homosexuals


Battle of Bentonville

1865- Civil War, Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina.

Have you seen The Gadflyer ?


The Gadflyer is a new progressive Internet magazine. At their website, they promise it will be provocative, critical, and iconoclastic. It will cover politics and public affairs from a fresh perspective, offering journalism, analysis, and commentary from a new generation of writers.

I recommend Amy Sullivan's article on getting tough with progressive constituencies, Paul Waldman's article on getting tough with the Right, and Sean Aday's article on getting tough with the press.

The age of the wimpy liberal is over! Who knew?

Know this: Vote for Bush and we'll be going after Iran soon
*It's just a knowing thing*

Listen to Michael Ledeen and Richard Perle. They aren't just suggesting a possibility of future war with Iran. They are telling you it shall be unavoidable from their points of view. Unfortunately, the thesis they've wrapped their foreign policy ideas around has been warped by a pesky thing called REALITY.

But who cares about reality, right? I mean, it didn't make a hill o'beans of difference to our President.

I hope the Balkans don't explode again. Milosevic is gone, but hate lives on

This time the Serbs are the victims of Albanian agression. Turn, turn, turn....
If KFOR can't get a grip on the situation, we may want to see a comeback of General Wesley Clark in some capacity. Vice President or Secretary of Defense, perhaps? Clark knows the Balkans. He'd be invaluable to the effort it's apparently going to take to get this situation lined up in America's best interests. I wish it weren't so, but there is no one in the Bush administration I trust anymore to handle such a volatile situation.

Slice o'life






I'd vote for Mickey Mouse if he was running against George Bush - anyone but Bush."

--May Duke





*Be careful what you wish for, May!*

Howard Dean will officially announce his new advocacy group Democracy for America tomorrow.

A great Central New York resource for information on Howard Dean is at NYCO's blog.

Seen Shakespeare's Will? Want to?

HERE

Are there any descendants of Shakespeare alive today?

Shakespeare had three children: Susanna (1583), twins Hamnet and Judith (1585). Hamnet died in 1596, aged eleven. Susanna married John Hall in 1607, and had one child, Elizabeth, born in 1608. Elizabeth was married twice, to Thomas Nash in 1626, and to John Bernard in 1649. However, she had no children by either husband. In 1616 Judith married Thomas Quiney, by whom she had three sons, Shakespeare Quiney, who died in infancy, and Richard and Thomas, who both died unmarried, early in 1639 within a month of each other. Legitimate descent from Shakespeare is therefore impossible. It is possible, however, to claim a relationship through his sister, Joan. She married William Hart some time before 1600 and there are many descendants of this marriage alive today, in both male and female lines.

Donald Rumsfeld-
Caught on tape

A year ago today, the Bush Administration was making its final push toward war in Iraq. We know now that much of what we were told about the threat that Iraq posed was untrue. And rather than own up to their distortion of the facts, Bush administration officials are denying they ever said such things. But this Sunday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld got caught blatantly contradicting his past statements, and MoveOn.org has the video clip. Click the link on the title above in order to see it.

ONE Year Ago--
TWO Views Ago on IDDYBUD..

Read these two points of view. Consider all that has occurred over the past year. Draw your own conclusions.


"We will not defeat or even contain fanatical terror unless we can carry the war to the territories from which it is launched. This will sometimes require that we use force against states that harbour terrorists, as we did in destroying the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

The most dangerous of these states are those that also possess weapons of mass destruction. Iraq is one, but there are others. Whatever hope there is that they can be persuaded to withdraw support or sanctuary from terrorists rests on the certainty and effectiveness with which they are confronted. The chronic failure of the security council to enforce its own resolutions is unmistakable: it is simply not up to the task. We are left with coalitions of the willing. Far from disparaging them as a threat to a new world order, we should recognise that they are, by default, the best hope for that order, and the true alternative to the anarchy of the abject failure of the UN."

--Richard Perle
NeoConservative, former Pentagon warhawk (was chairman of defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld's Defense Policy Board). Mr. Perle was the who said last November to an audience in London:
"I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."
Mr Perle is the co-author of "An End to Evil-How to Win the War on Terror"
[ American Conservative Review HERE ]

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


"Many of you believe this must happen because you have been told, time and again, that Saddam Hussein possesses an awesome arsenal of mass destruction weapons that he will gladly give to terrorists for use against us. Your belief that this is so stems from your loyalty – the President has told you it is true, and so it must be true. It is fearful indeed to consider weapons like this in the hands of terrorists.
You must know, however, that no proof of either prohibited weapons possession or connections to terrorism on the part of Saddam Hussein has been offered by the administration. They have made many accusations, and offered chunks of evidence, but over the last weeks and months each and every bit of evidence put forth has been debunked. Sometimes, the press has proven them wrong, sometimes the weapons inspectors in Iraq proved them wrong, and sometimes our own intelligence services proved them wrong. No proof offered by the Bush administration has stood up.
None."

--William Rivers Pitt, columnist, addressing Americans who may have been "on the fence" about the right and wrong of the just-begun pre-emptive war on Iraq.


TODAY'S HEADLINE: Bush warms to new UN resolution on Iraq
*would Mr. Perle see this as 'giving in'
to the terrorists?*

In the news

-> Bomb Destroys Baghdad Hotel, Kills Dozens



-> On St. Patrick's Day:
'Religion and Politics - Separate or Inseparable' - John Bruton

Politics, therefore, involves compromise in a way that religious teaching never does. But at what point must the necessity of compromise be made subject to principle, principle based on religious belief? My own view is that matters involving the taking of life are ones where politicians should always vote on principle, principles that for many politicians will derive from their religious beliefs. Other less serious, less irreversible, matters of social and economic policy are ones where the necessity for compromise can be given equal or even greater weight...

-> Bush aide disclaims 2 GOP lawmakers' remarks on Cuba

-> "NBC News has obtained, exclusively, extraordinary secret video, shot by the U.S. government...."


Video here

**OK---How did they they obtain this "exclusively, extraordinary secret
video"?? I wonder if it's as authentic as this one was?

-> Reuters: Democrats Tally 'Misleading' Iraq Statements

-> ThousandReasons.org Opinion re: Presidential Campaign: George Bush: Liar

-> NYT: Powell Reassures India they'll keep getting American jobs.

-> Bank of America Plans Job Cuts of Up to 13,000

-> Washington Post: Spain Campaigned to Pin Blame on ETA
Despite Evidence to Contrary, Basque Group Was Focus in Blasts
*You cannot get caught in a lie of this magnitude on an issue of this importance, and expect to get reelected.*

-> "SPAIN"- Dave Ross Commentary/Seattle, WA

Al Qaeda wants to scare Europe into keeping its distance from the United States.

But that's crazy! You can't give into terrorists! Spain should know that -- heck, Spain DOES know that - they've been fighting Basque terrorists for years.

So how is it that the United States, a victim of terrorism itself, is suddenly like Kryptonite?

We won the war in Iraq! We continue to rebuild the place! We killed Uday and Qusay! We captured Saddam! A new poll in Iraq says 70% of Iraqis expect things to be better off a year from now! By any definition that is a victory!

The only possible explanation is... that the people of Spain decided winning in Iraq ... has nothing to do with stopping terrorism.

And saw last week's attack as the final proof.

-> Judge Denies Al-Arian Free-Speech Claims

A Florida Federal district judge says fund-raising does not have constitutional First Amendment protection and rejects defense motions to strike the words "terrorism" and "terrorist" from Professor Sami Al-Arian's indictment. In a case where an American citizen gives to a charity, do the very words "terrorist" not ring loudly of wildly prejudicial treatment? I can see this one going to the Supreme Court. I have observed shades of similar questionable judicial treatment given to a highly-respected and beloved oncologist here in upstate New York, Dr.Rafil Dahfir, who chose to give to Iraqi charity...certainly no terrorist.

-> Electronic (ES &S) Voting Machines are sure to bring about a democratic disaster this fall
*Even if Bush (or Kerry) lose by narrow margins in any given district in the nation, think about how the GOP (or the Dems) may use information like this to contest voting results. Look at what happened in just two parishes in Louisiana in the most recent (November 5, 2003) elections..

In Louisiana, the two parishes (counties) that paid more than $3 million for 700 ES&S Votronic touch-screen voting machines suffered “countless problems” with the new machines, ac cording to The Advocate of Baton Rouge. The ES&S machines “plagued voters and the clerks of court staffs in Ascension and Tangipahoa, the only parishes that use the new machines other than for absentee balloting.”

Ascension Parish Clerk of Court Hart Bourque said Wednesday that more than 200 machine malfunctions were reported.

“A mechanic would fix a machine, and before he could get back to the office, it would shut down again,” Bourque said. “Unless we find a solution, next fall there’s no way we can vote.”

Tangipahoa Parish Clerk of Court John Dahmer said: “I can’t say every precinct had a problem, but the vast majority did.” Dahmer said at least 20 percent of the machines malfunctioned.

-> David Corn/The Nation: The Best--or Worst--of Bush's Iraq Whoppers

-> AP: 9/11 Panel Calls Bush, Clinton Officials
Hell, no..Condi won't go.

-> AJC: Trust in U.S. erodes abroad
Survey of foreign nations shows many doubt intent of anti-terror campaign

What's going on in Iraq?

I just read the strangest story: U.S. Unloading WMD in Iraq reports an Iranian News Agency

A reliable source from the Iraqi Governing Council, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Mehr News Agency that U.S. forces, with the help of British forces stationed in southern Iraq, had made extensive efforts to conceal their actions.

I would hope we would not plant phony evidence.

Liberty and Justice for all

THIS IS LIBERTY??
--Easier Internet Wiretaps Sought
Justice Dept., FBI Want Consumers To Pay the Cost

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

THIS IS JUSTICE??--
--Prosecutor sues Justice, Ashcroft
--A Real Case Of Snakebite
How a trophy terrorism prosecution morphed into a big mud fight

What you see may shock you


This is a very moving story that should be told and allow you to judge for yourself. Our President is claiming 9-11 as some sort of political leadership-victory for his campaign. You may or may not see it that way after viewing some of these facts.

Syracuse Post Standard columnist Hart Seeley's Existential Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld set to music>

A Confession
Once in a while,
I'm standing here, doing something.
And I think,
"What in the world am I doing here?"
It's a big surprise.

—D.H. Rumsfeld, May 16, 2001, interview with the New York Times

On NPR.org, you can see an article (and hear audio interview) about Syracuse columnist Hart Seeley's Existential Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld, which has now been set to music by San Francisco-based pianist Bryant Kong. (Songs sung by soprano Elender Wall).

RELATED ARTICLES:

-Slate/Volume One 1- The Poetry of D.H. Rumsfeld

-Slate/Volume 2- That's LIfe! The poetry of D.H. Rumsfeld

Breakup of Onondaga County, N.Y. SWAT:
The Cheney Connection
WSTM.com

The real story behind the break up of the County SWAT team is raising such a storm of controversy, some feel it could actually reach the White House.

The bus which carries the 47 member Sheriff's Department SWAT team to dangerous crime scenes may be sitting idle for quite some time. This elite unit of Deputies who volunteer for the SWAT team is disbanded. The Sheriff's Office blamed an equipment problem, but we've learned the real story involves the demotion of a Sergeant for an incident when Vice President Cheney came to town last November.

While Cheney spoke to a crowd inside the Holiday Inn, outside a noisy group of protesters staged a demonstration. Sources say at one point Sergeant Kevin Murphy who was in charge of a 10 person SWAT team was ordered to conduct crowd control, but he allegedly balked at the order. When Sheriff Kevin Walsh brought disciplinary charges against Sergeant Murphy, the entire SWAT team resigned.

"We were cooperative with the Sheriff's Department, the Sheriff's Department was great to us." Mark Spadafore and the Labor Federation organized the anti-Cheny demonstration. He supports Sergeant Murphy's decision not to move on their protest. "He saw that we were no problem. We were just there to exercise our first amendment rights."

Spadafore says they were told to move to different areas four times. He suspects the Vice President's team was behind the order which fell on Sergeant Murphy's shoulders. "It had to come from higher up."

For now the equipment for the Sheriff's Department SWAT team is in storage and the County has received assurances from the Police Departments of Syracuse, Manlius, Camillus and the State Police that should the need arise, their SWAT teams are ready to step in.

County Legislator Bob Warner heads the Public Safety Committee. He's concerned that the Cheney incident could have escalated to the point of a mass resignation by the SWAT team, but for now he'll monitor the situation. "It will be our job later on if something arises that we have to step in."

The Sheriff's Union intends to go to court to block Sergeant Murphy's demotion. They may have an unlikely ally in Mark Spadafore. "This situation needs to be resolved for the sake of public safety I give a lot of credit to those people of the SWAT team. They showed incredible solidarity to a fellow officer."

Sheriff Kevin Walsh has been on vacation and out of town. Legislator Warner says he spoke to the Sheriff after we broke this story and has been assured the SWAT team situation will be resolved.

--Jim Kenyon Action News WSTM

Related WSTM article HERE

News 10 Now article HERE

SYRACUSE.COM: Peaceful Protestors greet Vice President

General Tommy Franks confident: If Bush loses, President Kerry would help our soldiers to prevail in Iraq

Disclaimer: The title I used was based on the Drudge-report-style of creating large, misleading headlines

Retired General Tommy Franks says he's confident the U.S. will work "tirelessly" on a long-term solution in Iraq, regardless of which party wins the White House in November. He said: "To back away would be to invite the kind of problems we see now in Israel" [with suicide bombers on American soil]. Earlier this year in another interview, Franks said he thought if the U.S. was hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicted large casualties, the Constitution would likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government. Deaths of innocent civilians notwthstanding, a solid reason for any American to want to keep terrorism at bay is to protect freedoms from our own government's stifling grip.

There was never a proven connection between Iraq (Saddam Hussein's failure to comply with U.N.) and 9-11 (the war on terror). I always like to state that up-front so we can be clearer in our many rationalizations about the war on terror. One of the best descriptions of the U.S. attack on Iraq is William Rivers Pitt's categorization of it as a "toothless red herring" in the war on terror.

The Bush administration got us into the mess in Iraq. I'll never understand why they couldn't have taken a mere three or fours months more to let the UN inspectors do their work in Iraq. [See/listen to today's Hans Blix interview on NPR].They were making headway. Another few months would likely have revealed the great faults in the intelligence offered by Colin Powell to the U.N. in February, 2003.

Nearly 600 American lives and thousands of Iraqi lives later, it's water under the bridge now. The Bush administration wanted this war to take place and by God George, it took place.

I suppose General Franks is right, just as Ivo Daalder is right. How could we pick up and say "So long" to the people whose land we've ravaged? In all fairness, terrorists have entered the country and done a fair amount of ravaging poor Iraq, too... as our President begged those terrorists to "bring it on" into Iraq. Rather than to see terror in the streets of sleepy American towns, I guess it was more acceptable to kill two birds with one stone...to change Iraq's regime and keep America safe by exposing the innocent Iraqis instead...all the while lying to Americans about exactly why we were going to go to war there. Does anyone other than me see this as morally hypocritical? Getting back to my point, we can't just pick up and leave now.

We do need another plan to help the Iraqi people find a real and meaningful peace. It will never happen with George W. Bush in office. He has nearly destroyed the world's faith in him.

Many people will read this and say I hate Bush. To them, I'd say please don't shoot the messenger. I don't hate our President. I've longed to see him do the right thing and he's disappointed me nearly every time. So it's fair to say I'm disappointed in our President.

How the capture of Osama Bin Laden may turn out to be a meaningless symbol

I hate to say this, yet I must. In a world where the rule of law has been scorned and squandered, the capture of Osama Bin Laden will be a meaningless symbol.

I heard G. Gordon Liddy on a CSPAN interview this morning. He said something I've lately thought (and written about) myself: Terrorism is a disease that will continue to occur throughout the 21st century. It is a disease in which children who attend fundamentalist-Islamic (Saudi-financed) madrassas have been educated to theologically abhor the decadence of western societies.

Capturing Bin Laden (which we surely will accomplish unless he dies of natural causes first) will be like snaring the one who had set the fire while the forest continues to burn fiercely for thousands of square miles ahead.

When the World Trade Center towers fell, the disease metastasized like a near-unstoppable cancer. It was the day the word "civil" was taken out of the idea of war in a new way only before imagined in our nightmares. Like cancer cells, thousands of self-named warriors learned that a new tactic could be employed successfully to beat away at the governments of the western world they had learned to so disdain.

Overall, war has been all-too glorified a word as we look back at history. We tend to forget that war is not always fought on gentleman's terms. Mass-killing savagery in war is nothing new. Bombs are perfect examples of mass-killing mechanisms. What is different..what is new about terrorism is that the would-be killers are making civilians of Western societies the targets of their aggression. This isn't going to end with Bin Laden's capture. Make no mistake, we will celebrate the capture if and when it happens, but it will only be because we will somehow feel avenged for 9-11.

It won't be because the world is saved from terrorism.

What is the answer, then, you may ask of me?
Like you, I have no easy answers. The good and civil people of Spain are sending us a message with the ouster of Prime Minister Aznar. What is the message? Simply, I think it's that people have had enough. They see that we are on the wrong path if we believe we're succeeding at minimizing the ugly force of terrorism. It is horrendously ironic that our warring tactics have inspired those who would employ tactics of delivering the angel of death to the innocents.

What is the answer, then, you continue to ask me?
The only thing that is clear to me is that we need a change in the policy on both Iraq and the war on terror. (Which really have always been two separate issues). If the Bush administration cannot see the error in these policies, perhaps it's time to give another leader a chance to get it right. John Kerry has recently intimated that certain foreign leaders have vocally expressed the hope he will be elected in November. Yesterday on the FOX Sunday show, Colin Powell stated: "He [Kerry] ought to list some names. If he can't list names, then perhaps he should find something else to talk about." Shortly after that statement, the Bush White House ordered both Powell and Donald Rumsfeld to stay out of the U.S. presidential campaign. We need not wonder why. It's obvious..they are two of the most vulnerable "players" exposed to the public's questions about the failed policies of the Bush administration to date.

The old adage "Two wrongs don't make a right" come to mind. War, in and of itself, has the evil component of factionally delivering one man's death at the hands of fellow men. War is ungodly, no matter how necessary or glorious they like to tell us it is. War is never to be taken lightly and should always be the very last of the last resorts. I feel, in my heart, that the dullard-king G.W. Bush has been dabbling at, tinkering with war.....playing God with the people of his nation. The civil world is repelled by his method of curing terror. I think it's high time we turn it all around for the sake of what is best for all of humanity. When our President plays American War-God with those who've been theologically trained to defend their own beliefs against the western world, it is easy to see a war for which there will be no winner...no cure. Where, I ask, is the force of the brightest angels of our human nature? Where have we allowed our leaders to stray?

President Bush and his administration had shown a clear disdain for cooperation with the world community throughout the pre-Iraq war days. Look at everything that has happened since the international rule of law (the "permission slip", as Bush called it) was thrown aside for what appeared nothing less than unnecessary macho-unilateral aspirations on the part of the U.S. in its march to war. Respect for the U.S. was lost, thus whether we want to admit it or not, we've lost a hell of a lot of "credibility-clout" in the world-at-large.

The capture of Bin Laden will surely happen, but the songs of joy will ring hollow as we see the disease which he caused to spread..the fires he lit...spread thousands and thousands of miles out ahead of him... coming closer to us by the moment.

If we love our own children and the children of this world, it's time to find a real and meaningful way to cooperate with the nations of the world and give the utmost respect to the rule of law.It is the only thing that separates us from the terrorists, you see. For God's sake, let's put an end to this madness....together. Like Dorothy's ruby slippers, Bush has held the awesome power of the rule of law all the time..and I don't think he ever realized it. I pray this nation finds its way.

Comments about Spain and the War on Terror from various places

At the Kos site, Jonathan wrote:

The Bush administration's disastrous assumption that they could take a vacation from fighting al Qaeda after a few early victories is coming home to roost in bigger and bigger ways. They segued at the earliest opportunity to fighting a war of choice, a war that was dreamed up long before 9/11 and sold on an immense heap of lies, a war that was carried out at the cost of an increased, not decreased, danger of terrorism. No matter what you may think about the Spaniards' decision at the ballot box, get this part right: part of the responsibility for the deaths of 200 Spanish people on March 11, 2004 very likely lies with the Bush administration and its allies and their wholly incompetent handling of this War on Terror.

The Spanish people have a right to say they're not happy about it, and demand better. We do, too.

Also at Kos, HoustonDem wrote:

The failure of this president in getting other like-minded nations in one camp against the Islamic terrorists is the greatest failure of his presidency.

..to which this salient point was made by another reader:

Spain is certainly not withdrawing from the war on terror. They are withdrawing from the war in Iraq, which they feel has not been an effective effort in the war on terror.

Kos himself had this to say:

So, did the terrorists "win"?
No more so than Osama Bin Laden "won" when the US pulled out of Saudi Arabia -- a key demand of Al Qaeda.

Fact is, Spain was taking casualties -- in Iraq and at home -- for a war in which it had no reason to be involved. Bush lied to get his war, and Spain's Aznar was a willing and eager accomplice. The Spanish people opposed the war and their nation's involvement in it, and spoke the way true Democracies speak -- via the ballot box.

The system worked. Democracy won. Spain won.

Josh Marshall methodically and successfully tears apart the question posed by Andrew Sullivan: "If the war to depose Saddam is and was utterly unconnected with the war against al Qaeda, then why on earth would al Qaeda respond by targeting Spain? If the two issues are completely unrelated, why has al Qaeda made the connection?"

"... just because al Qaida has adopted the Iraq cause as their own doesn’t mean we’ve damaged al Qaida by taking down the Baathist regime --- especially by doing it so incompetently. Just as likely --- in fact far more likely --- is that we’ve just handed them a useful recruiting tool while distracting ourselves from pursuing more effective means of extirpating them.

--Josh Marshall

AP: Spain's ruling party ousted from power
*Last Updated 7:31 p.m. EST Sunday, March 14, 2004

MADRID, Spain (AP) - The opposition Socialists scored a dramatic upset win in Spain's general election Sunday, unseating conservatives stung by charges they provoked the Madrid terror bombings by supporting the U.S.-led war in Iraq and making Spain a target for al-Qaida.

The people of Spain spoke clearly tonight. Turnout was high at 77 per cent. It is said the voters are frustrated with the government led by Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar over the way it has handled their policy on Iraq. Many Spanish citizens are said to believe the government of Aznar had known an Islamic group was behind the explosions that killed 200 people on Thursday but preferred to blame Basque separatists ahead of today's general elections. The results of this election are a decided blow to President Bush's war on terror because The Socialists have promised to withdraw 1,300 Spanish troops from Iraq...and that would break the unity of the U.S.-led coalition.

All eyes will now turn to Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

"It is not raining.
Madrid is crying."

--Jorge Mendez, a 20-year-old telecommunications student


photo credit www.kansascity.com

I was reading a blog called Resurrection Song and found this post about Madrid; about a new terrorist warning to the people in our own country; fears about future leadership of America. The (literal) bottom line was an expression of general fear about John Kerry winning the Presidency, thus taking the reins of leadership on the war on terror. I was left to wonder what the blogger's point was, in a most critical sense. The post generated a comment by a reader named Rae who said: "Just last night, while skimming Time, I had a sudden and terrible fear that Kerry might just win and I became momentarily horrified and afraid."

Fear should not keep a person from critically and rationally studying all aspects of the issue of National Securty and matters of State. I found this discussion to be fear-based and politically-tainted. I would hope we Americans could cross political lines and start talking about the issues. All we seem to be doing is spitting at one another. The people of Spain are a great example of unification which rises above the slimy realm of politics.

The Resurrection blog pointed the way to another blog called Colorado Conservative, where the blogger Darren talked about Madrid.
*I found it a meaningful coincidence that Darren offered a kind word about the safety of Syracuse University students. (Syracuse is my home--I offer a word of thanks to Darren).*
Darren's blog included an article about the Muslim fundamentalist group Abu Hafs' warning to the people of the United States. It said a widespread attack called "Winds of Death" was 90% "ready".

My thought was this: The war on terror is going to take longer than 4 more years. This is going to be a long haul, I'm afraid. 9-11 notwithstanding, terror has exacerbated--no, exploded- under the leadership of G.W. Bush. What happens in the next four years will guide the entire world to either a more beneficial solution or a fiery and explosive continuation of death of the innocent.

Stepping out of my political cloak, I am a human above all. I am angry in the feeling that I and my family are used as pawns. I want leadership that ties us together as an intelligently patriotic people. It takes more than waving the flag and cheering on unilateral "tough-guy" decisions about dropping bombs over nation-states. I honestly believe we need a better direction.

If not Kerry, then who in another four years? Because Bush won't be there, people. And what will you say then? There will be no one leader who presides over the war on terror when the smoke clears and all is said and done.
You'd best get used to that fact now and begin to study the actual issues instead of shivering and shaking and fretting about who's boss. Any American President is going to have to deal with terror. It's there.

Why are bloggers and political pundits using the United States' 9-11 and Spain's 3-11 for politics? In my opinion, our lives don't come at such a cheapened price.

The people of Spain spoke loudly in Madrid yesterday. My God, there were over a million of them all standing in that dark, rainy street melting away the dull of the afternoon with their array of colorful umbrellas. I have never seen the likes of that spirit here in the United States. What was the million-umbrella message the people of Spain were attempting to convey yesterday? I doubt these were people of any particular political stripe. No..I think this was a humanist cry to the powers-that-be, whether those powers are in the capitol cities and government seats of all nations or the power inside the widespread terror organizations.

Innocent people are tired of being used as the pawns in the power struggle.

~~~~~~~~~

UPDATE: EJ Dionne agrees--Socialist victory is statement against political manipulation

Madrid's 3/11


What, if any, signification or implication does it have for the United States?

As a nation, are we too egocentric in thinking yesterday's act of terror in Madrid was all about us? Do we think the attack occured because Spain was our ally in the Iraq strike? Do we see it as more of a local act of terror? One thing we know is that none of us can be sure at this time. Here's what Juan Cole at Informed Comment has to say: "The possibility that the bombings were reprisals against Spain for supporting the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq this time last year has led some Spaniards in the Opposition to come out to protest against rightwing Prime Minister Aznar."

We are not safer now than we were then

Yesterday's attack on that Spanish commuter train proved to me we are no safer today than on 9-11. Homeland Security will not be able to stop a terrorist network if they truly want to kill us. No Patriot Act will stop them. The NYT weighed in on the subject today, claiming "We are all Madrileños now." They say they believe comparisons to the attacks of September 11, 2001, are inevitable and appropriate. In their words, "terrorism cannot be eradicated simply by driving the Taliban out of Kabul or capturing Saddam Hussein". That statement calls to mind Howard Dean's words in the aftermath (or shall I say afterglow) of the capture of Saddam last December. "The capture of Saddam has not made America safer." Dean, a realist, spoke unappreciated words of truth. He knew, as many of us still understand, that our hardest work is ahead of us.

Copy-Cat Terrorists are emboldened by our lack of unity/lack of unifying leadership

I believe we're seeing a lot of copy-cat terrorists.Potential terrorists witnessed what they saw as a great "success" on September 11, 2001. Perhaps they are now thinking, 'The great America was caught off-guard, leaders asleep-at-the-wheel..just look at how the U.S. has gone off attacking an unrelated nation-state...and how they've dismantled their citizens' liberties... perhaps we can succeed at dismantling Western-style governments anywhere...by getting them to destroy themselves from within when they cannot agree on how to stop us.' I'm beginning to understand the terrorist aims are not to have a political negotiating tool. The terrorists want to see the blood of their targeted enemy without regard to some imagined hoped-for-diplomacy. If diplomacy was what they craved, they'd make themselves known. Instead, they hide and kill the innocent.


"Our people remain politically polarized..something I never would have believed if you'd asked me to predict the future on September 12, 2001."


America's shining moment after the 9-11 attack was the fact that we could unite in a common desire to end terrorism. If you ask me, our leadership has failed to keep us united. This, in my opinion, greatly weakens our resolve and allows the world-at-large to toss us about in a diplomatic sense. Remember, the world watches CNN and FOX news. They read the internet (to the extent their respective governments will allow). When turmoil within this powerful nation is obvious, those who would employ terror against the innocent believe they may have further success in continuing their heinous campaigns of murder. Our people remain politically polarized..something I never would have believed if you'd asked me to predict the future on September 12, 2001. It seems we were headed on the right course after 9-11 until the Bush administration insisted on attacking Iraq. It was a terrible blunder. The great American orator Mario Cuomo appeared on Hardball last night and called it the worst blunder in America's history. That's a very serious charge coming from someone like New York's highly respectable former Governor. [Transcript here].

It's time for politically-educated Americans to understand that we need wise leadership whose primary focus is a reasonably united people. Safety is paramount, but equally important is seeing ourselves as brothers and sisters in the cause against the murder that terrorists perpetrate. From my perspective, President Bush has dreadfully failed at making citizens of these United States feel as if they wish to come together in any common cause. If he was the great leader he claims to be, 50% of the nation wouldn't be thinking about how November seems so darn far away.

Let's remember the words of President Abraham Lincoln as we look to the future of leadership in this country, our America:

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature...."

- President Abraham Lincoln's 1st inauguration March 4, 1861
Washington, D.C.

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

COMPARE:


The solidarity of the people of Spain in public resolve against terror..

...to any show of unity you've seen this year in the United States.

"...Two days. That was all it took for the people of Spain to become impatient, to pressure their government for the truth. When they did not get it, they threw that government out on it's ear. For America, a nation approaching the 1,000th day in which their government has not provided the truth of September 11th, this is a lesson to be taken deeply to heart."

--William Rivers Pitt


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

Note: I added this to my diary at Daily Kos today.
I included a poll. Here are the results thus far (35 responses):

After yesterday's attacks in Spain, do you feel safer from acts of terror in the U.S. today than you would have been on 9-11-2001?

· Yes...0%
· No....94%
· Undecided ...5%

Military Families Speak Out

The war in Iraq is continuing. American soldiers are dying daily, weapons of mass destruction are nowhere to be found, conditions are deteriorating for our troops on the ground, the lies of the administration that took us into war are being exposed and the president, from the safety of the white house, is taunting those who are shooting at our troops.

Read on to see what MFSO members and others are saying about the situation in Iraq and what we should be doing to change it.

SoJonet.com/Ira Rifkin on The Morality of Global Trade

The Sermon on the Mount did not say, "Blessed are the greedy."

All politics is local, but so does all politics involve moral choice.

Senator John Edwards was correct when he called U.S. trade policy "a moral issue." What needs to be further stated is that globalization, the force generating the outsourcing wave, is itself a moral issue; that the economic and cultural changes implicit in globalization are by no means values-less.

Welcome to Bushworld
*"Bushworld" was originally coined and is often used by none other than Anonymoses*

All presidents, all administrations, all politicians, all columnists and, indeed, all people selectively pick and chose facts and figures to win arguments.

What's different is that the Bush administration stands accused of politicizing and bullying processes of the government that are designed to be above the fray of partisanship and ideology, such as intelligence gathering and science policy-making. Put bluntly: they don't much care about facts, science and truth.

From the Syracuse Post Standard
A Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

A lost opportunity! My initial curiosity and interest in your "On the Issues" series quickly soured as I read the Iraq section Feb. 24. The series fell far short of truly informing voters about the candidates' positions, providing only summary sound bites. Instead, the pundits again take center stage. I would like to suggest some additional points to be added to George W. Bush's position on Iraq:

--Repeatedly lied to the American people that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction posed an imminent threat and justified war.

--Misled the public into believing there was a connection between Iraq and al-Qaida, despite no reasonable evidence to justify such claims.

--Failed to plan for the period after the fall of the ruthless Baathist regime, leading to great fear and misery on the part of Iraqis and increased danger for U.S. soldiers.

--Exploited the conquest of Iraq to reward his corporate supporters at Halliburton and elsewhere through no-bid contracts and other shady deals.

--Added to our economic woes by piling up unprecedented national debt, in part because of spending more than $100 billion on an unnecessary war.

--Set dangerous international precedents by seeking to justify so-called "pre-emptive" war.

I would also suggest some additional "Vital Signs":

--549 US soldiers killed in Iraq thus far.

--Thousands of U.S. soldiers injured in Iraq thus far. While the Pentagon reports a figure of just over 2,700 (the numbers regularly printed in The Post-Standard), National Public Radio and UPI investigative reports in recent months have found numbers near and above 10,000.

--100 soldiers from other participating nations killed in Iraq thus far.

--An estimated 20,000 Iraqis killed as a result of the U.S. invasion and occupation. This number is particularly vague since the U.S. military has refused to investigate. "We don't do body counts," said General Tommy Franks of the US Central Command.

Lastly, Walter Russell Mead's assertion that Bush has an advantage on foreign policy and the Democratic candidate needs to become more like Bush in order to win rings hollow. A Democratic candidate who can motivate even a small portion of the nearly half of the electorate that doesn't bother to vote will easily win the presidency. Those people are unlikely to be convinced by Bush's deception on the war or other issues.

--Andy Mager
Syracuse NY

One year ago on IDDYBUD

My opinion before the pre-emptive strike on Iraq:

"The Bush administration seems single-mindedly bent on this invasion. It almost seems that they are bitterly disappointed whenever there's a hint that the weapons inspections are actually working.
A UN resolution with absolutely no ambiguity is what we need. It is not America's place to preemptively strike Iraq. I firmly believe it is not in the best interest of the American people at this point in time."

From SojoNet:

An Alternative to War



"..We gather as our nation moves closer to a decision about whether to go to war with Iraq. It will be a momentous choice, with great consequences for the life of the world....Virtually every church body which has spoken, internationally and in the United States, has concluded that a war on Iraq would not be a just war. Never before have the churches in America been so united on the issue of peace..."



March 9, 2003- Gary Hart- A Detour From the War on Terrorism

What is our strategic objective in Iraq—disarmament, regime change, to mount a massive democratic revolution throughout the Arab world or all of the above? Once again, the target changes, and presidential candor is missing. It is cynical in the extreme to assume the American people should not be told that we intend to conduct a political revolution among 1.1 billion people spread from Gibraltar to eastern Indonesia.

The extravagance, not to say arrogance, of this epic undertaking is sufficiently breathtaking in its hubris to make Woodrow Wilson blush. And as a visionary, George W. Bush is no Woodrow Wilson. I find nothing in the writings of America's founders, including those of the expansive Alexander Hamilton, that suggests our national purpose should be the remaking of the world in our own image. In fact, most founders, and the prudent leaders since, have believed we should focus on perfecting our own democracy as an example to the world.

But if you are up for preemptive war against nations that do not meet the historic standard of representing an imminent and unavoidable threat, then you are pretty much up for anything.

Iraq is a detour from the war on terrorism. Hussein mysteriously morphed into Osama bin Laden, or vice-versa.

--Gary Hart

North Korea--then and now

Failing on North Korea a year ago

Failing on North Korea still today...as lately as 13 hours ago.

Is it any wonder the North Koreans hope for a different administration this November? While the GOP would love you to believe Kerry looks like a North-Korea sympathizer, perhaps the North Koreans agree with many Americans that anyone's better than Bush.

As Professor Edward Reed, associate director of the Center for East Asian Studies at UW-Madison, has said: "Talking is not a reward for bad behavior; it is the fundamental requirement for diplomacy."

Here come the inane Bush attacks on Kerry

The negative ads are coming. President Bush, on fresh commercials soon to come your way, is accusing Senator Kerry of seeking to raise taxes by $900 billion. This coming from the guy who has driven us dread-deep into the hell-canyon of deficits to pay for astronomical war costs without asking Americans to see the reality and sacrifice now for the nation's future?

On National security, Bush says in the ads: "We can go forward with confidence, resolve and hope. Or we can turn back to the dangerous illusions that terrorists are not plotting and outlaw regimes are no threat..."
How absolutely brain-dead does the GOP think voters are? While we don't appreciate Bush disgustingly dragging out flag-draped 9-11 corpses on his ads, we certainly understand that 9-11 changed the face of the 21st century. If anyone's turning their back, it's the Bushites themselves. They've turned their backs on the international community by thumbing their arrogant noses at the rule of law. They've also turned their backs by sinking the economy with ridiculous tax cuts while the nation's embroiled in an expensive war on terror to which there's no foreseeable end. Does the GOP honestly think we would believe John Kerry would live in 'La-La-Land" when it comes to our security and economic need? He'd have to be insane!

I have proof Kerry's NOT insane. He got millions of dollars worth of ads FREE yesterday when every cable network "caught" him calling his GOP critics "the most crooked ... lying group" he'd ever seen...and played it again and again and again...every half-hour on the half-hour.

"John Kerry's plan: To pay for new government spending, raise taxes by at least $900 billion."

Bush's plan: To greatly increase the size of his Neo-Big Government, destroy Social Security, increase the already-monstrously deep deficits, and make furture slaves of OUR CHILDREN.

The dreadfully shallow bore strikes again.

Today in history..

1818- Frankenstein published

1862- Civil War, Lincoln shuffles the Union command


MACARTHUR LEAVES CORREGIDOR:
March 11, 1942



"I lay on my stomach, for I didn't want to see the bombs released this time. It took ages for them to arrive when one knew they were coming. Once again, we knew men would be blown to bits in just a few seconds. The picture of my mother came to my mind. I wanted to be able to say a last goodbye to her, for I never dreamed of coming out of this battle alive. Yes, men lay in tears, for their thoughts turned to home."

--Mel Sheya, Fourth Marines, USMC, author of "The Battling Bastards of Bataan", describing his battle experience in Corregidor, December 1941. Held prisoner for 42 months as an ill-treated slave-laborer in Manchuria and Japan, he was happy to see the return of MacArthur.

Yahoo News/Reuters
Symbol SUSAN Snatched AS Spy FOR Saddy
U.S. Woman Charged with Giving Secrets to Iraq

I'm starting to think Alan Greenspan is anti-American
* while definitely 'Pro-Dough' *

Fed chief Alan Greenspan said a "new round of protectionist steps" represented "alleged cures" which he said "would make matters worse rather than better."

First, there is no substantial "uber-protectionist" constituency existing today. There are only those who are conscious that we have a very big problem here in America right here and right now. Greenspan's job is to keep Wall Street afloat. That he would see American middle class Main Street opportunities pissed away in favour of Wall Street pocket-stuffing runs contrary to the "American dream".

"As our economy exhibits increasing signals of recovery, jobs loss continues to diminish," [Alan Greenspan] said in testimony to the House Education and Workforce Committee. "In all likelihood, employment will begin to increase more quickly before long."


Dear Mr. Greenspan:
Who are you kidding?
How long is long?
Who benefits in this economic recovery?
What kind of employment opportunity is coming?
More WalMart than professional, we'd bet.
Bottom line--we need to write a dirge for the American classic known as middle class opportunity and upward mobility.

"No more bombs, no more dead."


AP Photo

--Patrick Cox, European Parliament President, before a hushed legislature in Strasbourg, France

"It is an outrageous, unjustified and unjustifiable attack on the Spanish people and Spanish democracy," Cox said of the terrorist attack in Madrid, Spain this morning which left 190 dead and over 1200 wounded.

LA Times: Patrick J. Kiger on 'The Golden Age of Mediocrity'
With so Many Artistic Geniuses Among Us, Why Is Most of Their Work so Disposable?

We ought to consider ourselves blessed....We live in an age peopled by more artistic geniuses than in any other moment in history, though the bar is set considerably lower than in the past.... Though we have more supposed artistic geniuses than ever, their output, oddly, is increasingly middling. What's happened in the last couple of decades is that puffery seems to have surpassed prodigy.....today—with the Internet, blast faxes, hundreds of cable channels and 750-square-foot video screens that can turn anyone, regardless of talent, into a giant looming over Times Square—it's possible for would-be greatness to be hyped to an extreme that even Dali would have a hard time imagining. Given the pervasive crudeness and disdain for subtlety in postmodern society, it's now perfectly acceptable to proclaim one's genius as loudly and raucously as professional wrestlers threaten one another with mayhem....maybe mediocrity is the new genius....

From the Cato Institute/Gerald P. O'Driscoll, Jr
*an updated version of a talk given at the Dedication of the F. A. Hayek Auditorium, May 9, 1995*
'The Road to Serfdom' Today

Frederich Hayek is best known for his most widely read work, The Road to Serfdom, first published 60 years ago yesterday...As he made clear, classical liberalism's conflict with central planning was not over the shared goal of enhancing the well-being of the greatest possible number of people but over the way to achieve that goal.....Hayek argued that, in the interventionist dynamic, liberty is lost piecemeal, one freedom at a time, always in the name of necessity and expediency. Hayek echoed the words of Lord Acton: "Liberty is not the means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end."

Gerald P O'Driscoll, Jr. is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute

Commentary by Shlomo Avineri
A Field Guide to Israeli Hawks

Despite the way it often looks to outsiders, debates in Israel about the future of the occupied territories have never been confined to hawks and doves. Like everything in Israel, the process is more complicated, especially where the hawks are concerned..

Shlomo Avineri is Professor of political science at the Hebrew University and former Director-General of Israel's Foreign Ministry in the Labor-led government of Yitzhak Rabin

From India Times
Mind-Matter Divide in Science, Philosophy
Vedantic philosophy and modern science share common features

I am personally enchanted by this statement:

"The search for a fundamental theory lifts human life above the level of farce and gives it some of the grace of tragedy."
--Steven Weinberg

How could the application of quantum theory unify East and West, mind and matter?
This article discusses how all schools of Indian philosophy have accepted perception as a means of knowledge. It also discusses the debate on the nature of reality and the ability of our concepts to represent reality. Within the scope of the mystery of the self (or consciousness), we see how modern science still lacks an adequate accounting of the mind. The causality of Descartes' philosophy on the material world is challenged and maya (consciousness is a separate element, added to physical systems) is seen as a concept often overlooked by the physicists.

A blog conversation reveals just how many female political bloggers are out there!

A sampling:

Anne Zook, Mahablog-Barbara O'Brien, Bittershack-Brooke Biggs, Nitpicker-CJ Finis, The Duchess (Charlene), Cyndy Roy, Different Strings-Kryselda Jarnsaxa, Ana Marie (Wonkette), Laura Poyneer aka al-muhajabah, Madelein Begun Kane, Marla Caldwell, Echidne, Iddybud-Jude Nagurney Camwell, Lis Riba, Laura Gjovaag, Maru Soze, Natalie Davis, Shari, PG, Alasablog, Crescat Sententia, Eve Tushnet , Suburban Guerrilla, Collective Sigh, Elayne Riggs, Blog or Not, Amy Sullivan, World O'Crap, Just a Bump in the Beltway (Melanie), Wampum (Mary Beth Williams), Assymetrical Information(Jane Galt), Respectful of Otters (Rivka), Ruminate This (Lisa English), Julia, Avedon Carol, Making Light (Teresa Nielsen Hayden), Rebecca's Pocket, Breaching the Web, Ladida, Xeney, Fusion Reaction, Parenthetically Speaking, Divinest Sense, Girlhacker, Backup Brain (Dori's half) , Megnut, Netwoman, 12 Frogs, Burningbird, ValueJudgment (J's half) , Yourish, Veralynne-ACT, Sisyphus Shrugged


Blog on, sweet sisters..blog on.

*Kevin Hayden provides an additional tribute to women of blogging: "Wimminz Get their Day, but that ain't enough.."
This blogstress was gifted with the highlighted word "many" sandwiched in between my gurlfellow blogkind. It reminds me of the saying "From one-- many and from many--one." All these female blogstress spirits represent separate parts linked to the entirety of "blogstress-consciousness".
MANY thanks to Kevin!

Monet's Waterlilies



Today as the news from Selma and Saigon
poisons the air like fallout,
I come again to see
the serene, great picture that I love.

Here space and time exist in light
the eye like the eye of faith believes.
The seen, the known
dissolve in iridescence, become
illusive flesh of light
that was not, was, forever is.

O light beheld as through refracting tears.
Here is the aura of that world
each of us has lost.
Here is the shadow of its joy.

Robert Hayden

CIA chief George Tenet says he's corrected VP Dick Cheney privately. Let's correct him publically while we're at it.

Mr. Tenet, testifying before a Senate committee yesterday, did not go as far as to say he thought the Bush administration had misrepresented facts to justify going to war.

However, Mr. Tenet said he planned to call Mr. Cheney's attention to a recent misstatement, in a Jan. 9 interview, when the vice president recommended as "your best source of information" on links between Iraq and Al Qaeda the contents of a disputed memorandum by senior Pentagon official, Douglas J. Feith. That memo was sent last October to the Senate Intelligence Committee, and information from the memo was used last November in an now-infamous article titled "Case Closed" published in the Weekly Standard. In my opinion, the article seemed an attempt to convince readers that there was conclusive evidence of collaboration between Saddam Hussein's government and Al Qaeda. The article's writer, Stephen Hayes, failed to mention that intelligence agencies objected to Mr. Feith's findings.


How do these stories affect public perception/public opinion?

Last December, the "Case Closed" article played well in the business-as-usual right-wing media circles, but never got much farther due to its fact-challenged and innuendo-flavoured nature. Inside the mainstream media loop, questions about the actual facts continued. I recall, at that time, being disturbed about the misinformation floating around and the press' seeming incompetence or unwillingness to ask the tough questions in order to "get it right". It was a frustrating experience for citizens like me who appreciate the most honest and straightforward methods of disseminating information.

In a NYT column titled "Telling It Right" dated December 19, 2003 (after the capture of Saddam Hussein), Paul Krugman wrote:

By now, we've become accustomed to the fact that the absence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction — the principal public rationale for the war — hasn't become a big political liability for the administration. That's bad enough. Even more startling is the news from one of this week's polls: despite the complete absence of evidence, 53 percent of Americans believe that Saddam had something to do with 9/11, up from 43 percent before his capture. The administration's long campaign of guilt by innuendo, it seems, is still working.

In retrospect, this news should not have been startling. Officials such as VP Dick Cheney were making public statements which were misleading Americans (whether intentional or unintentional, they were misleading just the same).

I think it's time we correct VP Cheney publically.


Professor Rodger Payne discusses the misleadings

Blogger Rodger Payne (Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Louisville KY) has contributed some updated information about Salman Pak-an alleged terror camp in Iraq that was the proving-ground centerpiece of the "Case Closed" article. (See Professor Payne's entry titled Al-Qaida-Iraq Link Further Debunked). You may safely look at the official facts available today and rationally assume it's possible that Salman Pak never existed at all. Knight-Ridder reporters have been told by a lot of senior people in the intelligence community that "The U.S. military has found no evidence of such a facility."

Regarding the disturbing lack of evidence, Professor Payne says:

...this is a particularly egregious finding, first because DoD still lists the capture of the camp as one of its war accomplishments and second because the current head of the Iraq Survey Group (Charles Duelfer, who took over from David Kay) claimed that he saw the camps when he was a UN weapons inspector. Dunlop points out that no such claim is reported in the UN reports about Iraqi weapons.
The media could play a central role in assuring public accountability. Dunlop notes that someone should ask Duelfer about Salman Pak.

I think it's time the press corrects VP Cheney publically. An informed public is necessary in order for a healthy American democracy to exist. Case definitely NOT closed.

After 9-11, old statistics and predictions went out the window and the changed world demanded a new direction

I was reading a series of discussions between Harvard's Steven Pinker (Dept. of Psychology) and Clark R. Chapman/Alan W. Harris (research scientists at Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado) about terrorist risk calculations in the aftermath of 9-11. I found it interesting...it makes you think twice about the way we saw the world before 9-11...and the way we see it today. What is most interesting is how our deepest thinkers still see things in respectively differing perspectives.

First in the series is an article by Clark R. Chapman and Alan W. Harris in Skeptical Inquirer- Sept/Oct 2002- A Skeptical Look at September 11th
How We Can Defeat Terrorism by Reacting to It More Rationally

Next is Steven Pinker's letter to Skeptical Inquirer (2003)

Last is the Clark R. Chapman and Alan W. Harris Response.

In abbreviated fashion, I'll summarize the discussion:

CHAPMAN/HARIS- Why does 9/11 remain our focus rather than the equally vast carnage on the nation's highways or Indian earthquake victims?

PINKER- ...one cannot use the rate of major terrorist attacks in, say, the past 10 years to estimate the rate in the next 10 years. Wahabism and anti-Americanism may be more widespread, nuclear weapons more available, copycats more emboldened, and so on. Because of these uncertainties, anyone who claims to have calculated the mathematically correct probability that a horrendous terrorist attack will take place in the next year would be talking through his hat......Nonhuman causes of deaths (such as sharks, airplane part failures, and carcinogens) don't take into account how people react to them. Human causes of deaths (such as terrorists) do. Bin Laden had no negotiable demands, but thought that Americans society was so decadent and spiritually bankrupt that a few easily inflicted humiliating blows would lead to its collapse. A public response of defiance and solidarity, and the implementation of extensive preventive security measures, could change such calculations in the minds of future terrorists....dealing with terrorists is a problem in game theory, not just a problem in risk estimation...

CHAPMAN/HARRIS- ..Recent polls show that about one-quarter of American respondents regard themselves as being personally at risk from terrorists. It is fair to note that with respect to the recent past, including the September 11, 2001, attacks, this perception is orders of magnitude off. Looking to the future, for this perception to be correct would require a World Trade Center-level terrorist attack somewhere in the U.S. roughly every week, for life. Lacking some realistic expectation that the level of terrorism will soar by factors of thousands, we must ascribe this disparity to twisted perceptions--driven, of course, by news-inspired fears, as the terrorists intend-about the real dangers....We don't agree that the terrorist attacks provided much new information about the willingness of terrorists to co-opt our modern technologies to kill and terrorize as many people as possible. It may be, as Pinker suggests, that "defiance and solidarity" will deter terrorists. That was surely President Bush's view before he attacked Iraq, though his critics believe the opposite. Perhaps a diminution of American arrogance in the international arena, and examining and addressing the root causes of terrorism, would be more effective. Time will tell if Bush's approach worked or not. Meanwhile, it is imperative that Americans continue to ask themselves whether the terrorists' objectively modest attacks aren't succeeding beyond Osama bin Laden's wildest dreams through our capitulation to fear, which causes us to distort our national values and comportment in the world community...

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

Today I read Nicholas Kristof and I wondered if I should listen more to Pinker or to Chapman/Harris. Although I saw great wisdom in both points of view, I decided, in the case of what I believe is a potentially devastating and out-of-control nuclear threat, to go over to Pinker's corner in the case of Russian states and North Korea. The problem lies in the game theory. The Bush administration is not at the top of this game. As a matter of fact, I fear they've thrown the gaming aside for the temporary thrill of conquering a tin-pan dictator or two.. bombs and snake holes enough to excite the GOP base into thinking we're tough, safe and secure. This could prove fatal to many, many people...and this is by no means a Chicken-Little warning. We'd best get our priorities straight before it's too late.

From the Kristof column:

"...It's mystifying that the administration hasn't leaned on Pakistan to make Dr. Khan available for interrogation to ensure that his network is entirely closed....Another puzzle is why an administration that spends hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq doesn't try harder to secure uranium and plutonium in Russia and elsewhere. The bipartisan program to secure weapons of mass destruction is starved for funds — but Mr. Bush is proposing a $41 million cut in "cooperative threat reduction" with Russia......The steps that are needed, like negotiating seriously with North Korea and securing sites in Russia, aren't as dramatic as bombing Baghdad. But unless we act more aggressively, we will get a wake-up call from a nuclear explosion or, more likely, a "dirty bomb" that uses radioactive materials routinely lying around hospitals and factories.

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

Bush finally put pressure on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to cashier Khan. But when Musharraf then pardoned Khan in an elaborate charade that shielded the Pakistani government from blame, Bush did not utter a word of criticism, even though Musharraf is not letting Washington ask Khan who his nuclear customers were.
This is irresponsibility of the highest order, and it undermines Bush's claim that he is keeping the United States safe from nuclear terror.

-- Matthew Rothschild

Meet Ellen Mariani


Meet Ellen. She's the one on the left.

“I’m not a Democrat and I’m not a Republican. I’m just a woman who has lost her husband and I want to know why and how it happened. I want my questions answered."

Video footage of the press conference
Ellen's webpage
the actual lawsuit
video of Ellen and Phil KGO interview
Ellen's Open Letter to Bush
outrage over lack of coverage
The only coverage of the press release
http://www.yuricareport.com/Corruption/RICOprosecutionGoingFullSteamAhead.htm
Alex Jones interviews Ellen and Phil
Eagle Tribune story

"I am a person who wants to know what happened. Money is great, but not when it comes to a loved one being murdered."

Transcript of our appearance on MSNBC's TV's Scarbourough Country from January 28, 2004
Latest News 9/11 Director Gave Evidence to Own Inquiry
CBS RADIO - KIRO 710 AM -Seattle Washington -The Mike Webb Show 10pm
9/11 Chair: Attack Was Preventable
Mariani seeks deposition of Saddam Hussein to support RICO action
Mariani vs. Bush - Amended Complaint
Mariani vs. Bush - Notice of RICO suit
Response to Defendant's Motion to Dismiss
Memorandum in Oppostion to Defendant's Motion to Dismiss
Media Coverage
ARCHIVE Ellen Mariani on the Ila Swan Show: 9-11 RICO LAW SUIT Tuesday January 6th
ARCHIVE Ellen Mariani and Phil Berg interview on Highway to Health
Foreign Press

From Daily Kos:

Bush's Flip-Flops



Last June 10, I posted a recommendation to see this Jon Stewart/Comedy show video. It means more now than it EVER did! Go see it!
It's very timely! It's 'flip-flop extraordinaire'! It's Gov. Bush vs. Prez Bush!

Chicago Tribune

Harvard eliminates tuition for some

"Too often, outstanding students from families of modest means do not believe that college is an option for them, much less an Ivy League university. Our doors have long been open to talented students regardless of financial need, but many students simply do not know or believe this. We are determined to change both the perception and the reality."

--Lawrence Summers, Harvard President

Here Comes AIR AMERICA


Drudge reports the new talk radio network will launch March 31st with the following schedule:

Monday-Friday

Uprising: 6:00-9:00am

This is a fast paced morning show that will entertain and engage audiences with wit and political satire. It will feature the latest news, offering up to-the-minute interviews with newsmakers, analysis and strong opinions.

Host: Marc Maron
Co-host: Sue Ellicott
Co-host: Mark Riley

Unfiltered: 9:00am- 12:00pm

Air America’s midmorning program is a showcase for conversation about the political and cultural state of the union. Unfiltered introduces listeners to fresh new voices not available in mainstream media today.

Co-host: Lizz Winstead
Co-host: Chuck D
Co-host: Laura Flanders

The O’ Franken Factor: 12:00-3:00pm

Relentless, pure satire, delivered by the leading political humorist of this generation. With his partner, longtime radio host Katherine Lanpher, this will be three hours of fearless barbs, sketches, and interviews with newsmakers and characters who have lived, up until now, only in Al’s fertile imagination. He’s no policy wonk, but this best-selling author and veteran of Saturday Night Live, is devoting his energy to fighting back against rightwing propaganda with hard evidence and facts.

Host: Al Franken
Co-host: Katherine Lanpher
Producer: Billy Kimball

The Randi Rhodes Show: 3:00-7:00pm

Randi Rhodes has spent the last 20 years burning up the airwaves in southern Florida with her pointed and provocative brand of talk radio. Combining live interview, call-in and commentary, Randi engages her audience with a passionate presentation.

Host: Randi Rhodes

So What Else Is News? : 7:00-8:00pm

Based in Los Angeles, this is a one-hour program showcasing the intersection of politics, media and popular culture. This program will feature analysis and reports from the presidential campaign, as well as a daily reporters’ roundtable on how the news of the day is affected and reflected by the media. Marty will also cover the spinning of the news with a regular segment called “The Corrections.” This is also the place to hear the political voice of Hollywood, with celebrity guest interviews from the entertainment industries.
Host: Marty Kaplan

The Majority Report: 8:00pm-11:00pm

This program will introduce new, younger voices and opinions, with live guests from the world of politics, the arts and entertainment. Host: Janeane Garofalo
Co-host: Sam Seder

Saturday and Sunday

Air America Radio’s weekend line-up will offer more original programming, like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Mike Papatanio’s “Champions of Justice,” a program that brings a fresh and entertaining perspective to talk radio from the top legal and social issues focused minds in the country. Additional programming will include Best-of Air America Radio and Best-of-O’Franken Factor as well as other original programming to be announced soon.