Well-done, John!
John Edwards found creative use for Bush supporters who
showed up at his "party"!

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards used a couple of Bush-Cheney sign-waving college students to his advantage Friday.

"Guys, hold those signs up in the back if you don't mind,'' Edwards said after snaking his way through the packed ballroom at Virginia Tech University.
The crowd booed as the students obliged, but then broke out in cheers when Edwards claimed:
"That's who's leaving the White House come November!''

Reuters: Sen. John McCain on the Intelligence Commission:
Sen. John McCain is bringing a willingly-admitted prejudice to the table...
when facts are surely pre-decided, how is this supposed to instill public trust in a fair investigation?
Being given the benefit of innocence before being proven guilty is fine for a defendant charged with a crime in a court of law, but a public investigation of an elected official and his administration requires a mind perfectly open to any possibility. To be perfectly honest, based on his statement, I already doubt that I'll trust John McCain to give this a fair hearing.
This whole deal smells pretty rotten to me. No one in their right mind can tell me that a commission can be independent if its nine members are hand-picked by Bush and his team. The White House has ignored their appeals that Congress authorize the commission. This is going to be destructive to the public's trust. If the Democrats don't raise a holy fit over this, they have my undying disrespect. DLC/third-way centrist stalwart-Charles Robb (son-in-law of Lyndon B. Johnson; the same Robb who was considered possible presidential material before a wicked sex scandal damaged him) has been hand-picked to lead the Democratic side of the
"independent" (sooo not) commission.

Washington Post
Tenet: Analysts Never Claimed Imminent Threat Before War
Why did Bush and the Neocons on whom he relied upon claim or even allude to imminent threat before war?

"The 45-minute window under which Iraq is prepared to use biological and chemical weapons is one further sign of worries we have about Iraq and their militaristic intentions."
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer
09/24/2002

"The president of the United States and the secretary of defense would not assert as plainly and bluntly as they have that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction if it was not true, and if they did not have a solid basis for saying it."
Ari Fleischer, Press Secretary
Response to Question From Press
12/04/2002

"...we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons..."
Dick Cheney, Vice President
Meet The Press
03/16/2003

"Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly . . . all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes."
Ari Fleischer, Press Secretary
Press Briefing
3/21/2003

"We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."
Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense
ABC Interview
3/30/2003

"Obviously the administration intends to publicize all the weapons of mass destruction U.S. forces find -- and there will be plenty.."
Robert Kagan, Neocon scholar
Washington Post op-ed
4/9/2003

NY Times/Paul Krugman
Get Me Rewrite!

In his column today, Paul Krugman rightly exposes disinformation from NeoCon princess Laurie Mylroie. I recall reading and commenting about such disinformation from Mylroie last July..along with the incredible disinformation supplied by Judith Miller and used by the New York Times.
Mr. Krugman says:

A tip from Joshua Marshall, of www.talkingpointsmemo.com, led me to a stark reminder of how different the story line used to be. Last year Laurie Mylroie published a book titled "Bush vs. the Beltway: How the C.I.A. and the State Department Tried to Stop the War on Terror." Ms. Mylroie's book came with an encomium from Richard Perle; she's known to be close to Paul Wolfowitz and to Dick Cheney's chief of staff. According to the jacket copy, "Mylroie describes how the C.I.A. and the State Department have systematically discredited critical intelligence about Saddam's regime, including indisputable evidence of its possession of weapons of mass destruction."

In his column, Krugman warns that people such as James Woolsey (who wrote one of the blurbs for Ms. Mylroie's book) has ben mentioned as a possible member of the commission to investigate and examine "intelligence". His fear, like mine, is that the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans will get off the investigation-hook...and that is precisely where the shady cherry-picking of intelligence to promote this war would have taken place.

From the pages of Daily Kos:
We Must Never Forget: February 5, 2003
by Al Rodgers

Colin Powell went to the UN and engaged in one the most infamous acts of Propaganda in World history.
We must never forget.

From the pages of: Mahablog
The news We've Been Waiting For??

--Federal law-enforcement officials said that they have developed hard evidence of possible criminal misconduct by two employees of Vice President Dick Cheney's office related to the unlawful exposure of a CIA officer's identity last year. The investigation, which is continuing, could lead to indictments, a Justice Department official said.
--According to these sources, John Hannah and Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, were the two Cheney employees. "We believe that Hannah was the major player in this," one federal law-enforcement officer said. Calls to the vice president's office were not returned, nor did Hannah and Libby return calls. [Richard Sale, UPI, February 5, 2004]

**Per Kos: "Hannah, by the way, is a "senior national security aide" for Cheney, and was, in fact, the administration's main point of contact with Chalabi's INC."**



Also on today's Mahablog...

"Check out Dan Froomkin's "White House Briefing" in today's Washington Post, expecially the part about "The AWOL Story That Won't Die." This paragraph popped out:

NBC Nightly News devoted a two and a half minute "In-Depth" segment to the issue, in which David Gregory said that while Bush was "never formally accused" of anything, "there is no record that proves Bush showed up to fulfill his obligations" from May 1972 to May 1973. The report includes video from 2000 of Bush saying "I fulfilled my obligation."

That old "liberal media" strikes again, huh? But here's a "clip & save" link to use next time you run into a Bush supporter who insists the AWOL charge can't be substantiated, because records are missing -- this blogger says records exist that should clear up the truth about Bush's National Guard duty.

Village Voice-A Disturbing Tidbit about Al Sharpton
Sleeping With the GOP
A Bush Covert Operative Takes Over Al Sharpton's Campaign

While Bush forces like the Club for Growth were buying ads in Iowa assailing then front-runner Howard Dean, Sharpton took center stage at a debate confronting Dean about the absence of blacks in his Vermont cabinet. Stone told the Times that he "helped set the tone and direction" of the Dean attacks, while Charles Halloran, the Sharpton campaign manager installed by Stone, supplied the research. While other Democratic opponents were also attacking Dean, none did it on the advice of a consultant who's worked in every GOP presidential campaign since his involvement in the Watergate scandals of 1972, including all of the Bush family campaigns.

From the pages of The Gotham City 13-
Bush and the Press-
A symbolic relationship

Monsignor Joseph Champlin/American Catholic.org
We Can Move Toward Harmony
Truths Jews, Christians and Muslims Hold in Common


These points are important for us, as a nation, to remember as we move into an uncertain future with those whom we wish to retain as our allies. It's also personally imperative for the sake of harmony that we focus our understanding on what we share as human beings vs. what drives us apart. I hope my secular-minded readers will indulge me.

Excerpts from the section entitled "We Can Move Toward Harmony":

The 10 spiritual commonalities shared by Christians, Jews and Muslims are indeed remarkable. But it would be inaccurate and naïve not to recognize that real differences do exist. Moreover, years of conflict have generated, among some, intense bitterness, hatred and mistrust.

Despite those divisions, if we know and understand each other better, then it should be easier for us to love one another more. Religion, instead of being a source of division, could become a basis for unity.

For such a positive global development to take place, we need to take some practical domestic steps. Individuals can educate themselves through print publications or Web sites such as the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs , Jewish-Christian Relations and the Middle East Policy Council.

Families might discuss these 10 spiritual commonalities to deepen their own awareness and appreciation. Parishes could arrange for visits to both synagogues and mosques. Dioceses might facilitate public dialogue among Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders.

Each of us needs to take the important step of praying individually and with others "that we all may be one" (see John 17:21), just as our loving God has envisioned us from the beginning.

Msgr. Joseph M. Champlin, a widely published author, exchanged pulpits with a local rabbi two years ago, preaching in the synagogue, while the rabbi spoke at a Sunday Mass. This was a first for both their 150-year-old congregations. Last year, Msgr. Champlin invited Dr. Anis Obeid, raised as a Druze Muslim, to describe the basic articles of that religion at a Sunday Mass at Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Syracuse, New York, where the author is rector. Those exchanges and the tragedy of September 11 led to this article.

U.S. Newswire
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
Files FEC Compliant Against Grover Norquist, Ken Mehlman;
Alleges Violation of Federal Campaign Laws Over 'Master Contact List'

-[The group is] alleging that Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform and Bush-Cheney '04 violated federal campaign laws. According to The Washington Post, Norquist gave Ken Mehlman, the campaign manager for Bush- Cheney '04 a "master contact list," including the names and information of conservative activists in 37 states compiled by Norquist over a period of 5 years.
-CREW's complaint alleges that both parties, Norquist and Mehlman are in violation of the law regardless of whether Americans for Tax Reform or Norquist personally contributed the list. Americans for Tax Reform is a corporation and campaigns are prohibited from accepting contributions from corporations. According to FEC regulations, Bush-Cheney could not accept the list if it came directly from Americans for Tax Reform.
-"The public needs to know that no one, including the President of the United States, is above the law. FEC laws are clear and must be followed,"

See Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington website.

See Forbes.com: "Did Bush-Cheney '04 Break Campaign Law?"

Grover Norquist is one of the "Think-Tank Bottom Feeders" (as described in this tongue-in-cheek Austin, Texas-based column).

Among the brightest lights was anti-tax absolutist Grover Norquist, who called his co-panelist Dick Lavine a "Bolshevik," defined taxation as "taking money from people who have earned it and giving it to those who haven't earned it" (presumably the latter would include guests of the tax-exempt, "nonpartisan" TPPF), denounced graduated tax rates as "the [mass murderer] Richard Speck approach," and advocated abolishing public schools altogether: "Don't raise taxes, and don't fund monopolies!" The assembled elected officials – when not attacking "politicians" – generally took a more moderate line. Rather than abolish public education outright, they simply intend to starve it to death.

Salon.com (subsc. or free one-day pass req.)
Hitting the mainstream media:
Bush's Missing Year
In 1972, George W. Bush dropped out of his National Guard service and later lied about it. With the media finally paying attention, will he now come clean?

JWR/Omer Bartov
Did Hitlerism Die with Hitler?

....those who foolishly think that doing away with Israel, not least in a "one-state solution," would remove anti-Semitism had better look more closely at the language of these enemies....
Hitler taught humanity an important lesson. It is that when you see a Nazi, a fascist, a bigot, or an anti-Semite, say what you see. If you want to justify it or excuse it away, describe accurately what it is that you are trying to excuse away. If a British newspaper publishes an anti-Semitic cartoon, call it anti-Semitic. If the attacks on the Twin Towers were animated by anti-Semitic arguments, say so. If a Malaysian prime minister expresses anti-Semitic views, do not try to excuse the inexcusable. If a self-proclaimed liberation organization calls for the extermination of the Jewish state, do not pretend that it is calling for anything else. The absence of clarity is the beginning of complicity.

Washington Post
Auschwitz Under Our Noses

Come Fly With Me!

"Come fly with me,
let’s float down on Air Force Two
In Cheney land, there’s a huntin' strand
And you’ll shoot a duck or two
Come fly with me, Antonin,
just me and you..."

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia traveled as an official guest of Vice President Dick Cheney on a small government jet that served as Air Force Two when the pair came here last month to hunt ducks. The revelation cast further doubts about whether Scalia can be an impartial judge in Cheney's upcoming case before the Supreme Court, legal ethics experts said. The hunting trip took place just weeks after the high court agreed to take up Cheney's bid to keep secret the details of his energy policy task force.

Bohemian Mama Blog
I might like John Kerry as Nominee More If.........
Bohemian Mama originally posted this on her diary over at Kos and there are some spirited comments. She says she's "glad people are at least talking about things", and she's "always wanting to learn more."

I understand exactly how she feels.

My question is--what lesson didn't he learn from Viet Nam that would have lead him to miss the important fact that Bush was surely going to take pre-emptive action against Iraq? Kerry must have known the UN would just be, for Bush, a polite stop-over visit with a step-over attitude. We all knew it...why didn't he?

Related article: Salon.com (subsc. or free one-day pass req.)
Will Deaniacs pull a Nader on the Democratic Party?
Some of the insurgent's supporters say they're going to take their idealism and go home --- but most of them will probably get over their bitterness and support the nominee.

Jake Tapper/ABC news
Stealth Negativity?
Recording Reveals Kerry Operative Dissing Dean in Campaign Call

Caught on Tape

But two nights ago, Cornell College psychology professor Suzette Astley, a Dean volunteer in Lisbon, Iowa, received a phone call from a Kerry's Cedar Rapids headquarters — in which, she says, a Kerry volunteer had some less than kind things to say about Dean regarding his foreign policy experience, being from a largely white state, and so-called "environmental racism."

Since a documentary filmmaker was staying with Astley, the exchange, which has been confirmed by the Kerry campaign, was caught on videotape.

"Does your candidate know that you're saying these kinds of things, unsubstantiated claims on the phone representing Sen. Kerry?" Astley asked 19-year-old volunteer, Jacob Thomas, on the tape, a copy of which was obtained by ABCNEWS.

Soon, she asked to speak with Kerry's regional field supervisor, with whom she launched a complaint.

"I am just really offended by the call I got tonight," she said. "The person who was talking to me was taking things out of context, repeating unsubstantiated reports to me, and I find that really offensive."

Democrats: This is the time to look at yourselves most honestly

A righty-writer at World Net Daily hopes that "the RNC provides a 24x7 cable show for McAuliffe and, in the interim, invites all those outraged with yet another clownish moment from the Alfred E. Neuman of American politics to skip the getting mad and go straight to the getting even via a donation" to the Bush campaign."
While the AWOL situation deserves mainstream media treatment (see the actual/true story here), you cannot treat it lightly and clumsily. Talk about gaffes from Howard Dean....Terry McAuliffe tends to act like a verbal bull in a China-shop while a more detached demeanor would suffice. I am more than a bit angry with McAuliffe myself for what I watched him fully allow to happen with the Howard Dean candidacy. His actions (or failure to act when Dean rightly appealed to him about professionaly interfering in all the unfair media treatment) led me to suspect that he was a biased party chairman. Comments I have heard from him and Carville and Begala since that incident have further fed that suspicion.
Although it is a harsh statement by WorldNet Daily columnist and I'm not inclined to drink the koolaid of Bush-defenders, when I read this following statement, some of it "hit home".

"McAuliffe's decision to deny that service in the national guard is service in the military – even as thousands of national guard have served in Iraq – is a blunder larger than any of his others, and trafficking in discredited urban myths gives you a glimpse of McAuliffe's desperation to turn the conversation to anything except Kerry's way-left voting record, or his role in the Dean meltdown, or the failure of Wes Clark to capture any significant support outside the loon caucus."

I hope Democrats will take a good, hard, honest look at themselves and understand that the Peter Jennings of the so-called "liberal" media will not let sleeping dogs lie. Jennings was the one who started this Michael Moore-deserter baiting. The Democrats had best find just the right way to get the truth out there and shut up the mealy-mouthed media-baiters while they can. Situations like this could easily spin out of control. Judging from McAuliffe's treatment of Howard Dean in his own party's primary, I can't say I have faith he'll understand what he needs to do.

New Yorker Magazine/Comment
BLAME GAME
What Hutton and Kay reveal

....as Seymour M. Hersh has reported in this magazine, senior members of the Bush Administration did press the intelligence agencies to provide evidence supporting the President’s claim that Iraq represented a grave danger. Other journalists have made similar charges.
We know that Vice-President Dick Cheney, who continues to insist that some W.M.D.s might be found, visited the C.I.A. several times before the war for face-to-face meetings with Iraq analysts, and that senior Pentagon officials were running their own intelligence operation, the Office of Special Plans. Until a full account is provided, the suspicion will remain that in Washington, as in London, the handling of intelligence had more to do with persuading the public to support a war that had already been decided on than with calmly assessing threats. Whatever finally emerges, the C.I.A. should not be used as a scapegoat. Intelligence, by its very nature, is usually uncertain and often wrong. It should always be treated with skepticism and caution, two attributes that were, and are, conspicuously missing from the Bush White House.

Top four reasons Bush and media can't claim they were 'misled'

And Cheney appoints his own interrogator! ;)
Hey! Some fair investigation that'll be!

Madison Capital Times
Dean treated badly by most media

What if we lived in a parallel universe where Howard Dean was actually treated fairly by the media?... a place where Dean would be treated like the other candidates - criticized for his mistakes, complimented for his accomplishments and, above all, treated seriously when he discusses issues.....How would a Dean candidacy be faring today if the press gushed over him as it does John Edwards, or forgave him his trespasses as quickly as it does John Kerry, or overlooked the disorder in his organization as casually as it does the daily disaster that is Joe Lieberman's so-called campaign?
Dean has made mistakes, to be sure. But those mistakes have been amplified by a 24-hour-a-day news cycle, by late-night comics, by an Anybody-But-Dean army of cable television and talk-radio talking heads, and by Washington-centric newspaper columnists who never understood or particularly approved of Dean's decision to show up uninvited at the top of Democratic polls in late 2003.

....Democrats quietly admitted they would probably vote for Kerry or Edwards - candidates who just weeks ago were dismissed as losers but are now regularly referred to as "electable" by the media pack....
It is true that every disintegrating presidential candidacy since that of John Adams in 1800 has blamed the media for its decline. But in this case, Dean's complaints appear to be more credible than those of most damaged contenders.
How do we know? (SEE ARTICLE!)

NY Times
U.S. Comptroller General Warns About Magnitude of Deficits and Fiscal Risks
This is not a particularly sexy issue, so you won't see a lot about it on CNN. I suppose the likes of Grover Norquist and George W. Bush are just as glad it's not a hot, juicy story like Kobe, Condit, sharks, or mountain lions. They can quietly destroy our Social Security, Medicare, and other socially beneficial programs much easier this way. US Comptroller General David Walker realizes this is not an easy topic for the typical American to want to wrap their minds around. He warns that, if Americans are not educated and accurately informed, they may find themselves in fiscal peril before too long.

Long-term simulations from the legislative agency I head, the General Accounting Office, paint a chilling picture. Even before the new drug benefit was enacted, these simulations showed that by 2040 current policy could require a 50 percent reduction in federal spending or a doubling of taxes to balance the budget.

As Jefferson pointed out, truth and transparency are even more essential in the public sector. Government services -mail delivery, food inspection, Social Security and defense, to name a few - directly affect the well-being of every American. But sound decisions on federal programs and policies are nearly impossible without timely, accurate and useful information.

A top-to-bottom review of government activities to ensure their relevance for the 21st century is long overdue. From a practical standpoint, our elected representatives are not likely to get too far out in front of the American people when addressing complex and controversial issues. These fiscal risks, however, are a long-term problem whose impact will not be felt for some time. The understanding and support of the American people will be critical in providing a foundation for action.
A national education campaign to help the public understand the nature and magnitude of the long-term financial challenge facing this nation is essential. After all, an informed electorate is indispensable for a sound democracy. Young Americans especially need to become active in this discussion - because they and their children will bear the heaviest burden if today's leaders fail to act.

Washington Post Blasts Bush Budget

The Bush administration's 2005 budget is a masterpiece of disingenuous blame-shifting, dishonest budgeting and irresponsible governing...To keep running up these deficits is to stick future generations with a tab they won't be able to afford. The administration presents itself as blameless victim.. it doesn't take into account continuing costs in Iraq and Afghanistan...The biggest distortion is to present a snapshot of 2009 and stop there. Making the tax cuts permanent would cost $132 billion in the coming five years, but $936 billion through 2014. How Mr. Bush can adhere to this reckless course is the true "subject of concern."

The Hill
Grassley oddly confident about catching bin Laden "before November 2nd election"
I find all this certainty to be very, very strange. I have the distinct impression, from this and other stories I've read recently, that the Bushies have known where bin Laden is for a long time and have purposely held off capture until it can fit their political agenda.

“Obviously, he’ll be caught between now and the election,” Grassley said Monday when asked if he’s disappointed that Osama bin Laden hasn’t been killed or captured.
“I think they’re on his trail now in a way they haven’t been all year,” Grassley said.

SEE: "Hmmmmmm....they are apparently"sure"of where Osama is now...why not go and grab him?"

Washington Post
George McGovern Speaks About 1972 and 2004

Isn't the big lesson of 1972 this: Beware a president whose campaign dishonesty got him expelled from office shortly after his landslide win? Is winning an election worth dishonoring the nation? Am I the one who should be ashamed about 1972?

It has always seemed to me that the leaders who are the quickest to send our boys and our young to war are those who have never known war themselves.

I'm proud of my war service, but today I'm more interested in peace. I certainly don't want any more wars like the one in Iraq -- a country that posed no threat to us and had nothing to do with Sept. 11, 2001. There seem to be no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.