Incase no one has notice

Casualties in Iraq 624

Here is a website with the faces of the people Bush & Co. have sacrafised for big corporations to make like bandits

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/iraq/casualties/facesofthefallen.htm

And were not any safer today than we were on 9/10

Hey lets look at our ECONOMY

Media giant AOL/TIMEWARNER is apparently so strapped for cash that it is laying off employees in the US and moving their jobs to India.

Stymied by politicians, Wal-Mart turns to voters. Wal-Mart bills 800,000 customers two or three times. Also: Meet the Waltons.

Altering worker time cards to avoid paying overtime is more widespread than previously thought.

Bank of America cuts 12,500 jobs.

The Architects of Bush's War

When George W. Bush began assembling his administration more than three years ago, the first impression was that the new president was simply calling in old warriors from his father's inner circle.

After all, the new vice president, Dick Cheney, had been the senior Mr. Bush's secretary of defense. And other featured players in the junior Mr. Bush's new lineup, such as Donald H. Rumsfeld, the new defense secretary, and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, had also toiled in high positions under his father.

The assumption at the outset was that the second Bush presidency would be much like the first in both composition and tone, especially with a new president advertising himself as a compassionate conservative, a label his father might well have used had he thought of it.

Such thinking was dizzyingly off the mark. To better understand why it was, and to grasp how the George W. Bush presidency came to be what it is, a new book - 'Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet' - is a must-read.

The author, James Mann, a former foreign policy writer for the Los Angeles Times, chronicles the longtime synergetic relationship among six members of the junior Mr. Bush's war council that is at the core of his administration's radical new policy for America in the world community. More...

Before Rice Agreed to Testify in Public, 9/11 Commission Executive Director Faxed White House 1945 Photo Showing Presidential Chief of Staff Appearing

Zelikow Warned White House Counsel That Unless Rice Testified in Public, Photo Would '...Be All Over Washington in 24 Hours'

# NEW YORK, April 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Last Monday morning 9/11 commission executive director Philip Zelikow faxed a photograph to the White House counsel's office with a note saying that if the White House didn't allow national-security adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify in public before the commission, the photograph would"...be all over Washington in 24 hours," Newsweek has learned. The photo, from a Nov. 22, 1945, New York Times story, showed presidential chief of staff Adm. William D. Leahy, appearing before a special congressional panel investigating the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The point was clear: The White House could no longer get away with the claim that Rice's appearance would be a profound breach of precedent.(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040404/NYSU003 )

Zelikow, a University of Virginia historian, had been poring over records of the Pearl Harbor inquiries for months, report Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff and National Security Correspondent John Barry in the April 12 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, April 5). Those probes, Zelikow believes, are the clearest blueprint for the 9/11 panel's work. "This is what happens when you hire historians," jokes commission chairman Thomas Kean. More...

Bush and Blair made secret pact for Iraq war

President George Bush first asked Tony Blair to support the removal of Saddam Hussein from power at a private White House dinner nine days after the terror attacks of 11 September, 2001.

According to Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British Ambassador to Washington, who was at the dinner when Blair became the first foreign leader to visit America after 11 September, Blair told Bush he should not get distracted from the war on terror's initial goal - dealing with the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Bush, claims Meyer, replied by saying: 'I agree with you, Tony. We must deal with this first. But when we have dealt with Afghanistan, we must come back to Iraq.' Regime change was already US policy.

It was clear, Meyer says, 'that when we did come back to Iraq it wouldn't be to discuss smarter sanctions'. Elsewhere in his interview, Meyer says Blair always believed it was unlikely that Saddam would be removed from power or give up his weapons of mass destruction without a war. More...

Most everyone is miffed by Bush decision to not hand over Clinton papers.

(CBS/AP) The Sept. 11 commission wants an explanation as to why President Bush has refused to allow the panel's investigators to examine thousands of pages of classified and counterterrorism documents generated during the Clinton administration.

Bruce Lindsey, former President Clinton's legal representative for records and a longtime confidant, told The Associated Press that the commission's attempt to get a full picture of Mr. Clinton's terrorism policies has been hampered because the Bush administration won't forward all of Mr. Clinton's records to the panel.

Lindsey said Mr. Clinton had approved the documents' transfer, but the White House has final authority on what is handed over. He said the White House has turned over only 25 percent of the 11,000 records requested by the commission.

The White House says it has fully met the panel's information requests.

According to the New York Times, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said some of the documents that have been withheld were "unrelated," while others were "highly sensitive. More...

House Republicans stop the investigation into the Bush Medicare Lie.

WASHINGTON - House Republicans shut down yesterday an inquiry by Democrats into whether the Bush administration acted illegally or inappropriately last year when it withheld from Congress its estimates of the true cost of the Medicare prescription drug bill.

At issue are allegations that then-Medicare administrator Thomas A. Scully threatened to fire his top actuary if he gave lawmakers his analyses showing that the costs would be higher than Bush administration officials were saying publicly.

Yesterday's conclusion of a Ways and Means Committee hearing all but ensured that two individuals central to the controversy - Scully and White House aide Doug Badger - will not testify before Congress.

Separately, the Health and Human Services Department is conducting an internal investigation into the matter, and Democratic lawmakers have requested civil and criminal probes. More...

Powell: Iraq biological labs intelligence was shaky

CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday that part of his dramatic testimony to the U.N. Security Council before the Iraq war was based on intelligence that appears to have been unreliable.

Powell's speech before the Security Council on February, 5, 2003 --detailing possible weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- was a major event in the Bush administration's drive to justify a war and win international support.

Powell told reporters at a press briefing that his testimony about Iraq possibly using mobile biological weapons labs "was presented to me ... as the best information and intelligence that we had" but "now it appears not to be the case that it was that solid."

Powell said he hopes the 9/11 Commission looking into pre-war intelligence "will look into these matters to see whether or not the intelligence agency had a basis for the confidence that they placed in the intelligence at the time."

"Now, if the sources fell apart, then we need to find out how we've gotten ourselves in that position." Powell told reporters. "I've had discussions with the CIA about it. More...

Robs Note:
No Shit Powell!!!!!

Ex-Nixon Aide John Dean Tells Bill Moyers that Bush Should Be Impeached

Tonight on NOW with Bill Moyers , former counsel to President Nixon John Dean tells Bill Moyers that he believes the Bush Administration's secrecy and deception over the war with Iraq should result in impeachment.

"Clearly, it is an impeachable offense," he says. "I think the case is overwhelming that these people presented false information to the Congress and to the American people."

It is Dean's first television interview about his new book Worse than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush. In the interview, taped Friday in New York, Dean compares the Bush and Nixon White Houses.

"There are many things worse than Watergate," he says. "Taking the nation to war in a time when they might not have had to gone to war, and people dying."

After becoming counsel to Nixon at the age of 31, Dean emerged as a central figure in the Watergate scandal and is considered the chief whistleblower that brought down Nixon's presidency. Dean has written many articles and essays on law, government, politics, and has recounted his days in the Nixon White House and Watergate in three previous books.

The NOW with Bill Moyers interview with John Dean airs tonight, Friday, April 2, at 9 P.M. on PBS (check local listings at http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html). More...

Bush Aides Block Clinton's Papers From 9/11 Panel

WASHINGTON, April 1 — The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks said on Thursday that it was pressing the White House to explain why the Bush administration had blocked thousands of pages of classified foreign policy and counterterrorism documents from former President Bill Clinton's White House files from being turned over to the panel's investigators.

The White House confirmed on Thursday that it had withheld a variety of classified documents from Mr. Clinton's files that had been gathered by the National Archives over the last two years in response to requests from the commission, which is investigating intelligence and law enforcement failures before the attacks.

Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said some Clinton administration documents had been withheld because they were "duplicative or unrelated," while others were withheld because they were "highly sensitive" and the information in them could be relayed to the commission in other ways. "We are providing the commission with access to all the information they need to do their job," Mr. McClellan said.

The commission and the White House were reacting to public complaints from former aides to Mr. Clinton, who said they had been surprised to learn in recent months that three-quarters of the nearly 11,000 pages of files the former president was ready to offer the commission had been withheld by the Bush administration. The former aides said the files contained highly classified documents about the Clinton administration's efforts against Al Qaeda.

The commission said it was awaiting a full answer from the White House on why any documents were withheld. More...

'I Saw Papers That Show US Knew al-Qa'ida Would Attack Cities With Airplanes'

A former translator for the FBI with top-secret security clearance says she has provided information to the panel investigating the 11 September attacks which proves senior officials knew of al-Qa'ida's plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes happened.

She said the claim by the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, that there was no such information was "an outrageous lie".

Sibel Edmonds said she spent more than three hours in a closed session with the commission's investigators providing information that was circulating within the FBI in the spring and summer of 2001 suggesting that an attack using aircraft was just months away and the terrorists were in place. The Bush administration, meanwhile, has sought to silence her and has obtained a gagging order from a court by citing the rarely used "state secrets privilege".

She told The Independent yesterday: "I gave [the commission] details of specific investigation files, the specific dates, specific target information, specific managers in charge of the investigation. I gave them everything so that they could go back and follow up. This is not hearsay. These are things that are documented. These things can be established very easily."

She added: "There was general information about the time-frame, about methods to be used ­ but not specifically about how they would be used ­ and about people being in place and who was ordering these sorts of terror attacks. There were other cities that were mentioned. Major cities ­ with skyscrapers. More...

9/11 Widows Skillfully Applied the Power of a Question: Why?

WASHINGTON — Kristen Breitweiser was at home in Middletown, N.J., cleaning out closets. Patty Casazza of Colts Neck was dashing to the dry cleaners. Lorie Van Auken of East Brunswick was headed out to do grocery shopping. Her neighbor Mindy Kleinberg had just packed her children off to school.

Then came word, Tuesday morning, that President Bush had agreed to allow his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to testify publicly about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. All at once, the cellphones started ringing and the e-mail started flying and "the Jersey girls," as the four women are known in Washington, were getting credit for chalking up another victory in the nation's capital.

Americans just tuning in to the work of the commission investigating the attacks may not have heard of Ms. Breitweiser and the rest. But on Capitol Hill, these suburban women are gaining prominence as savvy World Trade Center widows who came to Washington, as part of a core group of politically active relatives of Sept. 11 victims, and prodded Congress and a recalcitrant White House to create the panel that this week brought official Washington to its knees. More...

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Top Focus Before 9/11 Wasn't on Terrorism - Rice Speech Cited Missile Defense

On Sept. 11, 2001, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was scheduled to outline a Bush administration policy that would address "the threats and problems of today and the day after, not the world of yesterday" -- but the focus was largely on missile defense, not terrorism from Islamic radicals.

The speech provides telling insight into the administration's thinking on the very day that the United States suffered the most devastating attack since the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. The address was designed to promote missile defense as the cornerstone of a new national security strategy, and contained no mention of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden or Islamic extremist groups, according to former U.S. officials who have seen the text.

The speech was postponed in the chaos of the day, part of which Rice spent in a bunker. It mentioned terrorism, but did so in the context used in other Bush administration speeches in early 2001: as one of the dangers from rogue nations, such as Iraq, that might use weapons of terror, rather than from the cells of extremists now considered the main security threat to the United States.

The text also implicitly challenged the Clinton administration's policy, saying it did not do enough about the real threat -- long-range missiles.

"We need to worry about the suitcase bomb, the car bomb and the vial of sarin released in the subway," according to excerpts of the speech provided to The Washington Post. "[But] why put deadbolt locks on your doors and stock up on cans of mace and then decide to leave your windows open?" More...

Rice to testify in public, under oath: Bush, Cheney to meet in private with full 9/11 commission

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush reversed course on Tuesday and announced that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice will testify publicly and under oath before the independent commission investigating the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Bush also defended his administration's cooperation with the panel created by Congress, saying that more than 800 members of the administration have been interviewed and a wide variety of documents have been turned over.

"I've ordered this level of cooperation because I consider it necessary to gaining a complete picture of the months and years that preceded the murder of our fellow citizens," Bush said during a brief White House news conference.

A date for Rice's testimony could be set by the end of the week, pending scheduling discussions with the White House, the commission's chairman, former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, told CNN.

"We're looking at as soon as we can practically do it," he said. More...

Iraqi newspaper closed, sparking huge protest

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The U.S.-led occupation authority dispatched soldiers to shut down the newspaper of an extremist Shiite Muslim cleric Sunday, charging that the paper repeatedly published misinformation designed to incite violence against U.S. troops.

The closure prompted as many as 3,000 of the followers of the cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, to assemble for an angry demonstration that blocked traffic on a main Baghdad thoroughfare.

The protesters chanted "Long live Sadr" and "America is just infidels," and some burned an American flag. Iraqi police were nowhere to be seen, and U.S. troops looked on from a distance.

Alaa-eldin Elsadr, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, said he accompanied about 50 U.S. troops to the offices of the weekly Al-Hawza newspaper. The soldiers ordered employees out of the building and sealed it.

A coalition letter in Arabic, signed by top U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer and handed to employees at the newspaper, said the paper's articles "form a serious threat of violence against coalition forces and Iraqi citizens who cooperate with coalition authorities in rebuilding Iraq." More...


Robs Note:
isn't freedom of the press part of democracy????

Iraq War Launched to Protect Israel - Bush Adviser

WASHINGTON - IPS uncovered the remarks by Philip Zelikow, who is now the executive director of the body set up to investigate the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001 -- the 9/11 commission -- in which he suggests a prime motive for the invasion just over one year ago was to eliminate a threat to Israel, a staunch U.S. ally in the Middle East.

Zelikow's casting of the attack on Iraq as one launched to protect Israel appears at odds with the public position of President George W. Bush and his administration, which has never overtly drawn the link between its war on the regime of former president Hussein and its concern for Israel's security.

The administration has instead insisted it launched the war to liberate the Iraqi people, destroy Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and to protect the United States.

Zelikow made his statements about ”the unstated threat” during his tenure on a highly knowledgeable and well-connected body known as the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), which reports directly to the president.

He served on the board between 2001 and 2003.

”Why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear weapons against us? I'll tell you what I think the real threat (is) and actually has been since 1990 -- it's the threat against Israel,” Zelikow told a crowd at the University of Virginia on Sep. 10, 2002, speaking on a panel of foreign policy experts assessing the impact of 9/11 and the future of the war on the al-Qaeda terrorist organization.

”And this is the threat that dare not speak its name, because the Europeans don't care deeply about that threat, I will tell you frankly. And the American government doesn't want to lean too hard on it rhetorically, because it is not a popular sell,” said Zelikow. More...

Clarke Challenges Rice to Reveal Secret Emails

Richard Clarke, the former terrorism adviser whose revelations threaten to torpedo George Bush's re-election strategy, launched a counterattack yesterday at a White House that he said was determined to destroy him.

In a riveting television performance, Mr Clarke called on his principal critic and former employer, the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to release the entire record of their emails in the months up to the September 11 terror attacks to prove his contention that the White House did not then take the threat of al-Qaida seriously.

He also agreed to Republican demands to declassify testimony he gave to the Senate two years ago - to "prove" there were no inconsistencies. "Let's take all of my emails and all the memos I sent to the national security adviser and her deputy from January 20 to September 11 and let's declassify all of them," Mr Clarke told NBC television.

Mr Clarke's bravura presentation surprised the Bush administration. The decision to stand his ground could also be destructive to Ms Rice. She has been under intense scrutiny for a week - largely for being the focus of Mr Clarke's charges that the Bush government did not see al-Qaida as a priority before September 11, but also because she refused to testify before the commission.

Yesterday, the commission's chairman, Thomas Kean, called for Ms Rice to testify in public. "We recognize there are arguments having to do with separation of powers. We think in a tragedy of this magnitude that those kind of legal arguments are probably overridden," he said. But he said he would not force the issue with a court order. More...

Heads-Up To Ashcroft Proves Threat Was Known Before 9/11

Don't let them fool you, folks: They knew.

They might have been surprised by the ferocity of the attacks, but the highest-ranking members of the George W. Bush administration knew before Sept. 11 that something terrible was going to happen soon.

Bush knew something was going to happen involving airplanes. He just didn't know what or exactly when. His attorney general, John Ashcroft, knew. His national security advisor, Condoleezza Rice, knew. They all knew.

And, in spite of its apparent ineptness, the FBI knew, too.

Not only did they all know, but they told us. Obliquely. And we didn't pay attention. Why would we? Then, as now, terrorist threats were a dime a dozen.

Is this my opinion? No, it's published fact. More...

A former FBI translator told the 9/11 commission that the bureau had detailed information well before Sept. 11, 2001, that terrorists were likely to a

A former FBI wiretap translator with top-secret security clearance, who has been called "very credible" by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has told Salon she recently testified to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States that the FBI had detailed information prior to Sept. 11, 2001, that a terrorist attack involving airplanes was being plotted.

Referring to the Homeland Security Department's color-coded warnings instituted in the wake of 9/11, the former translator, Sibel Edmonds, told Salon, "We should have had orange or red-type of alert in June or July of 2001. There was that much information available." Edmonds is offended by the Bush White House claim that it lacked foreknowledge of the kind of attacks made by al-Qaida on 9/11. "Especially after reading National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice where she said, we had no specific information whatsoever of domestic threat or that they might use airplanes. That's an outrageous lie. And documents can prove it's a lie."

Edmonds' charge comes when the Bush White House is trying to fend off former counterterrorism chief Richard A. Clarke's testimony that it did not take serious measures to combat the threat of Islamic terrorism, and al-Qaida specifically, in the months leading up to 9/11.

Edmonds, who is Turkish-American, is a 10-year U.S. citizen who has passed a polygraph examination conducted by FBI investigators. She speaks fluent Farsi, Arabic and Turkish and worked part-time for the FBI, making $32 an hour for six months, beginning Sept. 20, 2001. She was assigned to the FBI's investigation into Sept. 11 attacks and other counterterrorism and counterintelligence cases, where she translated reams of documents seized by agents who, for the previous year, had been rounding up suspected terrorists. More...

PRESIDENT'S CREDIBILITY GAP EXTENDS FAR BEYOND IRAQ

Unlike his father, George W. Bush has no problem with ``the vision thing.''

From Iraq to tax cuts to Medicare, Bush has reshaped American policy and pursued new goals with pit bull determination. Bush won't let anything stand in his way -- including the facts.

And that's the problem. Bush's vision for America too often appears to him through ideological glasses that blur reality. The result: Bush is losing credibility with the American people. And the United States is losing credibility around the world.

A recent Time/CNN poll found that only 44 percent of Americans describe Bush as ``a leader you can trust.'' That's a far cry from the 71 percent who said they trusted the president a year ago. And a new Pew Research Poll shows that anti-American sentiment is growing significantly across Europe.

Bush should come clean with the American public on issues from health care to education and Iraq if he hopes to break the Bush family one-term curse. More...

US now looking to install a PM in Iraq

The United States wants to transfer power in Iraq to a hand-picked prime minister, abandoning plans for an expansion of the current 25-member governing council, coalition officials in Baghdad say.

With less than 100 days before the US occupation authorities are to transfer sovereignty on June 30, fears of wrangling among Iraqi politicians has forced Washington to make its third switch of strategy in six months.

The search is now on for an Iraqi to serve as chief executive. He will almost certainly be from the Shia Muslim majority, and probably a secular technocrat. It is not clear if Iraqi agreement on this issue has been sought.

Initial plans for enlarging the existing 25-member governing council, which has the task of appointing the cabinet, have been downgraded in favour of letting the present members get on with their job. Although the council may still be increased, the process need not be tied to the June 30 deadline.

Plans to create a three-man presidency - with a representative of the Shia, the Sunni and the Kurds - are still under way, but its powers would be mainly symbolic. The interim government will serve until direct elections for a national assembly are held at the end of the year.

A decision about how to pick an Iraqi government to take over when the Americans cede power have been in turmoil for several months. An initial US proposal to hold unelected caucuses of regional "notables" to choose a council which would then nominate a cabinet, collapsed in disarray after Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the leading Shia cleric, called for direct elections.

The latest plan is to choose a government after a vague process of "extensive deliberation and consultations with cross-sections of the Iraqi people". More...

Backroom Boy Who Had the President Running Scared

Until this week, al-Qa'ida expert Richard Clarke was a backroom nobody. Not any more, he ain't. And what's worse, he now spells nothing but big, big trouble for George W. Bush and his presidency.

Because not only is Richard Clarke a political sensation, the man who alleges that Bush's national security team was asleep at the wheel in the months before September 11 2001 when intelligence specialists were warning of an impending terrorist strike; he is also a publishing sensation of the first magnitude.

In just four days his book 'Against All Enemies' sold out an initial print run of 300,000, and the 150,000 hurridly reprinted extra copies also look set to fly off the shelves. Which, for serious non-fiction dealing largely with arcane matters of policy process in Washington, is astonishing.

Of course, the moment of publication was perfect - 24 hours before the federal commission set up to examine whether the 9/11 attacks could have been prevented held its highest profile public hearings thus far, featuring the CIA director and the Secretaries of State and Defense for both Presidents Clinton and Bush. More...

Pope Says Sundays for God, Not Sports

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope John Paul (news - web sites) on Friday said Sunday should be a day for God, not for secular diversions like entertainment and sports.

"When Sunday loses its fundamental meaning and becomes subordinate to a secular concept of 'weekend' dominated by such things as entertainment and sport, people stay locked within a horizon so narrow that they can no longer see the heavens," the pontiff said in a speech to Australian bishops.

John Paul criticized the "culture of the 'here and now,'" urging Church leaders to "lead men and women from the shadows of moral confusion and ambiguous thinking."

The 83-year-old pope also encouraged Christians, especially young people, to remain faithful to Sunday Mass, saying the secular culture was undermining family life.

CLAIM vs. FACT: Bush Statement of March 25, 2004

CLAIM:
“Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to strike America, to attack us, I would have used every resource, every asset, every power of this government to protect the American people.''
- President Bush, 3/25/04 [Source]

FACT:
On August 6, 2001, President Bush personally “received a one-and-a-half page briefing advising him that Osama bin Laden was capable of a major strike against the US, and that the plot could include the hijacking of an American airplane."
- Dateline NBC, 9/10/02

FACT:
U.S. and Italian officials were warned in July 2001 that Islamic terrorists had considered "crashing an airliner into the Genoa summit of industrialized nations."
- LA Times, 9/27/01 [Source]

FACT:
A 1999 report prepared by the Library of Congress for the National Intelligence Council "warned that Osama bin Laden's terrorists could hijack an airliner and fly it into government buildings like the Pentagon." The report specifically said, "Suicide bomber(s) belonging to al-Qaida's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives…into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the CIA, or the White House."
- CBS News, 5/17/02 [Source]

Clarke’s Book Shows Why Bush Fears Truth

Within days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the White House public-relations office began to shroud those events behind personality propaganda, heroic mythology and even religious mysticism. Over the years to come—and until now, perhaps—stirring words and images would serve not only to repackage George W. Bush, but also to obscure the plain facts about his administration’s fateful errors.

The President’s chief political strategist and his National Security Advisor claimed falsely that Al Qaeda had targeted Air Force One on that terrible late-summer morning, thus transforming his prudent flight from Florida to Nebraska into a dramatic escape from peril. The President’s supporters suggested that God had chosen George W. Bush to lead America, in anticipation of national crisis.

During the ensuing year, while the air was filled with such mystifying nonsense, the President and the Vice President warned Congress against an independent investigation of the circumstances leading up to the disaster. After public clamor for an investigation finally prevailed over that intimidation, the White House tried every conceivable tactic to hinder the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, even while claiming to support the commission unreservedly. More...

Micheal Moore is always on the money!!!

Dick Cheney tells Rush Limbaugh that Clarke doesn't know what he's talking about because he was out of the loop in White House discussions on terrorism--though, it seems to us that cutting your anti-terror chief out of the loop isn't the best way to prevent terrorism, and is quite possibly a more damning admission on Cheney's part than anything Clarke could have said.

Three thousand people died, two wars were launched as a result, it's being used as key to the re-election campaign, yet still Bush and Rice have no time to discuss September 11th with the commission investigating it.

Former Official Clarke Warned of 'Hundreds Dead'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration's former top counterintelligence official warned one week before the Sept. 11 attacks that hundreds of Americans could die in a terrorist strike, but said on Wednesday that the president did not consider terrorism an urgent issue.

Richard Clarke, who served four U.S. presidents, told the national commission investigating the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites): "I believe the Bush administration in the first eight months considered terrorism an important issue, but not an urgent issue."

On the second of two dramatic days of open testimony, one of the most charged moments came when commissioner Tim Roemer, a former Democratic congressman, asked Clarke about a letter he wrote to Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice one week before the attacks. More...

Berger: Rice was told about 'urgency' of al Qaeda

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- When the Bush administration was entering office, outgoing National Security Adviser Samuel Berger told his replacement, Condoleezza Rice, "she'd be spending more time on terrorism and al Qaeda than any other issue," Berger told the panel investigating the attacks Wednesday.

"I did my best to emphasize the urgency I felt," he said.

"Getting" Osama bin Laden and stopping the al Qaeda network was a "top priority" of the Clinton administration, Berger said.

Clinton felt so strongly that in 2000 he traveled to Pakistan -- against the "adamant advice of the secret service" -- to press President Pervez Musharraf to join the battle against al Qaeda, Berger said. More...


Robs Notes:
As the Bush administration was told about Al-Qaeda the Bush people thought it was a better idea to spend big money on star wars type weapons.

We all read about this in Al Frankens book a few months ago. It sure is nice to start seeing this information talked about in mainstream media.

Documents reveal FBI surveillance of Kerry in early 1970s

CNN: John Kerry's combat experience in Vietnam is central to his bid to become the next commander-in-chief, but Kerry's outspoken opposition to that war drew the personal attention of the president of the United States and FBI agents 33 years ago, documents reviewed by CNN reveal.

After Kerry became the national spokesman of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) in 1971, he came under continued surveillance by the FBI, which filed thousands of pages of reports on the VVAW and Kerry himself.

It was Kerry, the articulate Yale graduate and Navy lieutenant with three Purple Hearts for wounds and a Bronze Star and a Silver Star for bravery, who became the first veteran to testify about the war before Congress. More...

Bin Laden was a threat, but Clinton never pushed it and Bush seemed more interested in Saddam. What went wrong

Newsweek: It was the day after 9/11, and President Bush, like many Americans, was looking for someone to bomb. Wandering into the White House Situation Room, the president pulled aside Richard Clarke, the counterterrorism chief of the national-security staff who had been held over from the Clinton years. According to Clarke, Bush asked: was Iraq responsible for the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington? Bush wanted the FBI and CIA to hunt for any evidence that pointed to Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein. Clarke recalls that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was also looking for a justification to bomb Iraq. Soon after the 9/11 attacks, Rumsfeld was arguing at a cabinet meeting that Afghanistan, home of Osama bin Laden's terrorist camps, did not offer "enough good targets." "We should do Iraq," Rumsfeld urged. More...

COUNTERTERRORISM FUNDS: FBI budget cut after Sept. 11 attacks

Newsday: WASHINGTON - In the early days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Bush White House cut by nearly two-thirds an emergency request for counterterrorism funds by the FBI, an internal administration budget document shows.

The document, dated Oct. 12, 2001, shows that the FBI requested $1.5 billion in additional funds to enhance its counterterrorism efforts with the creation of 2,024 positions. But the White House Office of Management and Budget cut that request to $531 million.

Attorney General John Ashcroft, working within the White House limits, cut the FBI's request for items such as computer networking and foreign language intercepts by half, cut a cyber-security request by three-quarters and eliminated entirely a request for "collaborative capabilities."

The document was one of several administration papers obtained and given to The Washington Post by the Center for American Progress, a liberal group run by former Clinton chief of staff John D. Podesta. The papers show that Ashcroft resisted FBI requests for more counterterrorism funding immediately after the attacks. More...

Did Bush Press For Iraq-9/11 Link?

CBS: In the aftermath of Sept. 11, President Bush ordered his then top anti-terrorism adviser to look for a link between Iraq and the attacks, despite being told there didn't seem to be one.

The charge comes from the advisor, Richard Clarke, in an exclusive interview on 60 Minutes.

The administration maintains that it cannot find any evidence that the conversation about an Iraq-9/11 tie-in ever took place.

Clarke also tells CBS News Correspondent Lesley Stahl that White House officials were tepid in their response when he urged them months before Sept. 11 to meet to discuss what he saw as a severe threat from al Qaeda.

"Frankly," he said, "I find it outrageous that the president is running for re-election on the grounds that he's done such great things about terrorism. He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11. Maybe. We'll never know." More...

Huge Worldwide Protests Demand Iraq Troop Pullout

NEW YORK (Reuters) - More than a million antiwar protesters poured into the streets of cities around the globe on Saturday's anniversary of the invasion of Iraq to demand the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops.

From Sydney to Tokyo, from Santiago, Chile, to Madrid, London, New York and San Francisco, demonstrators condemned U.S. policy in Iraq and said they did not believe Iraqis are better off or the world safer because of the war.

Journalists estimated that at least a million people streamed through Rome, in probably the biggest single protest.

In London, two anti-war protesters evaded security to climb the landmark Big Ben clock tower at the Houses of Parliament, unfurling a banner reading "Time for Truth."

About 25,000 demonstrators gathered in central London, many carrying "Wanted" posters bearing images of President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his main war ally.

In most places, the demonstrators numbered in the tens of thousands, compared with hundreds of thousands who marched in big cities on Feb. 15, 2003, to try and prevent the conflict.

The peaceful protests began in Asia and moved to Europe and the Americas in what organizers billed "a global day of action."

In New York, scene of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked plane strikes by Islamic militants, tens of thousands created a sea of signs in midtown Manhattan, many of them criticizing Bush, who is running for re-election in November.

Among the signs spotted in the crowd were, "Money For Jobs and Education not for War and Occupation" and "Bush Lies" and "End Occupation of Iraq. More...

Bush was warned, Clinton aides claim

WASHINGTON -- Senior Clinton administration officials called to testify next week before the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks say they are prepared to detail how they repeatedly warned their Bush administration counterparts in late 2000 that al-Qaida posed the worst security threat facing the nation -- and how the new administration was slow to act.

They said the warnings were delivered in urgent post-election intelligence briefings in December 2000 and January 2001 for Condoleezza Rice, who became President Bush's national security adviser; Stephen Hadley, now Rice's deputy; and Philip Zelikow, a member of the Bush transition team, among others.

One of the officials scheduled to testify, Richard Clarke, who was President Clinton's counterterrorism coordinator, said in an interview that the warning about the al-Qaida threat could not have been made more bluntly to the incoming Bush officials in intelligence briefings that he led. More...

Bush's Distortions Misled Congress in Its War Vote

A year ago, the United States went to war in Iraq because President Bush and his administration convinced Congress and the country that Saddam Hussein was an urgent threat that required immediate military action. The nation has paid a high price for that decision ever since.

The case for war was based on two key claims: that Hussein was on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons, and that he had close ties to the Al Qaeda terrorists responsible for the atrocities of Sept. 11. Both claims proved to be demonstrably false.

We can only speculate about the real reasons we went to war. What is known, however, is that, at the time the decision was being made in the summer of 2002, Osama bin Laden was still at large, the war against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan had entered a troubled phase, our economy was reeling from recession, the president's approval rating in the Gallup Poll had declined from its peak of 90% after Sept. 11 to 63% by Labor Day 2002, and control of the Senate and House was at stake in the critical congressional elections in November that year. More...

Rallies around the world protest Iraq war

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Antiwar rallies were being held around the world on Saturday, the day after protests in Baghdad marked the one-year anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Demonstrators against the Iraq war gathered in London; Tokyo, Japan; New York, South Korea, the Philippines and Australia.

In the United States, rallies were also scheduled Saturday for Los Angeles, California; Fayetteville, North Carolina and Crawford, Texas.

Thousands of Sunni and Shiite Muslims had come together to rally in Baghdad Friday, one year from the beginning of the war. More...

Ex-Advisor Says Bush Eyed Bombing of Iraq on 9/11

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former White House anti-terrorism advisor says the Bush administration considered bombing Iraq in retaliation after Sept. 11, 2001 even though it was clear al Qaeda had carried out the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Richard Clarke, who headed a cybersecurity board that gleaned intelligence from the Internet, told CBS "60 Minutes" in an interview to be aired on Sunday he was surprised administration officials turned immediately toward Iraq instead of al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

"They were talking about Iraq on 9/11. They were talking about it on 9/12," Clarke says.

Clarke said he was briefing President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld among other top officials in the aftermath of the devastating attacks. More...

Arab Journalists Walk Out of Colin Powell's Press Conference

BAGHDAD - Iraqi journalists walked out of a Baghdad news conference by Secretary of State Colin Powell on Friday in protest at the lack of security and the killing of two Iraqi journalists by U.S. troops.

Powell urged U.S. allies to stay the course in Iraq after Spain vowed to pull out troops and South Korea refused to take on a combat role.

"This is not the time to say 'let's stop what we are doing and pull back'," he told the news conference.

"This is the time to...deal with this threat to the civilized world and not run and hide and think that it won't come and get us -- it will."

About 30 Iraqi journalists quit the hall in anger at Thursday's shooting of two colleagues who worked for the Dubai-based satellite television channel Al Arabiya.

"We declare our condemnation of the incident which led to the killing of the two journalists...at the hands of the American forces," declared Najim al-Rubaie of Iraq's Distor daily as Powell and Iraq's U.S. governor Paul Bremer looked on.

Al Arabiya employees say U.S. soldiers fired on a car carrying an Arabiya crew on Thursday evening after another car ran through a checkpoint. Cameraman Ali Abdelaziz was killed and correspondent Ali al-Khatib died in hospital on Friday morning.

"HORRIBLE DICTATORSHIP" More...

Poland Says It Was 'Misled' On WMD

CBS NEWS: Poland, which has about 2,400 troops in Iraq and was a strong supporter of the U.S.-led invasion, was "misled" about the threat from Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, its president said Thursday.

The remarks by President Aleksander Kwasniewski to a small group of European reporters were his first hint of criticism about war in Iraq.

Earlier in the day, Kwasniewski said Poland may start withdrawing its troops from Iraq early next year, months earlier than the previously stated date of mid-2005.

"Naturally, one may protest the reasons for the war action in Iraq. I personally think that today, Iraq without Saddam Hussein is a truly better Iraq than with Saddam Hussein," Kwasniewski told the European reporters. More...

One Year After

One year ago, President Bush began the war in Iraq. Most Americans expected military victory to come quickly, as it did. Despite the administration's optimism about what would follow, it was also easy to predict that the period after the fall of Baghdad would be very messy and very dangerous. In that sense, right now we're exactly where we expected to be.

It's nonetheless important to remember that none of this might have happened if we had known then what we know now. No matter what the president believed about the long-term threat posed by Saddam Hussein, he would have had a much harder time selling this war of choice to the American people if they had known that the Iraqi dictator had been reduced to a toothless tiger by the first Persian Gulf war and by United Nations weapons inspectors. Iraq's weapons programs had been shut down, Mr. Hussein had no threatening weapons stockpiled, the administration was exaggerating evidence about them, and there was, and is, no evidence that Mr. Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks. More...

General Sacked by Bush Says He Wanted Early Elections

Jay Garner, the US general abruptly dismissed as Iraq's first occupation administrator after a month in the job, says he fell out with the Bush circle because he wanted free elections and rejected an imposed program of privatization.

In an interview to be broadcast on BBC Newsnight tonight, he says: "My preference was to put the Iraqis in charge as soon as we can, and do it with some form of elections ... I just thought it was necessary to rapidly get the Iraqis in charge of their destiny."

Asked by the reporter Greg Palast if he foresaw negative repercussions from the subsequent US imposition of mass privatization, Gen Garner said: "I don't know ... we'll just have to wait and see." It would have been better for the Iraqis to take decisions themselves, even if they made mistakes, he said. More...

AWOL Miami GI ordered to report to Fort Stewart, Ga. or face arrest for desertion

NORTH MIAMI -- A U.S. soldier who refused to return to duty in Iraq after seeing civilians killed was ordered Tuesday to report to a Georgia military base or face arrest for being a deserter.

Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia, who is seeking to be declared a conscientious objector, met with officials at his Florida National Guard unit at the North Miami Armory after repeating his determination not to return to the Middle East and fight. More...

Robs Note:
I hate war, I cant stand the reasons why went went to war with Iraq but when you join the army theres no backing out even if you dont agree with the reasons some scum bag Texas frat boy sent you to war for.

Rush Limbaugh Attacks Widows and Children

"Most of us here in the media are what I consider infotainers.... Rush Limbaugh is what I call a disinfotainer. He entertains by spreading disinformation." --Al Franken at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, April 23, 1994

Given his history, people expect Rush Limbaugh to skew a few facts. After all, in Limbaugh Land, Democrats and liberals are the boogiemen in America's closet, even when a mountain of evidence suggests otherwise. When he recently defended Howard Stern, for example, he automatically tacked on the usual spin. "If the government is going to 'censor' what they think is right and wrong, what happens if a whole bunch of John Kerrys, or Terry McAuliffes start running this country?" he wondered. Never mind, of course, that the religious right is actively trying to turn America into a theocracy or that the FCC is headed by Colin Powell's son. More...

Robs Note:
Rush your just a scum bag.

Why Bush hasn't captured bin Laden

'My most immediate priority," Spain's new leader, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, declared Monday, "will be to fight terrorism." But he and the voters who gave his party a stunning upset victory on Sunday don't believe the war in Iraq is part of that fight. And the Spanish public was also outraged by what it perceived as the Aznar government's attempt to spin the terrorist attack last week for political purposes.

The Bush administration, which baffled the world when it used an attack by Islamic fundamentalists to justify the overthrow of a brutal but secular regime, and which has been utterly ruthless in its political exploitation of the Sept. 11 attacks, must be very, very afraid.

Polls suggest that a reputation for being tough on terror is just about the only remaining political strength that President George W. Bush has. Yet this reputation is based on image, not reality. The truth is that Bush, while eager to invoke Sept. 11 on behalf of an unrelated war, has shown consistent reluctance to focus on the terrorists who actually attacked America, or their backers in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. More...

Howard Stern Tells Listeners to Vote Against Bush Amid FCC Crackdown

ABC News: Howard Stern is swapping his trademark trash talk for politics as the syndicated radio talk-show host becomes one of the Bush administration's most influential critics.

"If you're listening to me now, the one thing I ask you to do is vote against Bush. Vote for Kerry," Stern said during a recent broadcast of his morning show.

Stern is now railing against the president on a daily basis to a massive audience. He has the third-largest morning show in the country and is urging his 8.5 million listeners to drive the Republicans from office.

"Howard Stern is going to prove to be George Bush's worst political nightmare if he continues in this vein," said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine. More...

Miami: A city on the edge

Author’s note: Early in December 2003, The Miami Herald informed me that it was dropping my column at the end of the year.

The Herald has given as many different reasons for this decision as the Bush administration has for the Iraq war – and with equal credibility. In both cases, the real reasons are transparently ideological. My skill as a writer and analyst has never been questioned, and certainly not by the Herald’s editors. My work has appeared in Newsday, Salon, San Jose Mercury News, Sun-Sentinel, New York Times (web edition), the Tallahassee Democrat and many other publications in the United States and Latin America. In the last five years, I co-wrote a book on power and immigrants in Miami, edited a second book on international migration, and published numerous essays and academic papers. My views have been quoted widely in the U.S. and international press, and I have provided commentary on CNN, Nightline, Frontline, the Larry King Show, NPR and other media. More...

France: Bin Laden Nearly Caught in Afghanistan

PARIS (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden has escaped capture in Afghanistan several times and may be linked in some way to the Madrid train attacks that killed 200 people, France's chief of defense staff said Monday.

Gen. Henri Bentegeat said about 200 French troops were operating with U.S. forces in southeastern Afghanistan against the Taliban and bin Laden's al Qaeda. The Saudi-born militant is thought to be there or just across the border in Pakistan.

"Our men were not very far. On several occasions, I even think he slipped out of a net that was quite well closed," he told Europe 1 radio. He did not specify a time frame.

Bentegeat, who spoke as if he were sure bin Laden was in Afghanistan, said the country's difficult terrain explained why it was so hard to catch the world's most wanted man.

"In Afghanistan, the terrain is extremely favorable to escapes, there are underground networks everywhere," More...

New Spanish Leader Lashes Out at Bush, Blair Over Iraq War

Agence France Presse: MADRID - Spain's prime minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero vowed to withdraw troops from Iraq and criticized US President George W. Bush after Spanish voters ousted governing conservatives who took the country into the controversial war.

"The war in Iraq was a disaster, the occupation of Iraq is a disaster," Zapatero, 43, told Cadena Ser radio on Monday.

He spoke just before the European Union held three minutes' silence in tribute to the 200 people killed in last Thursday's bombings of crowded Madrid commuter trains.

An ongoing investigation into the attacks has found growing evidence they were carried out by Islamic extremists linked to Al-Qaeda as punishment for Spain's help in the invasion and occupation of Iraq. More...

Zapatero Vows Troops' Return From Iraq

AP: MADRID, Spain - The leader of Spain's victorious Socialists said Monday that he will bring his nation's troops home from Iraq by June 30, fulfilling a campaign promise a day after his party's win in elections overshadowed by terrorist bombings.

The surprise defeat Sunday of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's conservatives marked the first time a government that backed the U.S.-led war in Iraq has been voted out of office and came amid charges that Aznar made Spain a target for terrorists by supporting the war.

Thursday's train bombings — the worst terrorist attacks in Spain's history — killed 200 people and wounded some 1,500

"The Spanish troops which are in Iraq will be returning home," Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told Cadena Ser radio. He said the troops would be recalled once he puts together a government some time in mid-April and formally takes over as prime minister. More...


Robs Note:
If you win Mr. Kerry will you do the same?

U.S. families protest war

Those who've lost loved ones in Iraq join in dissent Timing coincides with White House PR campaign

Toronto Start: WASHINGTON—Sue Niederer never doubted what the future held for her son Seth Dvorin and her daughter-in-law Kelly.

"Oh, those kids, they would have knocked the world apart," she says.

Instead, on Feb. 3, their worlds were blown apart when 24-year-old U.S. Army Lt. Seth Dvorin died in a blast from a makeshift bomb south of Baghdad.

It left Kelly Dvorin — who was married to her husband a mere five days before he left for Iraq — a 25-year-old widow. And it has turned Sue Niederer into a middle-aged anti-war protester.

Today, the Pennington, N.J., woman will be at the U.S. air base in Dover, Del., where her son came home a war statistic. She'll be joined in protest with other military families who have lost loved ones in a war that has so far killed 555 Americans and wounded nearly 3,200.

Tomorrow, many others will gather here in front of the Walter Reed Army Hospital, where the war's most seriously wounded recuperate, then will march to the White House. They are coming from California, New Jersey, Alabama, Illinois, Ohio, Arkansas and places in between, all paying their own way because they feel they must raise their voices to save others the anguish they feel.

"Anyone who has been killed over there has died in vain," Niederer said. "What are we there for? More...

Furious Spanish Protesters Chant: Our Dead, Your War

THREE Moroccans and two Indians have been arrested in Spain for the Madrid train bombings on Thursday. All five are thought to be linked to two militant Islamic groups which were named as the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group and Salafia Jihadi.

The arrests came as 5000 angry demonstrators picketed the offices of the ruling Popular Party shouting "lies" and other slogans claiming that Prime Minister José María Aznar had covered up the truth about the atrocity by blaming the Basque separatist group ETA ahead of today's general election.

The arrests were confirmed by the interior minister, Angel Acebes, who said the five were arrested in connection with pay-as-you-go mobile phone cards found in a "backpack bomb" that the police recovered from one of the bombed trains. Acebes, who had blamed ETA within hours of the atrocity, said last night: "Sixty hours after the brutal attack, we now have five detentions." More...

US Revealed to be Secretly Funding Opponents of Chavez

lndependent/UK: Washington has been channeling hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund the political opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez - including those who briefly overthrew the democratically elected leader in a coup two years ago.

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that, in 2002, America paid more than a million dollars to those political groups in what it claims is an ongoing effort to build democracy and "strengthen political parties". Mr Chavez has seized on the information, telling Washington to "get its hands off Venezuela".

The revelation about America's funding of Mr Chavez's opponents comes as the president is facing a possible recall referendum and has been rocked by a series of violent street demonstrations in which at least eight people have died. His opponents, who include politicians, some labor leaders, media executives and former managers at the state oil company, are trying to collect sufficient signatures to force a national vote. The documents reveal that one of the group's organizing the collection of signatures - Sumate - received $53,400 (£30,000) from the US last September. More...

Robs Note:
Do we support democracy around the world any more?

April 1st-National "I'm Embarrassed by My President" Day

Are you embarrassed by the arrogance, greed, shortsightedness, selfishness, and outright lies told by George W. Bush?

Join tens of thousands of others across the country and world and wear a brown armband or ribbon to symbolize all the BS coming out of the White House.

It's not just that I disagree with the current dministration. I'm outraged. And I'm downright embarrassed to talk to anyone from another country. I'm embarassed to have an President so arrogant, so dishonest, so hawkish, that in three years, he has nearly destroyed any good relations we had before he took office, and worsened those that were already bad. More...

Kennedy's Other Speech

The Nation: Senator Edward Kennedy gave two magnificent speeches last week, but only one received the attention it deserved. While his blistering attack on the Bush Administration for manipulating and distorting intelligence to justify attacking Iraq was noted in the Washington Post and other papers, the Senator's fiery progressive manifesto--delivered at a New York conference called Re-Imagining the Welfare State--went virtually unreported.

In the large hall at CUNY Graduate Center in New York City on the afternoon of March 1, Kennedy came out swinging at an Administration that wants to roll back the hard-earned rights and liberties of the 20th century. "One by one," Kennedy boomed, "issue by issue, program by program, the Republican Right has methodically turned away from policies which brought about a century of progress for working Americans. They want to build the 21st century economy on 19th century economic values, as if the last 100 years had not occurred. For them the law of the jungle is the best economic policy for America--not equal opportunity, not fairness, not the American dream. Their ideas will inevitably result in a lesser America, and have already meant a growing gulf between rich and poor." More...

Eating There Words.

"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is."
- George W. Bush, discussing Kosovo, Houston Chronicle, 04-09-99

"When you strip it all away, Jerry Garcia destroyed his life on drugs. And yet he's being honored, like some godlike figure. Our priorities are out of whack, folks."
- Rush (currently under investigation for drug use) Limbaugh, on the death of Jerry Garcia, 08-20-95.

"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to The New York Times building."
- Ann Coulter, The New York Observer, 08-26-02

"The truth is that for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy, we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on, which was weapons of mass destruction as the core reason."
- Paul Wolfowitz, quoted by Tim Russert on 'Meet The Press, NBC, 06-01-03

These quotes, and about a thousand others equally as preposterous, can be found in a new book by Bruce Miller and Diana Maio titled Take Them At Their Words. The next time our valiant conservative leadership bemoans the "corruption and fall of the nation," remember that, by and large, these bemoaners are the clowns who have been running the circus for the last several years.

A few are also up for re-election in 2004. Bear that in mind. More Quotes:

Liberal Takeover?

Radio Network Plans to Succeed in Pushing Liberal Agenda

ABC News: They are the stars of the most listened to talk radio shows in the country: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage. Not a liberal in the bunch.

Air America Radio — a self-described "progressive" radio network — hopes to change that.

Four stations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco will launch programming for a liberal radio network that hopes to conquer the airwaves and replicate some of the feisty spirit that has worked so successfully for conservatives in the last decade.

"America is divided," Mark Walsh, chief executive officer of Air America Radio told ABCNEWS. "Anybody that doesn't understand that or acknowledge that is in denial." In this division, Walsh says, "is a media opportunity — sad as that may sound." Because, Walsh says, "in divisiveness comes debate. And in debate comes entertainment." More...

Two 9-11 Widows Respond to Rush Limbaugh Attacks

[PHILADELPHIA -- March 10, 2004 -- (TomFlocco.com) -- Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh weighed in on the subject of current George Bush campaign TV ads with references to September 11, placed on the air by Republicans during his nationally broadcast radio show last Friday. The following two letters were written to Mr. Limbaugh today by the two 9-11 widows whose voices were used during his radio broadcast. The controversial Limbaugh referred to Republican Kristen Breitweiser and Monica Gabrielle as Democratic "campaign consultants... not grieving widows... obsessed with rage and hatred." More...

Rob's Note:
What are you hiding MR. Bush? Why are you making it so hard for us to get to the truth about 9-11? Are you protecting the Saudi royal family? Are you afraid of what this country will think of you when they realize your family has been doing business with the Bin ladden for so many years?

Can Jeb Bush deliver the Cuban vote?

The New Yorker: Last summer, out in the sunlit seas of the Florida Straits, the United States Coast Guard came upon a green 1951 Chevrolet flatbed truck motoring north from Cuba. The vehicle was being kept afloat by pontoons made from fifty-five-gallon drums; there was a propeller attached to its driveshaft. With twelve people aboard, the truck had already made it more than halfway to the United States—it was only forty miles south of Key West when it was intercepted. The Coast Guard took the passengers into custody, then machine-gunned the truck until it sank. A few days later, the refugees were dumped on a beach back in Cuba. More...


Rob's Comments:
The Cuban vote is huge and as a Cuban American i plan on voting for any one but Bush.

Special Pentagon Unit Left CIA Out of the Loop

LA Times: WASHINGTON — A special intelligence unit at the Pentagon privately briefed senior officials at the White House on alleged ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda without the knowledge of CIA Director George J. Tenet, according to new information presented at a Senate hearing Tuesday.

The disclosure suggests that the controversial Pentagon office played a greater role than previously understood in shaping the administration's views on Iraq's alleged ties to the terrorist network behind the Sept. 11 attacks, and bypassed usual channels to make a case that conflicted with the conclusions of CIA analysts.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Tenet said he was unaware until recently that the Pentagon unit had presented its findings to the offices of Vice President Dick Cheney and national security advisor Condoleezza Rice. It is not clear whether Cheney or Rice were present for the briefing, which was mentioned in a Defense Department letter released by the Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. More...

Ralph Nader's Untimely Campaign in Perspective

I have admired Ralph Nader for many years. I met him in 1976 while working as an assistant editor of The Progressive magazine. In the summer of 2000 my wife and I discussed his candidacy with him and subsequently contributed to his campaign.

Mainstream Democrats have not convinced me that his candidacy cost Al Gore the presidency. Elections in the United States are decided not merely by the choices voters make but also by who goes to the polls. Our largest party is the party of nonvoters, disproportionately constituted by the young and the poor. Exit polls and survey research failed to address the question of how many Gore as well as Nader voters were lured into the political process by Nader's candidacy. In the run-up to the 2000 election, polls consistently showed Nader around 5 percent of the electorate. It seems entirely plausible to me that many of these Nader supporters, idealists and first-time voters drawn to the political process by his campaign, made last- second decisions to go with Gore as a close election loomed.

In addition, polling data indicate that the most successful periods of Gore's campaign were when he sounded populist themes, often in response to Nader. The Democratic Party fails to acknowledge its own inadequacies. It rejects open debates and equitable voting procedures like instant runoff voting that would give third parties input without being spoilers. If Democrats are serious about deterring Nader, rather than invective they might try bargaining with him by offering concessions on these procedural issues right now. More...

Higher Gas Prices Could Slow Economy

ABC News: Consumers and airlines may be feeling the impact of higher oil and gasoline prices right now. But a number of economists believe going forward that higher energy prices will have a slowing effect on economic growth overall.

As of Monday, gas prices were just a penny shy of an all-time record, before adjusting for inflation — the national average was $1.74 per gallon, up 22 cents from the beginning of the year.The previous record was $1.75 in August of last year.

Energy Department officials expect a new record soon. And many states are already reporting record highs — Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, California and Nevada to name a few. California still has the highest average at $2.12 a gallon, with gas prices in Los Angeles at $2.18. More...

Is Military Creeping Into Domestic Law Enforcement?

Wall Street Journal: IN A LITTLE-NOTICED side effect of the war on terrorism, the military is edging toward a sensitive area that has been off-limits to it historically: domestic intelligence gathering and law enforcement.

Several recent incidents involving the military have raised concern among student and civil-rights groups. One was a visit last month by an Army intelligence agent to an official at the University of Texas law school in Austin. The agent demanded a videotape of a recent academic conference at the school so that he could identify what he described as "three Middle Eastern men" who had made "suspicious" remarks to Army lawyers at the seminar, according to the official, Susana Aleman, the dean of student affairs. More...

Human Rights Watch Claims U.S. Abuses in Afghanistan

Reuters: KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Afghanistan used excessive force during arrests of suspected Islamic militants, resulting in avoidable civilian deaths and possibly violating international law, Human Rights Watch said Monday.

A report by the U.S.-based group said at least 1,000 Afghans and foreigners had been detained from 2002 by U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, some of them subjected to torture and denied the right to challenge their detention.

While many have been released, some remain in detention in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

But a U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan said the report indicated a "lack of understanding" of armed conflict laws. More...

The Wrong Way to Sell Democracy to the Arab World

NY Times: WASHINGTON — The Bush administration deserves credit for its long-term commitment to democracy in the Middle East. But even a good idea can be spoiled by clumsy execution. Worse still, the idea can backfire — particularly if people come to suspect that ulterior motives are at work.

This is precisely what is happening with President Bush's "Greater Middle East initiative," which outlines steps the United States and its partners in the Group of 8 industrialized nations can take to promote political freedom, equality for women, access to education and greater openness in the Middle East. Elements of the proposal include the creation of free trade zones in the region, new financing for small businesses and help overseeing elections. More...

Scalia Addressed Advocacy Group Before Key Decision

Los Angeles Times: WASHINGTON — As the Supreme Court was weighing a landmark gay rights case last year, Justice Antonin Scalia gave a keynote dinner speech in Philadelphia for an advocacy group waging a legal battle against gay rights.

Scalia addressed the $150-a-plate dinner hosted by the Urban Family Council two months after hearing oral arguments in a challenge to a Texas law that made gay sex a crime. A month after the dinner, he sharply dissented from the high court's decision overturning the Texas law. More...

Blix: Bush, Blair Knew They Were Hyping Case for War

Reuters: George W. Bush and Tony Blair (news - web sites) probably knew they were exaggerating the threat from Iraq (news - web sites) when they were making the case for war, according to former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix.

The U.S. president and the British prime minister ignored the few caveats in reports from intelligence services on Iraq's nuclear, chemical or biological weapons programs, he writes in his account of the months leading up to the U.S.-led invasion. More...

Clearing The Air

Tompaine.com: Let’s admit one thing: Howard Stern is not an easy man to defend. His radio show is crass, offensive, immature and gross. He makes fun of black people, white people, Asians—pretty much everyone. He even mocks himself for being Jewish and having a small penis. I happen to like Stern. But if I had kids, I wouldn't want them to listen to him.

Because Stern is lowbrow, people who care about freedom of speech haven’t been defending him in his recent trial with Clear Channel. That’s a shortsighted mistake. Because when the largest owner of radio stations in the country—a company that sponsored pro-war rallies and whose employees advocated the burning of Dixie Chicks CDs after the band criticized President Bush—suspends a radio show indefinitely, Americans ought to get angry. No matter what they think about Howard Stern. More...

Kerry: Bush Stalling Iraq, 9/11 Probes

ABC News: JACKSON, Miss. March 7 — John Kerry on Sunday accused President Bush of "stonewalling" separate inquiries into the events leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacks, as well as into the intelligence that suggested Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

"This is another inaccurate attack by John Kerry," responded Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel. "President Bush and his administration have extraordinary cooperation and unprecedented access" to the commission. He said it has provided more than 2 million pages of documents and other materials such as computer disks and tape recordings, in addition to providing extensive briefings and submitting to more than 560 interviews." More...

The passion of Howard Stern

The shock jock says radio colossus Clear Channel fired him because he criticized George Bush -- and he's sure as hell not going to go quietly.

Salon.com: March 4, 2004 | From the moment last week when Clear Channel Communications suspended Howard Stern's syndicated morning show from the company's radio stations, denouncing it as "vulgar, offensive and insulting," speculation erupted that the move had more to do with Stern's politics than his raunchy shock-jock shtick. More...