CONGRATULATIONS, JOHN EDWARDS!!!!!!
Senator Edwards is the projected winner in the South Carolina primary.

CONGRATULATIONS, WESLEY CLARK!!!!!!
General Clark is the projected winner of Oklahoma.

Well, well..Look what's hit the mainstream
For the Record
Bush's Guard Service In Question
Democrats Say President Shirked His Duty in 1972
It only took them four years.
Wonder if they'll ever mention this?
Or this?
There's always this...and this.
That he received an honorable discharge is not a testament to his honorable service, but rather one that indicates that he received preferential treatment not available to those being charged with AWOL and desertion today.

Woman gives up her career to be
First lady
Geez-
Why couldn't Judy Dean have been so lame?

on the trail
From the Mouths of Babes
General Clark's son speaks out about the corrupt political press
By Chris Suellentrop

"Of politics, he says, "It's a dirty business, filled with a lot of people who are pretending to be a lot of things they're not."
"It's not the media's job to get his message out. The media's job is to sell advertising."
The media's horse-race coverage is all that matters, and by skipping Iowa, Clark got left out of the horse race. "It's all horse-race questions," he says. "My favorite was Dad wearing a sweater in New Hampshire one day. Maybe he was wearing a sweater because he was cold."
But why has the president gotten positive coverage while the Democrats have gotten negative coverage, in his opinion? "It's about access. You know that you'll be denied access if you actually cover things honestly."
"I'd like him to win today. If he doesn't win, I don't want him to stay out there," and "What did we get on the news for this weekend? A speeding ticket in Oklahoma. You gotta be f*cking kidding me."

JWR/Jeff Dunetz
ON GROUNDHOG DAY-
Groundhogs and human rodents

Why should Punxsutawney Phil get all of the attention?


These are strong words. I think we owe them a good listening and we should heed the pain that lies behind the cutting wit. How can we, as American citizens, become healers in our own right?

..Phil is just one example. All across the world there are ceremonies just like the one in Punxsutawney — ceremonies, where people trust animal behavior to indicate the future....There is the one that takes place in Ramallah on the West Bank. The Ramallah rodent is named Palestinian Yassir.....Yassir the Moneyhog is worshiped in Europe, because his primary role is killing Jews...Another ceremony that uses a rodent as a seer is the one in France .The animal in this one has had many names. The latest is Judenphobe Jacques. If Jacques poke his head out of his hole and sees Jewish people living in peace, we will have six more years of horrible anti-Semitism....
During the UN Party, all the delegates gather around a small hole and out pops Kantseenuthing Koffi. If Koffi sees Jews dying he goes back into his hole and closes his eyes.....There are so many other events that people don't know about, there is Mousears Michael who is so afraid of being recognized as Jewish, he pokes his head up from a tree atop of a castle and if he sees a Jewish shadow he runs from his background and we have 6 more months of ABC News' anti-Israel Bias...... One of the newest prognosticators is known as Passiveagressive Powell. Passiveagressive he helps predict US Foreign policy. Passiveagressive Powell has been known to trade Israeli lives for Arab oil. Every time Israel ties to defend herself he pokes his head up from the fence between US and Mexico (that's a good wall) and if he needs something from the Arab world we get six days of condemnation.....

I have one comment---remember who Powell works for. I recall his performance at the U.N. to make the (suspected false) case for the attack upon Iraq, which not only set back the peace process, but endangered the people of Israel. At the time, I thought to myself: a very un-Powell performance. It was then I realized he had become the loyal and willing puppet of the Bush administration.
May I suggest BlastIraqatAnyCost Bush?

Pressure, pressure!!
James Carville said two
(of the "Big Five") should have gone after last week's primary....

It didn't happen, though. And I'm glad.
My state (New York-the one hit on 9-11) won't even have a chance to speak until March.
Our hero-attorney-general Eliot Spitzer's endorsement of Kerry (announced yesterday in New Mexico) is going to be one of Kerry's greatest endorsements.
Should Kerry succeed, I recommend Spitzer for the AG spot. Kerry will owe him big-time.

About the other candidates dropping out after two states....
Give us a chance to speak, Carville and McAuliffe!
Give us a choice.
There were 48 other states in America last time I checked.
You are for a healthy (small 'd') democratic race...aren't you, now!?

CARVILLE: I think of the big five, two will be gone tomorrow. Whether they drop out -- whether you drop out or not doesn't matter -- but if two people finish far behind here, it's going to be pretty hard for them to raise money; it's going to be hard for their supporters to stay with them.

And there's a great sense among everyday rank-and-file Democrats, "Hey, if somebody does really well here, let's get, all get behind them and make this person nominee." And by the same token, these guys have been working hard -- Sen. Edwards and Dean -- you can't force people out of this thing too early, but somebody has to show ability to get votes in order to stay in this thing. You can't just stay in this thing forever.

Thomas Friedman says....
"Personally, I don't believe the Bush team will pay a long-term political price for its faith-based intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Too many Americans, including me, believe in their guts that removing Saddam was the right thing to do, even if the W.M.D. intel was wrong."

I wonder how we might reconcile that opinion with the President's approval rating, which has dropped from the 60s to the 40s since capturing Hussein? How does that jibe with the fact that, on the most recent poll taken of the president's performance on Iraq, the disapproval rate rose from 36 to 53?

Making a case for Bush/Justifying War:
Who Said This?
"You're talking about delivering the arsenal he has...he might still have all of those barrels of evil stuff, the biochemical weapons...chances are he has those weapons but he doesn't have the power to deliver them...It is particularly in light of what happened on September 11, 2001 and the fear that there are evil people out there, some of whom may have consorted with Saddam Hussein in the past, that would get together and use some of these chemical weapons -- if they're in Iraq -- on U.S. citizens....
September 11, 2001 was not hypothetical, nothing hypothetical at all...We know there are people out there willing to do the dirty deed and we also know Saddam Hussein has had contacts with these people in the past. ...
We know from Czech intelligence. Czech intelligence says that an Iraqi met with Mohammed Atta twice. ...
The FBI and CIA say the situation is not clear but Czech intelligence says it is. And why it is that the only person, only Arab leader that Usama bin Laden likes and approves of and speaks highly of is Saddam Hussein, why?
We talked to representatives of Al Qaeda here in 1998 shortly after the bombings of those embassies in Africa. The only Arab leader -- I spoke to them personally, the only Arab leader they were willing to praise, not to condemn, was Saddam Hussein. Why?
[The case has] been made not only by Usama bin Laden himself but by representatives of Al Qaeda to me personally on air. We've got the tape. I can show it to you...
They both want the destruction of the United States. You don't think they do? You don't think Usama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein want the destruction of the United States?
That's the point, the fact that Usama bin Laden has had, or is suspected to have had contacts, well, just a suspicion when thousands of American lives are at risk. Isn't a suspicion alone enough to really act upon?
You don't have to be told who lost the war in 1991. Who lost? It was Saddam Hussein. He signed these agreements as a result of his loss so that he could keep his nation in power. The conditions laid out by the U.N. were agreed to by the Iraqis. 95 percent was destroyed but five percent could not be accounted for.. That's a lot of potential biochemical weapons...for a madman like Saddam Hussein, to have 5 percent of that arsenal is still a dangerous thing...
...it would take six months to rebuild those facilities. So they could have built that. They could have built that four, six times over... isn't that a risk that we have to be particularly cognizant of, and if the Iraqis won't allow our inspectors unfettered access, isn't our only option to go in there and take out Saddam? Richard Butler was a spy for the United States, not an independent U.N. weapons inspector? The United States has admitted that they used Richard Butler as a pawn in an intelligence operation thwarting the neutral interests of the United Nations? Knowingly allowing them neutral reputation of the United States -- United Nations to fall by the wayside in order to work with United States intelligence is nothing that he's ever admitted to...
They say they want death and destruction for the United States. The vice president of Iraq said it is the duty of Arabs anywhere in the world, anywhere in the world, to attack U.S. interests and U.S. individuals. This is the vice president of Iraq. You just admitted it is a dictatorship. We have clear rhetoric coming from Iraq. Arabs have the duty to attack and kill Americans even on U.S. soil. They are saying that. It is conceivable, is it not, that they have created in the four years since we have been there quite a stockpile of chemical [and] biological weapons. Why do you think it is that they did that?
Who do you trust more, President Bush and the case he is making against Saddam Hussein, or the rhetoric coming out of Iraq? Coming out of Iraq or that coming out of President Bush?
Why it is that we should not believe Richard Butler who was chief weapons inspector, or believe people like the former nuclear scientist who worked on Saddam Hussein's campaign who says he still has an active policy to get a nuclear weapon and has other capabilities -- why should we not believe all of these other people and believe you?"

*answer below..in comments section*

Another Halliburton overcharge!
OOPS-They did it again!
Halliburton Co. allegedly overcharged more than $16 million for meals at a U.S. military base in Kuwait
This occurred during the first seven months of last year, according to a published report Monday, citing Pentagon investigators auditing the company's work.

What Do You Think?
"In general, I think the FCC does have a role in promoting some reasonable standard of decency. However, considering what's on television these days, I think the FCC is being pretty silly about investigating this."
--Howard Dean, about the Janet Jackson/Justin Timerlake/Superbowl FCC probe

N.Y.Times editorial
Come back, little Deaniacs

....Many of the young people who heeded Senator McCarthy's antiwar message in 1968 spiraled away from politics forever when Hubert Humphrey won the Democratic nomination. The young Deaniacs could easily add to the near majority of eligible voters in America who find politics a waste of effort. One of the most important missions of the Democratic nominee this year is to help keep young people interested when the campaign boils down to the deeply pragmatic politics of the summer and fall...

I wonder why the New York Times editorial staff believes 2004 will be any different than 1968. I think the words "pragmatic politics" are just code-words for something far more insidious than simply pragmatic.
You see, the primary season is far from over, and the New York Times is already counting Dean out of the race.
Obviously, the NY Times has their crystal ball poised and ready.. and they're already planning on how the leftover Dean supporters will fit into the 2004 election. I'll bet they even have them slated for their own favorite establishment candidate, which has never been Governor Dean. For them, the writing's on the wall.

If the writing's on the wall, I ask you:
Who's doing the writing?

On some far-off day when the writing is done by the people and the pragmatic result equates to the writing of the people, I will understand the new York Times' hope for keeping these young kids in the system. Consider, however, what these kids see happening before their very eyes. They see an alleged front-running candidate who is paying for his commercial time with his filthy-rich wife's money and contributions from specal interests. They see Terry McAuliffe trying to cut their candidate off at the pass...issuing the date in which Governor Dean will be officially the "undead" candidate, as CNN's political mouthpiece Bill Schneider has been touting all this past weekend. These kids see their hard-earned small contributions wasted because of a media who would choose to mock their candidate by spurting nonsense about him repeatedly on the news networks and who chastise his wife for being her own person.
I'm a Dean supporter and I'm no innocent kid..I've been around this block before. Frankly, I believe we're going to see a replay of 1968...in spades. This is far more than "disillusionment". It's an established political system that does not appreciate being challenged. I'm thinking seriously of parting from the Democrats myself. Any candidate in November will be better than Bush, but at the same time, this was the supreme chance to show America that we people are ready for a change.
The powers-that-be have stopped us at nearly every turn. The media and the Democratic powers virtually ignored Dennis Kucinich's candidacy. There will be a political price for them to pay, I'm afraid.

N.Y. Times/Bob Herbert
Keeping It Real-
Getting Out the Low-Income Vote

One of the biggest reasons politicians continue to trample on issues of crucial importance to low-income Americans -issues like jobs, education and access to health care - is the traditionally poor voting habits of that segment of the population. The percentage of people who vote (and the level of attention they get from politicians) rises steadily as you scale the income ladder.

Most Americans are unaware of the extent of the suffering that has fallen on the bottom 20 percent or so of the population. Many low-income Americans are leading lives of grim and sometimes painful determination, struggling to survive from one day to the next. The contrast between the real lives of families sinking beneath the weight of economic distress and the headlines that continue to insist that the economy is doing famously is extraordinary.

The idea is to make low-income voters a force too strong to be ignored. A recent study commissioned by the center showed that small increases in voting by low-income people could be decisive in several strategically important states.

Media's Greatest Sin:
The Dean Scream:
The Version of Reality You Didn't See on TV

SEE THE VIDEO HERE

.....we collected some other tapes from Dean's speech including one from a documentary filmmaker, tapes that do carry the sound of the crowd, not just the microphone he held on stage. We also asked the reporters who were there to help us replicate what they experienced in the room.
Reena Singh, ABC News Dean campaign reporter: "What the cameras didn't capture was the crowd."
Garance Franke-Ruta, Senior Editor, American Prospect: "As he spoke, the audience got louder and louder and I found it somewhat difficult to hear him."
Dean's boisterous countdown of the upcoming primaries as we all heard it on TV was isolated, when in fact he was shouting over the roaring crowd.
And what about the scream as we all heard it? In the room, the so-called scream couldn't really be heard at all. Again, he was yelling along with the crowd.

I condemn the television networks for this overplaying of a specially-selected video. I found the tone of ABC and FOX to be particularly unapologetic in this article. CBS is the most anti-1st amendment network I've seen (besides FOX the right-propagandists). CBS has censored a Moveon.org commercial this week and has refused to show programs such as a movie about the Reagans. In this instance, they have apologized after they did their damage to Governor Dean.
As long as the media acts as a gaggle of clowns, the American public will be little more than clowns discussing what they've seen the night before at water coolers across America.

Bush Wants a Cover-up, Not an Investigation

"Bush, under mounting political pressure, will sign an executive order to establish a full-blown (RIGHT!) investigation of U.S. intelligence failures in Iraq... By setting up the investigation himself, Bush will have greater control over its membership and mandate. (and ability to cover his great sin!) The senior White House official said it would be patterned after the Warren Commission (whose report on JFK's assassination is believed by no one)... David Albright, a former weapons inspector, said the administration could use the commission as a way to delay judgments about the intelligence community and the administration's use of the intelligence information. 'The bottom line for them [the Bush administration] is to delay the day of reckoning about their use of the weapons of mass destruction information,' Albright said. 'David Kay can blame the CIA and say 'Oh, I made all these comments based on what I heard from the intelligence community.' Bush can't do that. He's the boss.'"

Washington Post
Twin Bombings Kill at Least 56 in Northern Iraq
Suicide Attacks Strike Both U.S.-Backed Kurdish Political Parties in Irbil

Two suicide bombers with explosives wired to their bodies struck the offices of the country's two main Kurdish parties in nearly simultaneous attacks Sunday, killing at least 56 people and wounding more than 235 in the deadliest assault in Iraq in six months. The attacks struck in the Kurdish heartland and took a heavy toll among senior leaders of Iraq's most pro-American ethnic group.
Although Iraq has suffered numerous suicide bombings in recent months, the attack Sunday marked the first time perpetrators have worn explosives rather than using vehicles.

Paul Bremer says there's no proof at this point who is responsible. It could be Ansar al-Islam...or could be al-Qaeda. It could be any of a number of foreign terrorist groups operating in Iraq. Why? Because Bush's war has proven to be a terror-growing war rather than a terror-abater...and no matter who was behind these blasts, tensions will now likely heighten between the Kurds and Sunni Arabs.

244 Muslim Pilgrims Die in Hajj Stampede

The devil-stoning is the most animated ritual of the annual pilgrimage and often the most dangerous. Many pilgrims frantically throw rocks, shout insults or hurl their shoes at the pillars - acts that are supposed to demonstrate their deep disdain for the devil. But clerics frown upon such action, saying it's un-Islamic.
Last year, 14 pilgrims were trampled to death during the ritual and 35 died in a 2001 stampede. In 1998, 180 pilgrims died.

The annual hajj, which began Thursday, climaxed Saturday as some 2 million Muslim pilgrims listened to Saudi Arabia's top cleric denounce terrorists, calling them an affront to Islam. However, he defended the kingdom's strict interpretation of the faith.
Sheik Abdul Aziz al-Sheik said in his sermon there were those who claim to be holy warriors, but were shedding Muslim blood and destabilizing the nation.
"Is it holy war to shed Muslim blood? Is it holy war to shed the blood of non-Muslims given sanctuary in Muslim lands? Is it holy war to destroy the possession of Muslims?" he said, adding that their actions gave enemies an excuse to criticize Muslim nations. A large number of the victims of suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq and elsewhere have been Muslims.
Al-Sheik, who is widely respected in the Arab world as the foremost cleric in the country considered the birthplace of Islam, spoke at Namira Mosque in a televised sermon watched by millions of Muslims in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. Al-Sheik also criticized the international community, accusing it of attacking Wahhabism, the strict interpretation of Islam that is applied in Saudi Arabia: "This country is based on this religion and will remain steadfast on it."

Sistani: Iraq Cleric's Sense of History

Sistani's political activism has surprised many, even his supporters. In April, he issued statements insisting that the clergy play no direct role in politics. But he soon began weighing in with opinions that drove to the heart of Iraq's future.
Sistani's spokesmen have said he draws lessons for today from the six-month revolt in 1920 against the British occupation. Once it was put down, the Shiite clergy remained in opposition, rejecting participation in elections that followed and discouraging followers from entering the government and its institutions, which soon were dominated by minority Sunnis. That year "is like a complex in the hearts and minds of the Shiites," said Mohieddin Khatib, the secretary of the Governing Council. "It is a very deep regret, and he is saying you will not hear something like this from me."

Democratic Debate in Milwaukee February 15th

"We're all going to come together in Wisconsin and have the big showdown."
--Howard Dean

Lester Holt and Gloria Borger would not be my choice of panelists for a debate of such alleged importance.
Especially Mr. Holt. I found his last performance (at the Iowa Brown and Black Presidential Forum) positively dreadful. He made a shooting target out of Howard Dean, coming out of the starting gate harping on the "gotcha-of-the-moment" (where Dean criticized the Iowa caucus system on a tape from many years past). I wonder if Holt's mission is to try to pull a "gotcha" on Kerry next? If he doesn't, I wonder if Howard Dean will? If Dean "goes negative" on Kerry, I wonder if the press will get their jockeys in an uproar over "mean Dean"? How soon they forget Kerry's negative attack on Dean at the Iowa Brown and Black (where Kerry said Dean made public statements supporting a resolution that gave authority to Bush to go to war once diplomatic efforts had failed...his (dishonest) words were: "I think Governor Dean has had it both ways.") Boo! Mean negative Kerry.
In the same debate, Lester Holt was the one who raised from the near-dead the stench of the Confederate flag fiasco once again (after it had been already over-covered in prior debates). In my blog-entry of Janyaury 12, I had written: "Sigh. Lester Holt brought up the Confederate flag issue again. (Sadly creating division rather than drawing out some new ideas from these 9 candidates). "

American Prospect
Case Closed
Now we know Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction when we invaded. So how did the Bush administration get everything wrong?

This article leads me to believe we cannot separate the Bush administration's argument for war from even the sheerest possibility that dissent within the intelligence community was present and due diligence was not utilized to entertain and respect all of the intelligence-community's views before dragging the nation headlong into a pre-emptive strike.
Extreme diligence would have been required of the President and his administration because a pre-emptive strike is only as "just" and "legal' as its best and most fair and thorough possible intelligence review by the Commander-in-Chief and his cabinet.
Although not mentioned here, Imad Hage was another important "heads-up" warning to the Bush administration that war did not have to be the only option. Hage, too, was ignored. We need to take out the microscope and dissect this situation....it is in our nation's utmost security interest.
Bottom line, the buck stops with George W. Bush. He clearly didn't collect the entire body of facts available to him before taking our nation to war. If he did have the facts, I firmly believe his administration ignored them. This is a most serious charge, I realize, but we cannot progress as a trusting nation if such doubt hangs heavy over the heads of the most powerful.
Any Independent investigation will have to include a review of how the Bush administration developed their case for war..exactly how and to what extent they worked with Intelligence..and those of whom they may have negligently ignored in order to bolster their case.
The buck stops with Bush.
Americans want the truth.
We demand the truth.

Most importantly, though, is the fact that intelligence professionals who did offer dissenting opinions on the weapons program were simply ignored by the Bush administration, which listened to only the intelligence that reinforced its views.

[David] Kay, who resigned this week as head of the Iraq Survey Group, the CIA-led team hunting for Iraq's banned weapons, sees things differently. He insists the intelligence community, not the administration, is to blame..

...should one, as Kay insists, dismiss the reports that document just how much pressure the intelligence community found itself under from, among others, Cheney and the Pentagon?

Was the vice president a dispassionate observer, simply waiting for the intelligence estimate to arrive on his desk?" asks Joseph Cirincione, a nonproliferation expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "No. There was a tremendous amount of activity within the vice president's office and within the office of the secretary of defense to shape the intelligence, to create their own intelligence, and to feed that intelligence directly to the president. And this, in great part, is what got us in the mess we are in today."

"In all kinds of ways, both subtle and major, the fact that the White House knew what answer it wanted from the intelligence community had a very large effect on the way the intelligence community presented information," says Greg Thielmann, who retired as the director of the strategic intelligence office at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) in October 2002.

"What appeared to happen is that a particular outcome dominated, and the dissents were relegated to footnotes. It wasn't in the primary text, and that's important. And it may be that individual analysts chose not to describe their uncertainty, or that through the process of writing and editing, that uncertainty was edited out.
Now one thing that does concern me is that the vice president has continued in recent days to make statements saying that 'we're going to find weapons of mass destruction material in Iraq.' And that really concerns me. Is he is so disconnected from the administration, or what do his comments mean, given the facts that have been revealed? That's really been bothering me."

--Anonymous longtime arms-control expert

~~~~~~~~~~~

Re: Imad Hage-
SEE LINK (including the following quote) HERE:
....As has been widely reported, last March, as US troops gathered on Iraqi borders, Saddam sent a message to the Bush administration through Imad Hage, a Lebanese-American businessman, who had met with Saddam. It had first reached the office of the under secretary for planning and defense, in February. The message: Iraq has no WMDs, Saddam would permit US troops and experts to do a search of the country, and Saddam would even permit free elections – anything to avert a war. The same message was delivered in London a month later to Pentagon adviser Richard Perle..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What a joke---Bush and Blair have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
After sending hundreds of soldiers to their death on the wings of a lie and failing to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Bush and Blair have been put forward to receive the Nobel peace prize.
Jan Simonsen, an independent member of Norway's Parliament, apparently had a brainfart causing temporary insanity and nominated them. Nobel watchers say neither Mr Bush nor Mr Blair has much chance of winning.
As nominees, they're in the company of former peacenik-nominees like Adolf Hitler, Slobodan Milosevic and Yasser Arafat. Yeeha!

Flashback--Campaign 2000
Americans--Are you getting it now?
Are you seeing the pattern?
From Reagan to Dubya-
Learn the code words for keeping the mightiest wealthy while sinking the weak
*Can you say "screw you?"*

"Of the more current usage of "compassion" by political figures — the patronizing, head-patting, de haut en bas concern of the mighty for the powerless — Reagan was blessedly free. This, the Great Communicator understood in his very bones and blood, is the land of opportunity. Who is powerless in America today may be mighty tomorrow. It follows that what is mainly owed by the mighty to the weak is not compassion — not official compassion, at any rate — but to keep open and well-dredged the channels of opportunity."

"At the risk of giving offense, I hope that the “compassionate conservatism” strategy is a deception, and of course I hope it will be a successful one. I hope George W. Bush will win the coming election; and I hope that I shall then have the satisfaction, early next year, of watching him fill the seats around his cabinet table with flinty-faced puritans wearing green eyeshades, with not a single teardrop of public compassion among the lot of them."

--John Derbyshire, Contributing Editor, National Review 7-31-00

Karen Kwiatkowski:
Bush as pontifex?? (It's a lot like bin Laden as pan-Arab caliph)

Nervous neoconservatives really do need to invoke the "American civil religion......."

Perhaps understanding George W. Bush as pontifex maximus, and civil religion as adoration of a strong central governing authority makes sense. It explains the "God picked me to be President" thing, and why Mr. Bush doesn’t need to read anything written on paper, preferring instead to get guidance – on blowing the budget, conducting military invasions, public prevarication, and spending billions of our hard earned money to encourage people to stop taking steroids and get married instead – directly from some higher power. Dick Cheney, perhaps.

It also helps explain all the Lincoln and Churchill iconolatry that goes on in the private sitting rooms of the nanny-cons. I am now able to better appreciate the J. Alfreds in Washington, whispering and wondering if they’ll have the strength to force the moment to its crisis, or press the universe into a ball. Decisions, more decisions, plans and possibilities.

Life’s getting tougher for neoconservatives. Every day, more Americans reject the George W. Bush brand of "conservatism." This of course is dangerous and threatening to the neoconservatives he has appointed to power. I suggest they pray to their gods, idols and pontifices while they still can.....

In Bush's Own Words

"We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have."
--George W. Bush, President Radio Address 10/5/2002

“The Iraqi regime possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons.... If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today — and we do — does it make any sense for the world to wait to confront him as he grows even stronger and develops even more dangerous weapons?"
— President George W. Bush, Cincinnati, Oct. 7, 2002

--"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production."
--George W. Bush, President, State of the Union Address, 1/28/2003

"In Iraq, a dictator is building and hiding weapons that could enable him to dominate the Middle East and intimidate the civilized world -- and we will not allow it."
--George W. Bush, President, Speech to the American Enterprise Institute, 2/26/2003

"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."
--George W. Bush, President, Address to the Nation, 3/17/2003

"But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them."
--George W. Bush, President, Interview with TVP Poland 5/30/2003

“We based our decisions on good, sound intelligence, and the — our people are going to find out the truth. And the truth will say that this intelligence was good intelligence. There’s no doubt in my mind.”
— President George W. Bush, July 17, 2003

"I want the American people to know that I, too, want to know the facts."
--President George Bush, January 30, 2004 when asked asked point-blank on Friday about an independent commission to investigate whether the United States used faulty intelligence information when it decided to go to war

Additional credit: what a tangled web