Headlines at Iddybud June 20
DUH! Those not paying attention support Bush on Iraq
Remembering Reagan (cartoon)
Accenture- Bush Rewards Corporation Avoiding U.S. Taxes
Democrat Convention Credentials Bloggers
John McCain as running mate...on whose ticket?
Fourth of July Downloadable Flyer
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!
Internet muse.
Daring, bold, never sold.
My daily weblog of politics, humor, philosophy...and a constant and nagging reminder of the existence of universal love....
Sunday, June 20, 2004
Fourth of July Downloadable Flyer
Fourth of July Downloadable Flyer
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation…want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters…. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
--Frederick Douglass, 1857
There is a marvelous Independence Day flyer available here.(Note-it's a pdf file).
It has fantastic quotes from the intelligently patriotic George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass and others, giving us a wide, varied, and fearless view of what being patriotic means. (John Ashcoft would faint when the walls of his narrow vision were ripped away to expose the open-sky view of these truest patriots).
You can print them out and distribute them at your own Fourth of July celebrations. The thoughtful creators of the downloadable flyers say:
May these quotes serve to remind us all of the ideals and values upon which
the United States was founded.
Take a look...I promise you won't be disappointed.
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation…want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters…. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
--Frederick Douglass, 1857
There is a marvelous Independence Day flyer available here.(Note-it's a pdf file).
It has fantastic quotes from the intelligently patriotic George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass and others, giving us a wide, varied, and fearless view of what being patriotic means. (John Ashcoft would faint when the walls of his narrow vision were ripped away to expose the open-sky view of these truest patriots).
You can print them out and distribute them at your own Fourth of July celebrations. The thoughtful creators of the downloadable flyers say:
May these quotes serve to remind us all of the ideals and values upon which
the United States was founded.
Take a look...I promise you won't be disappointed.
McCain as running mate...on whose ticket?
John McCain as running mate...on whose ticket?
Why am I hearing the tune "Dueling Banjos" running through my head?
I've said "..blah!" in the past when the rumors were swirling about John Kerry courting John McCain for his running mate...especially since Senator McCain made it crystal-clear he was fully committed to supporting a Bush re-election.
Now rumors are swirling about Dick "I swear there's a terror connection"-Cheney getting bumped for none other than Senator McCain as VP on the GOP ticket in November.
In order to accept, Senator McCain would have to have healed from those push-polls in South Carolina in 2000 just before the Republican presidential primary. Do you remember those infamous McCain-defeating push-polls? The Bushites tried to eat McCain alive by insinuating his wife was a drug addict, that McCain might be mentally unstable from his captivity in Vietnam, and that he'd fathered a black child with a prostitute. Perhaps he hasn't healed from that experience, but would be ready to suck it all up and move ahead like the good soldier and patriot he's well-known to be if his President should ask him to join the ticket.
Don't you just LOVE politics?
Sidney Zion of the Daily News writes:
How about a Bush-McCain ticket?
This would turn John Kerry's dream of running with John McCain into the mother of all nightmares for the Democrats. But it's hardly the only good reason for Dubya and the GOP bosses to see that it's done......
....If the President's poll numbers continue to go south and still look dreary when the Republican convention comes to Bloombergsville in August, it's a good bet that somebody -perhaps even 41 - will tell Cheney that it's not his night....
.....A Kerry-McCain ticket would have been cynicism in living color. Bush-McCain is an ideological perfecto.
[LINK-N.Y. Daily News]
The wise Mr. Zion is absolutely right--and what a nightmare it would be for John Kerry. I think I was correct last April when I asked: "Why has the DLC been dancing with this fellow [McCain]? At the end of the ball, he's leaving with the village idiot."
When you consider the wonderful field of well-qualified Democrats from which Senator Kerry's had to choose all along, you just want to kick his political advisors in the shins....hard.....don't you?
Why am I hearing the tune "Dueling Banjos" running through my head?
I've said "..blah!" in the past when the rumors were swirling about John Kerry courting John McCain for his running mate...especially since Senator McCain made it crystal-clear he was fully committed to supporting a Bush re-election.
Now rumors are swirling about Dick "I swear there's a terror connection"-Cheney getting bumped for none other than Senator McCain as VP on the GOP ticket in November.
In order to accept, Senator McCain would have to have healed from those push-polls in South Carolina in 2000 just before the Republican presidential primary. Do you remember those infamous McCain-defeating push-polls? The Bushites tried to eat McCain alive by insinuating his wife was a drug addict, that McCain might be mentally unstable from his captivity in Vietnam, and that he'd fathered a black child with a prostitute. Perhaps he hasn't healed from that experience, but would be ready to suck it all up and move ahead like the good soldier and patriot he's well-known to be if his President should ask him to join the ticket.
Don't you just LOVE politics?
Sidney Zion of the Daily News writes:
How about a Bush-McCain ticket?
This would turn John Kerry's dream of running with John McCain into the mother of all nightmares for the Democrats. But it's hardly the only good reason for Dubya and the GOP bosses to see that it's done......
....If the President's poll numbers continue to go south and still look dreary when the Republican convention comes to Bloombergsville in August, it's a good bet that somebody -perhaps even 41 - will tell Cheney that it's not his night....
.....A Kerry-McCain ticket would have been cynicism in living color. Bush-McCain is an ideological perfecto.
[LINK-N.Y. Daily News]
The wise Mr. Zion is absolutely right--and what a nightmare it would be for John Kerry. I think I was correct last April when I asked: "Why has the DLC been dancing with this fellow [McCain]? At the end of the ball, he's leaving with the village idiot."
When you consider the wonderful field of well-qualified Democrats from which Senator Kerry's had to choose all along, you just want to kick his political advisors in the shins....hard.....don't you?
Democrat Convention Credentials Bloggers
Democrat Convention Credentials Bloggers
From the N.Y. Times
From the N.Y. Times
A handful of scribes publishing in a newer medium will join the thousands of newspaper, magazine and broadcast journalists at this summer's political conventions. They'll be blogging.
The Democrats are holding true to their ``party of inclusion'' billing vis-a-vis the online chroniclers, whose Web logs have leapt in popularity this year as political junkies increasingly get their fix with mouse clicks.
[LINK]
The Democrats are holding true to their ``party of inclusion'' billing vis-a-vis the online chroniclers, whose Web logs have leapt in popularity this year as political junkies increasingly get their fix with mouse clicks.
[LINK]
Accenture- Bush Rewards Corporation Avoiding U.S. Taxes
Accenture- Bush Rewards Corporation Avoiding U.S. Taxes
The Bush administration recently awarded a $10 billion Department of Homeland Security contract to Accenture, a company that based its headquarters in Bermuda to avoid paying U.S. taxes.
The move defied the President's promise to make sure everyone is "paying their fair share." If that isn't enough to get you steamed, last week the White House's Congressional allies defeated legislation that would have stopped the contract. Congress rejected legislation sponsored by Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) that would have prevented the contract from moving forward. The White House, through these Congressional allies, defeated the legislation on a sheer party line vote.
The General Accounting Office has cited Accenture for using offshore tax havens. Because of the GAO's report, at least one state has had the courage to do what Congress and the White House refuse to do. In May,
Illinois held up a $2 million state contract to the company because of its tax behavior. In its defense, the company denies getting serious benefits from moving offshore. But, according to a June 1 Bloomberg News report, Accenture's tax liability decreased while its U.S. earnings increased in 2002 and 2003.
*Thanks to Misleader.org for organizing this information to help us understand the big picture.
The Bush administration recently awarded a $10 billion Department of Homeland Security contract to Accenture, a company that based its headquarters in Bermuda to avoid paying U.S. taxes.
The move defied the President's promise to make sure everyone is "paying their fair share." If that isn't enough to get you steamed, last week the White House's Congressional allies defeated legislation that would have stopped the contract. Congress rejected legislation sponsored by Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) that would have prevented the contract from moving forward. The White House, through these Congressional allies, defeated the legislation on a sheer party line vote.
The General Accounting Office has cited Accenture for using offshore tax havens. Because of the GAO's report, at least one state has had the courage to do what Congress and the White House refuse to do. In May,
Illinois held up a $2 million state contract to the company because of its tax behavior. In its defense, the company denies getting serious benefits from moving offshore. But, according to a June 1 Bloomberg News report, Accenture's tax liability decreased while its U.S. earnings increased in 2002 and 2003.
*Thanks to Misleader.org for organizing this information to help us understand the big picture.
Duh! Those not paying attention support Bush
DUH!
Those not paying attention support Bush
There is "solid support" for Bush policy in Iraq from those Americans who do not pay attention to Iraq
*35% pretty much admit they could care less about news from Iraq
________________________________
Those not paying attention support Bush
There is "solid support" for Bush policy in Iraq from those Americans who do not pay attention to Iraq
*35% pretty much admit they could care less about news from Iraq
________________________________
Despite the deadly unrest and the growing scandal over the abuse of Iraqi detainees at US-run prisons, some 57 percent of Americans say the US effort there is going well, up from 46 percent in May, according to a survey by the independent Pew Research Center.
At the same time, Pew reported that the number of Americans very closely following events in Iraq had dropped to its lowest level in 2004, to just 39 percent, down 15 points since April.
And 35 percent said that people they know are becoming less emotionally involved with the news from Iraq, up from 26 percent in May.
[LINK]
At the same time, Pew reported that the number of Americans very closely following events in Iraq had dropped to its lowest level in 2004, to just 39 percent, down 15 points since April.
And 35 percent said that people they know are becoming less emotionally involved with the news from Iraq, up from 26 percent in May.
[LINK]
Saturday, June 19, 2004
June 19 Headlines at Iddybud blog
June 19 Headlines at Iddybud blog
The strange, sad death of the American way
George Bush's war imperils a cherished political tradition, writes Paul McGeough
Bush Censure by Envoys Makes History
From: Bloomberg News
A 'tortured' interpretation of the president's vast powers
By Robert J. Spitzer, Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at SUNY Cortland From: Syracuse.com
The disturbed man in the Oval Office
“In this administration, you don’t have to wear a turban or speak Farsi to be an enemy of the United States. All you have to do is disagree with the President.”
9/11 Commission Puts Cheney on the spot
Imperial Hubris
*And a belated Happy 1st Blogiversary to The Yorkshire Ranter.
The strange, sad death of the American way
George Bush's war imperils a cherished political tradition, writes Paul McGeough
Bush Censure by Envoys Makes History
From: Bloomberg News
A 'tortured' interpretation of the president's vast powers
By Robert J. Spitzer, Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at SUNY Cortland From: Syracuse.com
The disturbed man in the Oval Office
“In this administration, you don’t have to wear a turban or speak Farsi to be an enemy of the United States. All you have to do is disagree with the President.”
9/11 Commission Puts Cheney on the spot
Imperial Hubris
*And a belated Happy 1st Blogiversary to The Yorkshire Ranter.
The strange, sad death of the American way
The strange, sad death of the American way
George Bush's war imperils a cherished political tradition, writes Paul McGeough
There is a growing sense that Americans have become victims of September 11 in a way that has blinkered their democratic instincts...
So now the hard questions are being put in a pre-September 11 context...
...The commentator William Rivers Pitt poses them all before concluding: "The time has come, bluntly, to get over September 11; to move beyond it; to extract ourselves from this bunker mentality which blinds us while placing us in moral peril. It happened and it will never be forgotten, but we have reached a place where fear and obeisance can no longer be tolerated."
Bush, Blair and Howard would dearly love to move on, to shelter in that obedient, obeisant world and their shallow argument that the global community must deal with the reality on the ground in Iraq; hoping, too, that we'll just slip-slide with them, over and around their recklessness in dragging Iraq into the War on Terror.
But legitimacy is truth and questions of legitimacy will keep drawing us back to the propriety of their decision-making on the road to Baghdad - the lies, the half-truths, all the obsfucation....
...arguing that time will tell, the greater reality on the ground in Iraq is that the chaos and death from a mismanaged foreign occupation is a product of all the lies.
[LINK]
George Bush's war imperils a cherished political tradition, writes Paul McGeough
There is a growing sense that Americans have become victims of September 11 in a way that has blinkered their democratic instincts...
So now the hard questions are being put in a pre-September 11 context...
...The commentator William Rivers Pitt poses them all before concluding: "The time has come, bluntly, to get over September 11; to move beyond it; to extract ourselves from this bunker mentality which blinds us while placing us in moral peril. It happened and it will never be forgotten, but we have reached a place where fear and obeisance can no longer be tolerated."
Bush, Blair and Howard would dearly love to move on, to shelter in that obedient, obeisant world and their shallow argument that the global community must deal with the reality on the ground in Iraq; hoping, too, that we'll just slip-slide with them, over and around their recklessness in dragging Iraq into the War on Terror.
But legitimacy is truth and questions of legitimacy will keep drawing us back to the propriety of their decision-making on the road to Baghdad - the lies, the half-truths, all the obsfucation....
...arguing that time will tell, the greater reality on the ground in Iraq is that the chaos and death from a mismanaged foreign occupation is a product of all the lies.
[LINK]
Bush Censure by Envoys Makes History
Bush Censure by Envoys Makes History
From: Bloomberg News
"Their prominence and seniority and influence when in their diplomatic or military posts, and their number, is really remarkable," said Richard Kohn, the Pentagon's chief Air Force historian from 1981-1991 and chairman of the University of North Carolina's peace, war and defense curriculum in Chapel Hill.
As I detailed earlier this week, twenty-seven "heavy-hitters" in U.S. diplomacy and military (many from the Reagan era) have created a group statement titled 'The Need for Change in U.S. Foreign and Defense Policy' with the aim to see Bush defeated in 2004. Apparently, when it comes to comparison, this has no historic parallel.
It really looks bad for this sitting President.
[LINK]
From: Bloomberg News
"Their prominence and seniority and influence when in their diplomatic or military posts, and their number, is really remarkable," said Richard Kohn, the Pentagon's chief Air Force historian from 1981-1991 and chairman of the University of North Carolina's peace, war and defense curriculum in Chapel Hill.
As I detailed earlier this week, twenty-seven "heavy-hitters" in U.S. diplomacy and military (many from the Reagan era) have created a group statement titled 'The Need for Change in U.S. Foreign and Defense Policy' with the aim to see Bush defeated in 2004. Apparently, when it comes to comparison, this has no historic parallel.
It really looks bad for this sitting President.
[LINK]
A 'tortured' interpretation of the president's vast powers
A 'tortured' interpretation of the president's vast powers
By Robert J. Spitzer, Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at SUNY Cortland
From: Syracuse.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Presidential claims to vast executive power are seductive because they offer a promise of security to Americans justifiably worried about terrorism. But the promised security is illusory, because it is a power grab cloaked in the guise of security, not security delivered by power."
-Professor Spitzer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Professor Robert J. Spitzer's commentary at Syracuse.com begins:
In the furious debate to come over why the president is not bound by laws against torture, the necessary debate over the morality and effectiveness of torture is likely to push aside scrutiny of an underlying administration rationale - arguably the most sweeping claim to executive power ever penned by an administration.
Professor Spitzer reminds us that Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson could have been speaking to today's president when he wrote in 1952: "Emergency powers are consistent with free government only when their control is lodged elsewhere than in the executive who exercises them." The Bush administration has (arguably) made the most sweeping claim to executive power ever penned by any administration. Professor Spitzer sees a danger in Bush's uncontrolled conduct of U.S. foreign affairs through his administration's grandiose claims to executive power. He maps out a wonderful historic record detailing where he believes this administration has gone wrong in virtually denying Congress their due powers as prescribed in Article II of the U.S. Constitution.
[LINK]
By Robert J. Spitzer, Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at SUNY Cortland
From: Syracuse.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Presidential claims to vast executive power are seductive because they offer a promise of security to Americans justifiably worried about terrorism. But the promised security is illusory, because it is a power grab cloaked in the guise of security, not security delivered by power."
-Professor Spitzer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Professor Robert J. Spitzer's commentary at Syracuse.com begins:
In the furious debate to come over why the president is not bound by laws against torture, the necessary debate over the morality and effectiveness of torture is likely to push aside scrutiny of an underlying administration rationale - arguably the most sweeping claim to executive power ever penned by an administration.
Professor Spitzer reminds us that Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson could have been speaking to today's president when he wrote in 1952: "Emergency powers are consistent with free government only when their control is lodged elsewhere than in the executive who exercises them." The Bush administration has (arguably) made the most sweeping claim to executive power ever penned by any administration. Professor Spitzer sees a danger in Bush's uncontrolled conduct of U.S. foreign affairs through his administration's grandiose claims to executive power. He maps out a wonderful historic record detailing where he believes this administration has gone wrong in virtually denying Congress their due powers as prescribed in Article II of the U.S. Constitution.
[LINK]
The disturbed man in the Oval Office
The disturbed man in the Oval Office
“In this administration, you don’t have to wear a turban or speak Farsi to be an enemy of the United States. All you have to do is disagree with the President.”
--an anonymous (and troubled) White House aide
All I can say is "Yikes". Read this article from Capitol Hill Blue. As friendly, folksy and simple as he seems in public, he sounds like such a small, frightened, petty and spiteful man when the cameras stop rolling.
“In this administration, you don’t have to wear a turban or speak Farsi to be an enemy of the United States. All you have to do is disagree with the President.”
--an anonymous (and troubled) White House aide
All I can say is "Yikes". Read this article from Capitol Hill Blue. As friendly, folksy and simple as he seems in public, he sounds like such a small, frightened, petty and spiteful man when the cameras stop rolling.
9/11 Commission Puts Cheney on the spot
9/11 Commission Puts Cheney on the spot
The leaders of the Sept. 11 commission called on Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday to turn over any intelligence reports that would support the White House's insistence that there was a close relationship between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda.
Cheney's been going to the media to spread the al-Qaeda/Iraq connection on thick, and now he's going to have to talk turkey with a panel that won't take this type of politics-play. Americans deserve real answers. The 9/11 families deserve real answers.
[LINK-9/11 Panel Presses Cheney on Hijacker-Prague Meeting]
The leaders of the Sept. 11 commission called on Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday to turn over any intelligence reports that would support the White House's insistence that there was a close relationship between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda.
Cheney's been going to the media to spread the al-Qaeda/Iraq connection on thick, and now he's going to have to talk turkey with a panel that won't take this type of politics-play. Americans deserve real answers. The 9/11 families deserve real answers.
[LINK-9/11 Panel Presses Cheney on Hijacker-Prague Meeting]
Imperial Hubris
Imperial Hubris
"I'm very sure they can't have a better administration for them than the one they have now."
--Anonymous, the writer of "Imperial Hubris", who thinks it possible that another strike against the US could come during the election campaign, not with the intention of changing the administration, but of keeping the same one in place.
Scheduled for release on the July 4,"Imperial Hubris" was written by an anonymous U.S. senior intelligence official. Arguing that the west is losing the war against al-Qaeda, the writer demonstrates how Bush is playing almost directly into Bin Laden's hands. The tone is said to be "angry and urgent". While some may say it's just another Bush-bashing book released in an election year, I would bear in mind that the stridency of his warnings about al-Qaeda led this anonymous writer to be moved from a highly sensitive job in the late 90s.
Perhaps if we'd listened to him then, he never would have had to be writing a book like "Imperial Hubris".
It's time we asked "What's going on?" before more Americans have to die.
Anonymous believes Mr Bush is taking the US in exactly the direction Bin Laden wants, towards all-out confrontation with Islam under the banner of spreading democracy.
He said: "It's going to take 10,000-15,000 dead Americans before we say to ourselves: 'What is going on'?"
"I'm very sure they can't have a better administration for them than the one they have now."
--Anonymous, the writer of "Imperial Hubris", who thinks it possible that another strike against the US could come during the election campaign, not with the intention of changing the administration, but of keeping the same one in place.
Scheduled for release on the July 4,"Imperial Hubris" was written by an anonymous U.S. senior intelligence official. Arguing that the west is losing the war against al-Qaeda, the writer demonstrates how Bush is playing almost directly into Bin Laden's hands. The tone is said to be "angry and urgent". While some may say it's just another Bush-bashing book released in an election year, I would bear in mind that the stridency of his warnings about al-Qaeda led this anonymous writer to be moved from a highly sensitive job in the late 90s.
Perhaps if we'd listened to him then, he never would have had to be writing a book like "Imperial Hubris".
It's time we asked "What's going on?" before more Americans have to die.
Anonymous believes Mr Bush is taking the US in exactly the direction Bin Laden wants, towards all-out confrontation with Islam under the banner of spreading democracy.
He said: "It's going to take 10,000-15,000 dead Americans before we say to ourselves: 'What is going on'?"
Friday, June 18, 2004
Why??
Why??
Just why was this a just war?
Editorial/Seattle Post-Intelligencer
What is now left of the Bush administration's case against Saddam Hussein?
Editorial/DAWN
Bush has misled Americans on Iraq
Editorial/Financial Times
Why are we in Iraq?
Editorial/St. Petersburg Times
..by believing what he wanted to hear and ignoring the advice of friendly governments while shutting out informed officials within his government, Bush launched his country upon an adventure that has seriously damaged his war against international terror. Editorial/Arab News
Whatever the reality now, it is hardly logical to cite the terror backlash provoked by the war to justify having launched it.
Guardian/Blind to the truth
Just why was this a just war?
Editorial/Seattle Post-Intelligencer
What is now left of the Bush administration's case against Saddam Hussein?
Editorial/DAWN
Bush has misled Americans on Iraq
Editorial/Financial Times
Why are we in Iraq?
Editorial/St. Petersburg Times
..by believing what he wanted to hear and ignoring the advice of friendly governments while shutting out informed officials within his government, Bush launched his country upon an adventure that has seriously damaged his war against international terror. Editorial/Arab News
Whatever the reality now, it is hardly logical to cite the terror backlash provoked by the war to justify having launched it.
Guardian/Blind to the truth
New David Corn Weblog
New David Corn Weblog
For those of you who may not yet be aware, David Corn is blogging at Bushlies.com.
For those of you who may not yet be aware, David Corn is blogging at Bushlies.com.
Paul Johnson has been beheaded
Paul Johnson Jr. has been beheaded
"Delivering on our promise, the mujahedeen from the Fallujah Squad slaughtered the American prisoner Paul Marshall Johnson after the ultimatum set by the mujahedeen to the tyrants of the Saudi government expired."
-from a statement posted on an Islamist website and signed by "Al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula."
__________________________
"...the United States will soon withdraw about 7,000 U.S. military personnel from Saudi Arabia and terminate a significant military presence there that lasted more than a decade..."The Persian Gulf", Donald Rumsfeld said, "is now a safer region because of the change in Iraq.".....
--April, 2003
[LINK]
_____________________
Donald Rumsfeld's words (above) have proven out to be totally wrong.
It's time for our President and the Pentagon to stop playing Friendly-footsie with the Saudi Arabian government. It's turning awfully sour in the Persian Gulf region these days. (See my comments from earlier this week). This has gone too damned far. If the Saudis are not willingly harboring terrorists (and I have to say I am actually skeptical these days, considering Bush's definition of a nation who harbors terrorists), they are surely not in control of their own national security. If they can't do it, it's time we did...at least if Bush is going to be consistent with his own foreign policy. Perhaps it's time for Prince Bandar to head for a spider hole.
I heard the Saudis killed a guy they claim was the al-Qaeda ringleader in the country.
Here he is..here's the proof the Saudis were good soldiers. When will the Saudis start taking serious pre-emptive action to get these murderers before they lop American heads off?
So--(ding dong)the wicked ringleader's dead. I guess that means they've solved the problem..right? Bush is appeased, perhaps they suppose? We can expect to see no more heads lopped off? (Why did I hear more warnings of future heads to roll on CNN this morning?)
It's important, I believe, to share with my readers the reason I seem so unconvinced that Saudi Arabia has been doing all they possibly can to stop their citizens from attacking Westerners and that I believe it's time to get tough as nails toward them. Many more of their typical citizens (so many more than we've been told) are cheering the Jihad on:
I am not alone in my mistrust of Saudi Arabia. Look at the views of this conservative American at Tomfoolery of the Highest Order.
This isn't going to have a happy ending for our relations with Saudi Arabia. If we think it does, we are DREAMING.
I heard Bush say he will not allow "these kinds of extremist thugs" to intimidate America. So what is Bush going to do? Send troops into Saudi Arabia? Somehow I don't think so.
The saddest joke of all?
While Bush has our troops bogged down amidst an unnecessary bloody civil war in Iraq, al-Qaeda has moved to a new address and has hung out their sign for the new "central front for the war on terror."
It's called Saudi Arabia.
[LINK]
--Link to site for VIDEO-CNN
--Colin Powell Hopes Americans Stay in Saudi ArabiaSo They Can Get Their Heads Cut Off, Too Despite Risks
--From the "No sh*t, Dick Tracy" headlines: "Saudi US embassy says hostage killing "inhumane"
--See Joe Gandelman's June 15th op-ed on Paul Johnson
--See Joe Gandelman at Dean's World today
"Delivering on our promise, the mujahedeen from the Fallujah Squad slaughtered the American prisoner Paul Marshall Johnson after the ultimatum set by the mujahedeen to the tyrants of the Saudi government expired."
-from a statement posted on an Islamist website and signed by "Al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula."
__________________________
"...the United States will soon withdraw about 7,000 U.S. military personnel from Saudi Arabia and terminate a significant military presence there that lasted more than a decade..."The Persian Gulf", Donald Rumsfeld said, "is now a safer region because of the change in Iraq.".....
--April, 2003
[LINK]
_____________________
Donald Rumsfeld's words (above) have proven out to be totally wrong.
It's time for our President and the Pentagon to stop playing Friendly-footsie with the Saudi Arabian government. It's turning awfully sour in the Persian Gulf region these days. (See my comments from earlier this week). This has gone too damned far. If the Saudis are not willingly harboring terrorists (and I have to say I am actually skeptical these days, considering Bush's definition of a nation who harbors terrorists), they are surely not in control of their own national security. If they can't do it, it's time we did...at least if Bush is going to be consistent with his own foreign policy. Perhaps it's time for Prince Bandar to head for a spider hole.
I heard the Saudis killed a guy they claim was the al-Qaeda ringleader in the country.
Here he is..here's the proof the Saudis were good soldiers. When will the Saudis start taking serious pre-emptive action to get these murderers before they lop American heads off?
So--(ding dong)the wicked ringleader's dead. I guess that means they've solved the problem..right? Bush is appeased, perhaps they suppose? We can expect to see no more heads lopped off? (Why did I hear more warnings of future heads to roll on CNN this morning?)
It's important, I believe, to share with my readers the reason I seem so unconvinced that Saudi Arabia has been doing all they possibly can to stop their citizens from attacking Westerners and that I believe it's time to get tough as nails toward them. Many more of their typical citizens (so many more than we've been told) are cheering the Jihad on:
....residents of three Islamic fundamentalist districts in Riyadh, interviewed before news broke of Johnson's killing, suggested that the kidnappers enjoyed popular support, partly because of U.S. policy in Iraq and its perceived backing for Israel.
"How can we inform on our brothers when we see all these pictures coming from Abu Ghraib and Rafah," Muklas Nawaf told The Associated Press as he ate meat grilled on a spit at a restaurant called Jihad, or holy war in Arabic.
He was referring to the pictures of Iraqis abused by U.S. soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad and Israeli military incursions and killings in the Gaza refugee camp of Rafah.
"This is not a little skirmish. It is a war," Nawaf said.
[LINK]
"How can we inform on our brothers when we see all these pictures coming from Abu Ghraib and Rafah," Muklas Nawaf told The Associated Press as he ate meat grilled on a spit at a restaurant called Jihad, or holy war in Arabic.
He was referring to the pictures of Iraqis abused by U.S. soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad and Israeli military incursions and killings in the Gaza refugee camp of Rafah.
"This is not a little skirmish. It is a war," Nawaf said.
[LINK]
I am not alone in my mistrust of Saudi Arabia. Look at the views of this conservative American at Tomfoolery of the Highest Order.
This isn't going to have a happy ending for our relations with Saudi Arabia. If we think it does, we are DREAMING.
I heard Bush say he will not allow "these kinds of extremist thugs" to intimidate America. So what is Bush going to do? Send troops into Saudi Arabia? Somehow I don't think so.
The saddest joke of all?
While Bush has our troops bogged down amidst an unnecessary bloody civil war in Iraq, al-Qaeda has moved to a new address and has hung out their sign for the new "central front for the war on terror."
It's called Saudi Arabia.
[LINK]
--Link to site for VIDEO-CNN
--Colin Powell Hopes Americans Stay in Saudi Arabia
--From the "No sh*t, Dick Tracy" headlines: "Saudi US embassy says hostage killing "inhumane"
--See Joe Gandelman's June 15th op-ed on Paul Johnson
--See Joe Gandelman at Dean's World today
Jesuit tells Kerry: Ignore Right-wIng Bishops; Move Ahead with Grace
Jesuit tells Kerry: Ignore Right-wing Bishops; Move Ahead with Grace
Being wise enough to understand the Communion debate "is a nonissue" in the Kerry campaign and simply a tool of the Republican Party, Jesuit priest Robert Drinan has advised John Kerry to clamp down on religious rhetoric and "keep cool on the Communion thing". He believes it would be far more graceful to let the Communion issue go during this campaign season. [See LINK]
I think Rev. Drinan understands that if you place the scalpel too close to the collective heart composed of the individuals who make up today's American Catholic church, that heart would have to be split in half. There are far too many divisive issues. The heart, of course, would soon stop beating after the chambers were separated.
Respectfully, though, John Kerry will not benefit by ignoring the subject of religion altogether. Kerry recently said "Catholicism is not defined by one issue," and I think he's absolutely right to continue to remind people of that fact.
What the political right-wing aims to do is to separate the chambers of Catholicism's heart from one another. The scalpel is in their hands. Certainly not in possession of the wisdom of Solomon, they'd rather see the baby cut in two.
Recent scandals involving priest-pedophelia nearly bled the heart of the church, but it did not kill it. If there is ANY issue that should be at the forefront today in the Catholic chrusch, I think it's the pedophelia issue. We know it has not been resolved to the satisfaction of most Catholics. It was smoothed over.
To see a priest deny Communion to a man like John Kerry (knowing many of those priests protected pedophiles..or perhaps had been pedophiles themselves) is nothing short of a sad and unbelievable joke.
I do hope John Kerry takes Rev Drinan's good advice, but also understand that he needs to be unafraid and unashamed to talk about the importance of religion in his own life. Americans want to hear about it. They relate to it.
Right wing ignorant evildoers should be ignored. (Anyone who would aim to split the baby in two is definitely ignorant and inherently evil).
Meanwhile, Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, didn't like the fact that a Kerry aide (Mara Vanderslice) attended (and allegedly helped to organize) an IMF protest where some violence erupted. That got me wondering: What does Bill Donohue think, as a Catholic, of the war in Iraq? I did a bit of research. I saw that Donohue has defended the Catholic position for war, saying that "the pope’s position on the war was that it could be resorted to only ‘as the very last option,’ thus allowing room for a legitimate debate on whether that time had arrived."
Now, if the IMF protest sparked violence, what the hell do you call the war in Iraq?
Do you see..do you smell Bill Donohue's hypocrisy?
We can go and kill untold thousands of innocent civilians over a "religious debate of legitimacy", but a Democrat cannot legitimately speak out against injustice in our world?
Holy bullcrap!
It seems a moral shame to see Kerry's campaign allow people like Mara Vanderslice to be marginalized over such ignorant attacks.
If all that being Catholic means these days is being an automaton without the fire of Christ's mission in our hearts, then I suppose Catholic people like Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, and the Berrigan brothers are evil to men like Bill Donohue.
When it becomes "evil" to make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves in a free and peaceful environment as God intended them to do, I might side with Bill Donohue..but right now I have to say I think his soul is dulled and corroded by politics.
Catholicism isn't defined simply by two issues..homosexuality and abortion.
The right-wing (many not even Catholic themselves) are pushing the issues of homosexuality and abortion with the goal of trying to do damage to the Democratic party. I would hope, when American Catholics see how their spiritual lives are being used and abused by those only interested in politics, that they will be spiritually strong enough not to lose their faith altogether. I hope they will stand together and say: "Get politics the hell OUT of our churches."
Being wise enough to understand the Communion debate "is a nonissue" in the Kerry campaign and simply a tool of the Republican Party, Jesuit priest Robert Drinan has advised John Kerry to clamp down on religious rhetoric and "keep cool on the Communion thing". He believes it would be far more graceful to let the Communion issue go during this campaign season. [See LINK]
I think Rev. Drinan understands that if you place the scalpel too close to the collective heart composed of the individuals who make up today's American Catholic church, that heart would have to be split in half. There are far too many divisive issues. The heart, of course, would soon stop beating after the chambers were separated.
Respectfully, though, John Kerry will not benefit by ignoring the subject of religion altogether. Kerry recently said "Catholicism is not defined by one issue," and I think he's absolutely right to continue to remind people of that fact.
What the political right-wing aims to do is to separate the chambers of Catholicism's heart from one another. The scalpel is in their hands. Certainly not in possession of the wisdom of Solomon, they'd rather see the baby cut in two.
Recent scandals involving priest-pedophelia nearly bled the heart of the church, but it did not kill it. If there is ANY issue that should be at the forefront today in the Catholic chrusch, I think it's the pedophelia issue. We know it has not been resolved to the satisfaction of most Catholics. It was smoothed over.
To see a priest deny Communion to a man like John Kerry (knowing many of those priests protected pedophiles..or perhaps had been pedophiles themselves) is nothing short of a sad and unbelievable joke.
I do hope John Kerry takes Rev Drinan's good advice, but also understand that he needs to be unafraid and unashamed to talk about the importance of religion in his own life. Americans want to hear about it. They relate to it.
Right wing ignorant evildoers should be ignored. (Anyone who would aim to split the baby in two is definitely ignorant and inherently evil).
Meanwhile, Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, didn't like the fact that a Kerry aide (Mara Vanderslice) attended (and allegedly helped to organize) an IMF protest where some violence erupted. That got me wondering: What does Bill Donohue think, as a Catholic, of the war in Iraq? I did a bit of research. I saw that Donohue has defended the Catholic position for war, saying that "the pope’s position on the war was that it could be resorted to only ‘as the very last option,’ thus allowing room for a legitimate debate on whether that time had arrived."
Now, if the IMF protest sparked violence, what the hell do you call the war in Iraq?
Do you see..do you smell Bill Donohue's hypocrisy?
We can go and kill untold thousands of innocent civilians over a "religious debate of legitimacy", but a Democrat cannot legitimately speak out against injustice in our world?
Holy bullcrap!
It seems a moral shame to see Kerry's campaign allow people like Mara Vanderslice to be marginalized over such ignorant attacks.
If all that being Catholic means these days is being an automaton without the fire of Christ's mission in our hearts, then I suppose Catholic people like Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, and the Berrigan brothers are evil to men like Bill Donohue.
When it becomes "evil" to make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves in a free and peaceful environment as God intended them to do, I might side with Bill Donohue..but right now I have to say I think his soul is dulled and corroded by politics.
Catholicism isn't defined simply by two issues..homosexuality and abortion.
The right-wing (many not even Catholic themselves) are pushing the issues of homosexuality and abortion with the goal of trying to do damage to the Democratic party. I would hope, when American Catholics see how their spiritual lives are being used and abused by those only interested in politics, that they will be spiritually strong enough not to lose their faith altogether. I hope they will stand together and say: "Get politics the hell OUT of our churches."
Michael Moore film was only film that may have saved Disney summer
Michael Moore film was only film that may have saved Disney summer
Or: How being intimidated by Government is bad for Business
Or: The Free Market is Laughing at Michael Eisner
...the one hit film Disney could have had this summer, Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," is set for a blockbuster opening a week from today from Lions Gate and IFC Films.
[LINK]
Or: How being intimidated by Government is bad for Business
Or: The Free Market is Laughing at Michael Eisner
...the one hit film Disney could have had this summer, Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," is set for a blockbuster opening a week from today from Lions Gate and IFC Films.
[LINK]
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