WOW! Institute For Public Accuracy Responds To Bush’s 2003 “State of the Union” Address! What a pack of lies Bush told! Click here for the sordid details!

After All The Tough Talk, There Is NO Evidence Against Iraq!

Now admitting there is no "smoking gun," Secretary of State Colin Powell is bringing what the Bush adminstration is calling "circumstantial evidence" to to the U.N. next week in hopes of making a convincing case that Iraq is hiding weapons of mass destruction, a U.S. official said Thursday. Circumstantial evidence? Wasn't the Bushies promising "clear and compelling" evidence right before the state of the union address? Hey, I'm no lawyer, but I think it takes more than circumstantial evidence to make charges stick.

"There are some countries, some elements of public opinion, that think the U.S. needs a smoking gun of some sort," the U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Well we don't have a smoking gun and Powell's not coming with it."



Perhaps this is why Bush is again backing off his claims of hard evidence: Iraqi warheads test negative for chemical agents

Bush and his boys pounded the aluminum tubes story for all it was worth, but now CNN is reporting they have tested negative for chemical agents.



Al-Qaeda 'was making dirty bomb'

British officials have presented evidence which they claim shows that al-Qaeda had been trying to assemble radioactive material to build a so-called dirty bomb.
They have shown the BBC previously undisclosed material backing up their claim.

It includes secret intelligence from agents sent by Britain into al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. more



Expert rules out link between Iraq and al-Qaeda

ONE of Europe’s leading terrorism experts has ruled out any link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda - directly contradicting the latest claims from Tony Blair and George Bush.

Rohan Gunaratna, who is attached to the terrorism unit at St Andrews University, said his research - which includes six books - shows the two are mutually incompatible.

His warning came as the Prime Minister surprised MPs by saying he has evidence linking Iraq to al-Qaeda - something noticeably absent from his previous dossier on Saddam. more



"In two short years, the liberal establishment has changed its view of President Bush from a not-so-bright scion without an agenda to an evil, even radical, genius," the Wall Street Journal says.

"The new view is just as false as the old, but after listening to his State of the Union speech, we can understand their anxiety: they're afraid the Bush project might succeed," the newspaper said in an editorial.

Well, it sure hasn't succeeded so far, dumbasses! You're just saying that crap because you still have a job, you haven't lost alll of your 401k's worth, and your father or son hasn't yet been killed to secure Bush more oil.

And besides, you have it wrong! Liberals think Bush is a not-so-bright scion without an agenda being controlled by evil, even radical, geniuses. If you're going to talk about liberals, at least get your damn story right!



U.S. Economy Slows to 0.7 Percent Rate

The U.S. economy slowed dramatically in the final quarter of last year, growing at a annual rate of just 0.7 percent as consumers turned cautious in the face of war worries, a rollercoaster stock market and a stagnant job climate and increased their spending by the smallest amount since 1993.

"The rollercoaster ride continues as the economy just cannot sustain solid growth." said economist Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors.

The performance – weaker than the 0.9 percent increase analysts were predicting – gave the fourth quarter the distinction of being the worst quarter for GDP in 2002. It also marked the weakest showing since the economy actually shrank at a 0.3 percent rate in the third quarter of 2001 as the country was mired in its first recession since George H.W. Bush screwed us in the early 90s. more

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THIS is a GOOD one! A War Crime or an Act of War?

Central Intelligence Agency's senior political analyst on Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war comes clean!

It was no surprise that President Bush, lacking smoking-gun evidence of Iraq's weapons programs, used his State of the Union address to re-emphasize the moral case for an invasion: "The dictator who is assembling the world's most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole villages, leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind or disfigured."

The accusation that Iraq has used chemical weapons against its citizens is a familiar part of the debate. The piece of hard evidence most frequently brought up concerns the gassing of Iraqi Kurds at the town of Halabja in March 1988, near the end of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. President Bush himself has cited Iraq's "gassing its own people," specifically at Halabja, as a reason to topple Saddam Hussein.

But the truth is, all we know for certain is that Kurds were bombarded with poison gas that day at Halabja. We cannot say with any certainty that Iraqi chemical weapons killed the Kurds. This is not the only distortion in the Halabja story. more

Ads rushing out of Limbaugh show?

From CBS Marketwatch

Though still in its infancy, a letter-writing campaign aimed at advertisers on "The Rush Limbaugh Show," has already claimed a few choice scalps -- and hopes to soon have other marketers saying "ditto."

Kicked off last week on the website of a group called Take Back The Media, the effort is generating a growing buzz among online progressives (or, if you prefer, "liberals") -- along with hundreds of angry e-mails to companies that sponsor what it calls Limbaugh's "hateful chortling and guffawing."

Micheal Stinson, a Vietnam-era veteran, is co-founder of Take Back The Media. Obviously never a Rush fan, Stinson and his cohorts were content to largely ignore the king of reactionary talk radio -- until he weighed in on the recent anti-war protests, calling participants "anti-American," "anti-capitalist" and "communists," among other terms.

"He just went too far," said Stinson. "Don't call me anti-American. I served this country."

When he decided to go after Limbaugh, Stinson said "we were told we would have to nip at his heels, to start by contacting local advertisers." He ignored that advice, however, and posted a list, complete with contact information, of top sponsors.

"Within 18 hours, RadioShack (RSH: news, chart, profile) had folded. Within 36 hours, Amtrak was gone and Bose told us they were no longer advertising on the show," Stinson said.

Oddly, Stinson's group is not only telling the rest of the world which companies advertise on Limbaugh's show but, apparently, even the companies themselves.

In RadioShack's case, the company maintains that it does not buy ads on Limbaugh's show and any that did air were the result of an "error made by the radio network or local affiliate."

RadioShack, the company continued, "strictly adheres to a policy of not intentionally buying advertising space on programs that might be political or socially controversial or that promote any one individual's agenda or point of view."

Amtrak says the ads aired as part of a complicated barter deal involving, strange but true, the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau. It does not sponsor political shows and "'in the future...will communicate [that] practice to" other partners.

Although Stinson said he has reports of its ads appearing during the show, a spokeswoman for Bose told CBS.MarketWatch that its does not advertise on the program, "and has no intentions of doing so."

Other advertisers targeted by Take Back the Media include Darden Restaurants, Red Lobster chain, Pfizer, AutoZone, and online retailer Overstock.com -- none of which would comment.

Limbaugh is syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks, a subsidiary of radio behemoth Clear Channel Communications. While not addressing whether the show had lost any advertisers as a result of the boycott, Premiere issued the following written statement:

"There have been many times in the 15 year history of 'The Rush Limbaugh Program' when national and world events have generated increased listening as well as increased communication with individuals who have opposing points of view," said company president Kraig Kitchin. "The kind of compelling radio that generates opposition also causes Rush Limbaugh's weekly 20 million listeners to tune in that much more and listen longer."

That audience number is likely exaggerated (other estimates put it closer to 15 million) but there is no question that Limbaugh is big, big, big and one of medium's biggest single stars.

So, can a few scrappy liberals really hurt him?

Depends. A lot of radio time is bought pretty much on a commodity basis, with advertisers looking for dayparts and regions rather than specific programming. Many may not even know where their ads appeared until after the fact. And, unless they have given their buyers up-front marching orders to avoid him (already not uncommon), Limbaugh's powerful ratings guarantee a piece of that action. Of course, there are plenty of other options that can deliver similar numbers.

Whether or not the boycott works to any meaningful degree is going to depend on how many more advertisers decide it is easier to switch than fight. According to radio buyers, some companies cave almost instantly in the face of even a little negative feedback while others need to experience a truly sustained and widespread level of complaints before they listen.

Still, they don't have to get them all to make a difference: If enough advertisers put out the word that the show is a forbidden zone -- and they are not rapidly replaced -- the program will lose much of its economic value to local stations and station groups regardless of how well its audience numbers are doing. Of course, the already-loaded Limbaugh is never going to have trouble putting food on the table, but he and his fans could end up in less desirable timeslots or on fewer outlets.

Historically, the boycott approach has a mixed record. One of the most effective boycotts of recent times was against Viacom (VIA: news, chart, profile) unit VH-1's "Music Behind Bars," a program that showcased the jailhouse jams of murderers, rapists and assorted other scum. An outcry from victim's rights groups, law enforcement officials and politicians had advertisers staying away in droves and the cable network quickly pulled the plug on the series. (Viacom is a significant shareholder in MarketWatch.com, the publisher of this report.)

The "Christian" right's attack on "NYPD Blue" in the early 1990s, on the other hand, was a complete failure. It initially scared off some marketers, but the program's ratings and demographics were so good that it attracted business from sectors that don't expect to sell to those folks anyway -- including movies, beer, cosmetics, designer clothing, etc. And the effort completely fell apart when the first big package-goods company (Unilever (UN: news, chart, profile), if memory serves) jumped in. "Blue" eventually went to become one of the most enduring and profitable shows in Disney (DIS: news, chart, profile) unit ABC's prime-time line-up.

What makes this attempt particularly interesting is that progressives typically eschew ad boycotts both for free speech reasons and because it is a favorite technique of their ideological opponents.

Stinson, however, is unapologetic about tearing a page out of the other team's playbook: "We are going to employ the tactics of those people -- and it's already working. We are hitting some nerves."

Hmmm... From the "we already figured this" department: 'Rush Limbaugh uses fake callers to make liberals look dumb.' Former Premiere Radio Networks Intern Says...

A former Premiere Radio Networks intern has admitted that popular conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh has staff members pose as liberal callers to present weak arguments in an effort to make the left's position less credible.

The intern, an aspiring talkshow host himself, spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals from the conservative community.

"Rush claims to take calls from liberals but instead has his screeners heavily screens the calls, weeding out anyone from the left who might challenge and embarrass him."

"He also has his own people make calls pretending to be democrats and giving weak, sometimes ridiculous, arguments." The former intern said.

When asked if other conservative talkers employ the same techniques, the former intern could only say, "People like [Sean] Hannity are Rush clones... my guess would be that they do."

It has long been rumored that Limbaugh screens calls with an extra screener who sounds like him to catch strong liberals who might make it past the first screener by posing as a conservative.

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel Admits Ownership Of Voting Machine Company

Senate Ethics Committee Director Resigns

The Washington Post characterized Hagel’s election in 1996 as the biggest upset of the election season. At the time, voters did not know that he owned and had held key positions with the company that counted his votes.

Thanks to Talion for this from the Institute for Public Accuracy

On October, 10, 2002 Bev Harris, author of the upcoming “Black Box Voting: Ballot-Tampering” in the 21st Century, revealed that Republican Senator Chuck Hagel has ties to the largest voting machine company, Election Systems & Software (ES&S). She reported that he was an owner, Chairman and CEO of Election Systems & Software (called American Information Systems until name change filed in 1997). ES&S was the ONLY company whose machines counted Hagel’s votes when he ran for election in 1996 and 2002. The Hill, a Washington D.C. newspaper that covers the U.S. national political scene, confirmed her findings today and uncovered more details.

Hagel’s campaign finance director, Michael McCarthy, now admits that Senator Hagel still owns a beneficial interest in the ES&S parent company, the McCarthy Group. ES&S counts approximately 60 percent of all votes cast in the United States. According to the Omaha World-Herald which is also a beneficial owner of ES&S, Hagel was CEO of American Information Systems, now called ES&S, from November 1993 through June 2, 1994. He was Chairman from July 1992 until March 15 1995. He was required to disclose these positions on his FEC Personal Disclosure statements, but he did not. more

Two Bush State of the Union Lies Exposed!

One of the reasons dumbass reTHUGlicans get caught when the play fast and loose with the facts is they don't think anyone is going to check behind them. They think if they just throw something out into the atmosphere with enough bravado people will accept it without regard to its truthfulness.

Case in point: According to Buzzflash, there were many credibility holes in the speech. Taking credit for putting money in our pockets through a tax cut when it was actually the Democrats who sponsored those $300 checks. Homeland Security, safer airports (Al Gore's plan)), and an education bill were all Democratic ideas.

The biggest no-brainer were Bush's statements on Iraqi officers posing as scientists and aluminum tubes being used in the development of nuclear for nuclear development.

Bush said: "Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production... Iraqi intelligence officers are posing as the scientists inspectors are supposed to interview."

However, Mohamed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency, had this to say: "We believe the tubes were destined for the conventional rocket program," He said the tubes could be modified for uranium enrichment, but the process would be "expensive, time-consuming and detectable." Concerning the Iraqi scientists, ElBaradei said it was unlikely his inspectors 'could be fooled in the nuclear area on who is a scientist and who is not.'

Of course, your typical republican is saying "so what? the end justifies the means!" Let's see if they still feel that way when body bags containing our dead fathers and sons begin arriving back here.

And while we're on the subject of those aluminum tubes, Paul Begala had a downright funny exchange with Republican Senator George Allen from Virginia on Crossfire last night. Allen struggled to say the least:

BEGALA: Senator, let me ask you about this matter of the aluminum tubes. First off, earlier in the year, our president say the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, had a report that said Saddam Hussein would have a nuclear weapon in six months. The IAEA said, "With respect, Mr. President, that's false. There's no such report."

Then he told us that there were these aluminum tubes that were going to be used to make nuclear weapons. The U.N. inspectors said that's not the case. The British intelligence, our closest allies, say that's not the case and the American intelligence agencies say that is not the case.

Doesn't our president need to level with us instead of making things up?

ALLEN: What do you reckon they're using them for? Making aluminum baseball bats?

BEGALA: No, sir, they're actually for conventional -- No, they're for conventional weaponry. They're for conventional weapons and not nuclear weapons.

ALLEN: Right. And do you know that their rocketry and missiles far exceed what the United Nations allows them to have? (Allen tries to change the subject. Dumbass!)

BEGALA: Yes, but that doesn't make them nuclear. Why did he say they were for making nuclear bombs when he knew, or should have known...

ALLEN: Well, they could be. They could have been. (Sure, Senotor Allen, but they WERE NOT, so Bush LIED! ha ha!)

BEGALA: So they would have to buy the wrong size tubes and then modify them.

ALLEN: If you want to ignore all the facts and when you use the legal terms...

BEGALA: Are the Brits ignoring the facts?

From the "yo dude, you MUST be kidding' department

The Comcast cable television company rejected ads that an anti-war group wanted to air during President Bush's State of the Union speech, saying they included unsubstantiated claims.

HA HA! Really? There was an HOUR LONG lie fest going on and Comcast was preaching against unsubstantiated claims? Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, would not specify what they objected to. more



Convincing Speech? Bottom-line views on Iraq and the president's job performance barely budged after George W. Bush's State of the Union address.

Most of the positive responses to Bush's speech come from those who are on his side: Among people who support taking military action against Iraq, 79 percent say Bush made a good case for war. But among those who oppose it, 74 percent say he did not. Similarly, while 53 percent of viewers say the speech made them more confident in Bush's ability to handle the situation with Iraq, they disproportionately include supporters of his policy. Seventy-one percent of Republicans, for example, say the speech raised their confidence in Bush's work on Iraq. But only half as many Democrats agree.

Bush had less success, moreover, bolstering public confidence in two other issues he tackled — the economy and health insurance. Just about one-third of viewers say the speech raised their confidence in his ability to handle either one, and again these disproportionately are Republicans. Nearly two in 10 — disproportionately Democrats — say they came away with less confidence in Bush's ability to handle these issues. more

Begala Speaks

In last night's State of the Union address, President Bush promised not to pass along problems to future generations, then he promptly passed more than $1 trillion of new debt onto your children and grandchildren.

Today the congressional budget office delivered the bill. This year's deficit will be $199 billion, not counting any of Mr. Bush's new tax cuts for the rich or a war in Iraq. Factoring these in, private economists believe this year's deficit will be a whopping $300 billion, making it the largest deficit in American history, eclipsing the record held by George Bush Sr..

Now, in defense of the elder Bush, he inherited a fiscal mess from Ronald Reagan. Bush Jr., of course, inherited the largest surplus in history from President Clinton, and then he blew it.

Which is really a surprise because I thought if Junior would be good at anything, it would be at inheriting things. I was wrong.

Encounters with the Patriotism Police

Fun thread going on over at DU concerning republicans who love to say such trash as "if you don't agree with Bush, then leave Amurca!" Here are a few excerpts:

On a local talk radio show some lady snarled to the host, "If you don't like the way President Bush is running the country, GET THE HELL OUT!!".
Well, I guess there's no need to have elections anymore.

Last week, re-entering the U.S. from Canada, customs agent has established that I'm a journalist. He points to newspaper on my back seat. "WHAT are you doing with THAT newspaper?" he demands. It's the National Post, and the headline is FRANCE, GERMANY OPPOSE WAR PLANS.

"What do you write about IRAQ?" he demands. "Um, er, nothing... I design newspapers, not write them." But that doesn't save me from the full trunk search, all luggage unzipped and rummaged through.

last night my boss saw that I was reading War Plan Iraq by Milan Rai and called me a commie (only half jokingly) for being against the war. Anytime I get into a political discussion with him (which I try to avoid) he just parrots whatever was said on Faux News and always throws in "What you don't understand..." somewhere in the conversation. That drives me up the wall. I spend from 3 to 6 hours a day reading various articles from around the world but because I don't watch Faux I don't understand.

Do you have any of your own to share? Talk to me!

Anti-war protesters announce Feb. 15 rally for `millions'

Anti-war protesters on Wednesday predicted "literally millions" of people in New York, San Francisco and more than 30 international cities would march the weekend of Feb. 15 against war in Iraq.

A day after President Bush said in his State of the Union address that he was ready to disarm Saddam Hussein's Iraq, organizers brought politicians, church leaders and Oscar-winning filmmakers Jonathan Demme and Mercedes Ruehl out to announce the protest.

"We can, when we stand up together, actually stop this war from happening," said Leslie Cagan, a co-chairwoman of New York's United for Peace and Justice chapter. more



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out!

BREAKING: Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee Introduces Resolution To Repeal Iraq Resolution. Ted Kennedy Poised To Introduce It To The Senate Says Talkshow Host Randi Rhodes!!

Bush's Disturbing State of the Union...

Fans of George W. Bush must feel like giddy movie goers exiting a Rocky sequal. Hyped by their hero's display of faux physical prowess, they are in complete denial of the cold hard reality of the movie - it lacked substance and will be forgotten next week.

Bush made a grand statement, a lofty promise: 'This country has many challenges. We will not deny, we will not ignore, we will not pass along our problems to other Congresses, other presidents and other generations'...

If Bush is to be believed, he must work to leave this country as he found it in 2004 or 2008. This will not be easy as the following graph shows:



In his address, Bush repeated his claim that there was new evidence that Iraq has concealed "weapons of mass destruction" and has links to Al-Quaida. That may very well be. But as Bob Fertik of Democrats.com said, "If that's true, then why doesn't Bush give the details to U.N. inspectors so they can FIND and DISMANTLE the weapons? Failure to do so is a direct violation of U.N.Resolution 1441.

Former lead weapons inspector Richard Butler summed it up when he said the answer is not war, it is worldwide disarmament -- anything less is a "shocking double standard."

Bush boldly stated in his 2002 address that "my economic security plan can be summed up in one word: jobs." Unemployment has shot up to over 6% since then - the worst in 12 years!

During the same speech, Bush also committed himself to catching the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks. Today, Osama bin Laden seems to have been forgotten.

Last night Bush spoke passionately about AIDS ravaged Africa. He proposed an emergency plan for AIDS Relief, "a work of mercy beyond all current international efforts to help the people of Africa." Yet, in June, 2001, the Washington Post reported the president's choice to run the US Agency for International Development, Andrew Natsios, argued against giving antiviral drugs to the 25 million Africans that suffer from AIDS because Africans can't tell time! Apparently, taking AIDS drugs often involves a strict regimen, one which Natsios seems to think Africans aren't intelligent enough to keep. Instead, he suggested stressing "abstinence, faithfulness and the use of condoms" for preventing future outbreaks.

In August of last year, Bush withheld $5.1 billion in spending mandated by Congress - some of which was earmarked for overseas AIDS workers. more

Just two months ago, the Bush administration removed information on preventing AIDS from websites belonging to the Department of Health and Human Services. more

Earlier this month, Bush chose Jerry Thacker, who characterized AIDS as a "gay plague," to serve on the President Advisory Commission on HIV and AIDS.

I could go on and on. Each point he made was a contradiction of actions he's already taken. All in all, the speech was nothing more than a re-election speech for 2004, full of promises of things he should have already done.

If I may make another boxing comparison, Watching the State of the Union address reminded me of a prize fight. I could tell those cheering for the pResident thought he won, but I could see the disappointment in their eyes that he didn't deliver a knock-out punch. Indeed, most of America feels that way, too, as indicated by this morning's CNN poll in which over half of Americans felt the pResident's performance was either average or below par.

Considering that most of the points in his speech are contrary to his job performance so far, he'll have to train a bit harder for his next big battle - actually backing up what he has said.

Bush Speech Casts Issues in Simple Terms

Americans are still being asked to take it on faith that the government knows what it has yet to show -- that Iraq is hiding weapons of mass destruction and has ties to al-Qaida.

The allegations were thicker than the evidence in President Bush's State of the Union speech Tuesday night. Officials say details of the charges will come in time, perhaps soon, maybe in part next week.

As usual in a president's summary of the nation's condition and where he wants to take it, nuances were left out -- sometimes material ones -- as he ranged across domestic and foreign policy.

The huge American audience, and those paying heed around the world, saw complex issues cast in simplest terms. more

Various takes on the speech...

Halfway through George W. Bush's presidential term, it's become fashionable to declare him a surprise and a success. He's been widely praised for his reaction to devastating terrorist attacks, and for his ability to sort through conflicting visions within his cabinet. Those who wrote him off as a feckless lightweight up until Sept. 10, 2001, appear mistaken. At this point, the prospects for re-election in 2004 look good.

The problem with these apple-cheeked assessments comes when you look at what Mr. Bush has actually done -- as opposed to what he's talked about doing, threatened to do or stopped others from doing. His list of achievements is remarkably short and, taken together, make a tepid package. more

There was no smoking gun last night. There was merely a smoky allusion.

President Bush tried to sell skittish Americans on a war with Iraq by alluding to the possibility of a link between Saddam and Al Qaeda.

Outlaw regimes seeking bad weapons, Mr. Bush said, "could also give or sell those weapons to terrorist allies, who would use them without the least hesitation."

The axis of evil has shrunk to Saddam, evil incarnate. Iran and North Korea were put aside with the dismissive comment: "Different threats require different strategies."

The state of the union is skeptical. more

President Bush declared economic recovery his top goal Tuesday night, but offered little in the way of fresh arguments to convince a skeptical public and Congress to enact his $670 billion tax-cut plan. more

Americans are still being asked to take it on faith that the government knows what it has yet to show -- that Iraq is hiding weapons of mass destruction and has ties to al-Qaida.

The allegations were thicker than the evidence in President Bush's State of the Union speech Tuesday night. Officials say details of the charges will come in time, perhaps soon, maybe in part next week.

As usual in a president's summary of the nation's condition and where he wants to take it, nuances were left out -- sometimes material ones -- as he ranged across domestic and foreign policy.

The huge American audience, and those paying heed around the world, saw complex issues cast in simplest terms. more

From The Mail Bag

haha fuck you. Bush just kicked you in the nuts bitch!
VHILLIARD1@triad.rr.com

Oh golly gee! You got me! I apologize for all the bad things I've ever said about our brilliant president.

Honestly, is THAT the best you can throw at me? V. Hilliard, YOU are a dumbass!

All He Left Unsaid by William Rivers Pitt

On Tuesday night, the wretched specter of September 11th returned to Logan airport, departure point for the planes that took down the Twin Towers. Hours before George W. Bush delivered his State of the Union speech, a commercial aircraft had to be emptied, and its passengers re-screened, after a box cutter was discovered in a seat pocket.

During his speech, Bush attempted to tout the actions he has taken to secure the nation against terrorism. He spoke of the Homeland Security Department, increased border patrols, and 50,000 new airport security screeners in place across the country. He failed, of course, to mention the devious Total Information Awareness database that came along with Homeland Security, and he failed to mention how bitterly he fought to keep those 50,000 screeners out of the airports, because they would be Federalized workers and thus able to unionize.

So much went unsaid during his speech. That box cutter at Logan, however, spoke volumes. more

Did you miss this one? When Didn’t They Know It, and What About You?

You remember watching all those "Nazi holocaust" films, most of which focused on the question of the moral culpability of the German people. "Why didn’t these people do something? Couldn’t they see what was going on all around them? How can they pretend they didn’t know what the Nazi regime was doing?" Implicit in such questions has been a condemnation of most Hitler-era Germans for not standing up to say "no!" to this vicious regime... In years to come, when Americans have managed to put an end to their collective insanity and rediscover what it is like to live in peace and freedom with one another in a society capable of producing life-sustaining values, you may be asked by your grandchild: "what was it like back then, living under a police state? What did you do?" How will you answer her? more

Prescott Bush, 1.5 Million Dollars, and Auschwitz: How The Bush Family Wealth is Linked To The Jewish Holocaust!

On April 19, 2001, President George W. Bush spent some of Holocaust Remembrance Day in the Capital Rotunda with holocaust survivors, allied veterans, and their families. In a ceremony that included Jewish prayers and songs sung by holocaust victims in the camps, Benjamin Meed, a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, movingly described to the gathering what he experienced on April 19, 1943.

"I stood outside a Catholic church, which faced the ghetto," Mr. Meed said, "a young Jewish boy posing as a gentile. As I watched the ghetto being bombarded by the German artillery, I could see many of the Jews of my community jumping out of windows of burning buildings. I stood long and mute."

The survivor concluded his reminiscence saying, "We tremble to think what could happen if we allow a new generation to arise ignorant of the tragedy which is still shaping the future."

President Bush, appearing almost uncomfortable, read a statement that said that humanity was "bound by conscience to remember what happened" and that "the record has been kept and preserved." The record, Mr. Bush stated, was that one of the worst acts of genocide in human history "came not from crude and uneducated men, but from men who regarded themselves as cultured and well schooled, modern men, forward looking. Their crime showed the world that evil can slip in and blend in amid the most civilized surroundings. In the end only conscience can stop it."

But while President Bush publicly embraced the community of holocaust survivors in Washington last spring, he and his family have been keeping a secret from them for over 50 years about Prescott Bush, the president's grandfather. According to classified documents from Dutch intelligence and US government archives, President George W. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush made considerable profits off Auschwitz slave labor. In fact, President Bush himself is an heir to these profits from the holocaust which were placed in a blind trust in 1980 by his father, former president George Herbert Walker Bush... more

Flashback November 2001: Controversy surrounds Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Justice Department's detention of at least 60 Jews...

Controversy surrounds Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Justice Department's detention of at least 60 Israeli Jews in the United States as part of America's September 11 terror probe. Some of the Jews have been jailed for up to 60 days on the pretext of minor offenses involving working papers and other violations.

None of the detainments have produced a single public charge in connection with Sept. 11.

Federal officials have presented no evidence that the Jews, most of whom worked selling toys and trinkets at kiosks in shopping malls, had anything to do with terrorism, reported the WASHINGTON POST on Friday.

In one of the few cases to reach a hearing, a federal administrative law judge in Cleveland rejected any suggestion that the 11 Jews before her had any ties to terrorists.

Five young Israelis recently released from two months in US jails described oppressive conditions and rough treatment, saying they "were treated like terrorists" even after it quickly became clear they were not involved in the World Trade Center attack...

The Nazification of America rolls on...

out.

The "Hans Blix" Report: What Does It Mean?

"The most important point to make is that access has been provided to all sites we have wanted to inspect, and with one exception, it has been prompt." said chief inspector Hans Blix. "But," he added, "It was not enough to open doors."

Say what? The inspectors objective was to inspect sites thought to house weapons. They have been given access and, with one exception, it has been quick. The inspectors were given what they came for. Blix admits that. But he now says it isn't enough? Is Blix miffed that the Iraqis weren't nice about it? No chips, salsa, and beer waiting for the inspectors at each site? None of that famous Iraqi hospitality?

I mentioned yesterday that just four days prior the UN nuclear agency said Friday that Baghdad deserves a "B" grade for its cooperation with weapons inspectors and that the Security Council will be asked Monday to give the inspectors more time to finish their job. Did something happen over the weekend we don't know about?

Mr. Blix delineated a long list of problems relating to his inspectors' ability to adequately ascertain the state of Iraq's weapons program. This is where his statements get a little comical.

"Our Iraqi counterparts are fond of saying that there are no proscribed items, and if no evidence is presented to the contrary, they should have the benefit of the doubt, be presumed innocent."

"Presumptions do not solve the problem," Mr. Blix added. "Evidence and full transparency help."

Mr. Blix, what was your purpose? To inspect, right? Did you find anything? All indications point to "no." Yet, you've joined Bush in insinuating that just because no evidence has been found, that doesn't mean none exists. It sounds as though Iraq is caught in a "damned if they do, damned if they don't" scenario here. If that is the case, then you've effectively rendered your job meaningless.

Fortunately, the report has changed very little in the eyes of the world. It has been interpreted as a sign that inspections are working and that you and your crews need more time.

Evidence of Weapons Concealment to Be Shared in Effort to Boost Support for War

Here's something else that isn't quite clear to me. The Bush administration has assembled what it believes to be significant intelligence showing that Iraq has been actively moving and concealing banned weapons systems and related equipment from United Nations inspectors, according to informed sources.

After a lengthy debate over what and how much of the intelligence to disclose, President Bush and his national security advisers have decided to declassify some of the information and make it public, perhaps as early as next week, in an effort to garner more domestic and international support for confronting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein with military force, officials said. more

If Bush has this information, why are we wasting time with inspectors? Why didn't the pResident just tell Blix yesterday, "thanks, but we have our evidence...here it is"...? Once again, the inspectors' jobs are rendered meaningless. Unless, of course, that is the objective - to make the inspectors appear incompetent for missing such crucial evidence...

Kentuck at the DU forum points out:

It's the one question that the corporate media has yet to ask the Bush Administration. How do you know Saddam still has weapons of mass destruction and chemical weapons? They might be surprised at the answer.

"Well, when Poppy and Ronnie were in power, we gave Saddam these weapons....and the last inspectors could never account for all of them. We want to know where they are? We had an inventory of everything that we gave Saddam and we have not yet found all the deathly weapons that Poppy and Ronnie gave to this madman...."

Former U.N. arms inspector Richard Butler: Washington promoting "shocking double standards" in dealing with Iraq!

Former U.N. arms inspector Richard Butler said Tuesday that Washington was promoting "shocking double standards" in considering taking unilateral military action to rid Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction.

"The spectacle of the United States, armed with its weapons of mass destruction, acting without Security Council authority to invade a country in the heartland of Arabia and, if necessary, use its weapons of mass destruction to win that battle, is something that will so deeply violate any notion of fairness in this world that I strongly suspect it could set loose forces that we would deeply live to regret," Butler said. more

Bush to show direct link of Iraq, al Qaeda

The Bush administration will present new evidence directly linking Saddam Hussein with the al Qaeda terrorist group to bolster the White House position that the United Nations should get "one last chance" to enforce its resolutions on Iraq, a senior official said yesterday. STOP!

If Mr. Bush's evidence here is compelling enough (and proves to be true) then all bets are off. We on the left have been saying all along that we need to get Al Qaeda first then go after Iraq. If there is a connection - I mean a direct connection - then a convincing case of war with Iraq could be made. But Mr. Bush? Please don't make it up. We'll be watchng... more

Republicans: Pop Divas are the reason America's image has slipped in the world

Recently, the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, a rightwing conservative organization, did a survey to measure world opinion of the United States. What it found was an overwhelmingly favorable impression of Americans has slipped. No surprise there. But here is where the conservative bias of the survey kicks in. in 19 out of 27 countries where trends can be measured, Americans are no longer seen as passive, kind-hearted, law-abiding people. In fact, according to Washington Times republican shill reporter John McCaslin, Hollywood is the reason. "Americans are perceived as overbearing, aggressive and domineering — if not downright criminal."

He quotes that bastion of honesty and intergrity, Newt Gingrich, as an expert source to back up these dubious claims. In one op-ed column last week in the Los Angeles Times, Gingrich said "thanks to Tony Soprano, 'Sex and the City' and young pop divas, Hollywood has given us our unflattering image."

Mr. Gingrich labeled "astounding" what Boston University professors Melvin and Margaret DeFleur found when surveying 1,259 teenagers from 12 countries about their attitudes toward Americans.

"Few of those surveyed had any direct contact with Americans — only 12 percent had visited the U.S.," he noted. "But they did have access to American television programs, movies and pop music, and based on that exposure, most of these teens considered Americans to be violent, prone to criminal activity and sexually immoral."

Of course, the rightwingers are conducting these surveys and spewing such conservative buzz phrases like "sexually immoral" to counteract a more respected and thorough survey done late last year by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. This one was done in 44 countries with 38,000 interviews (compared to the 27 countries of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research survey and the mere 1,259 interviews from the Boston University survey.) and had quite different results.

The most common criticisms of the United States in the Pew Research survey are that it acts by itself, it pushes policies that widen the gap between rich and poor nations, and it doesn't do enough to solve the world's problems.

Anger has been further fueled by the United States' prominent military role in the world as part of the war on terrorism — a marked shift from its 1990s role as a driving force in the global economy.

America’s image also suffers from the perception that our foreign policy is hypocritical and our leaders arrogant. These findings are a direct reflection of our current leadership. So of course the right is going to do their own little survey and try to shift the blame.

But we've always had hollywood and pop divas. Two shows like the Sopranos and Sex and the City aren't so different than what has been produced by hollywood for generations. Would these conservatives make a case that John Wayne and Charlton Heston shoulder some blame in their findings? Probably not. And it's interesting that similar surveys in the past have never given a negative "hollywood/pop music" connection to world opinion on the U.S.

This is just one more example of the conservative right trying to blame their shortcomings on the one thing that they cannot control - pop culture - and deflect the real problem: Themselves.

Wall Street Journal misquotes FOX News to prove they're right. But they got it wrong!

In another classic example of conservatives twisting facts in an attempt to prove they're right, a Wall Street Journal piece says, "The political class warriors can never seem to figure out why their 'tax cuts for the rich' mantra fails to sway the American public. In the spirit of educating even our opponents, we'd point them to a recent poll from Fox News..." They then detail part of the FOX News poll that asked voters what is the maximum share of income that any American should pay in taxes. The Wall Street Journal piece then points out with glee that "more than half (53%) think it should be no more than 20 percent." What they fail to mention is that in the same poll in 1999, 65% felt that way. So the number of people who feel that taxes should be no more than 20 percent has actually declined. Dramatically. If that trend continues, in 2008, only 41% will take the Wall Street Journal's position. It seems that, despite what this opinion piece said, the "tax cuts for the rich mantra" has and is continuing to sway the American people because it is true.

Oh, and the Wall Street Journal completely ignored the part of the FOX News poll which clearly show the majority of those surveyed feel Bush's new economic plan is unfair.

But what do you expect from rightwingers?

Zogby America Poll: Bush losing ground to all Democratic challengers
Ipsos-Reid/Cook Political Report Poll: Only 40% will definitely vote for Bush in 2004 more

Only one major poll DOESN'T have Bush's approval in the 50s. You guessed it! more...

Bring Back 'Tricky Dick!'

Newsweek's Eleanor Clift, on 'The McLaughlin Group' over the weekend, yearned for the return of Richard Nixon to the presidency. "I'd like to have Richard Nixon back actually. I think he'd be a huge improvement."

Clift's pining for Nixon came after she said that Bush's new economic team 'will be a disaster' because they are selling 'the same stupid policy' as the old team. She then awarded Bush an 'F' grade for his first two years in office.

Clift asserted that Ari Fleischer is a mouthpiece and the press can't stand him. "The president loves him because this is the most secretive and arrogant administration we have seen — probably since the days of Richard Nixon." she said.

I think Nixon would be an improvement, too. But if we could replace Bush, why waste the opportunity on Nixon? How about Roosevelt, Kennedy, or Clinton?

Daschle accuses Bush of lying over economy, so does Rightwing Slayer!

President Bush has been "saying all the right things, but doing very few of them," since Sept. 11, 2001, Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said Monday. Daschle and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also find the Bush administration wanting on other key issues.

Speaking to reporters for the Democrat view of the State of the Union before Bush's Tuesday speech, the congressional leaders laid out what they call a series of broken promises by the president and the failure of his economic policies.

"While promising relief to hard-pressed middle-class families, the White House delivers a reward to wealthy investors," Daschle said of the Bush economic proposal. "While promising to bring new accountability and responsibility to government, the White House runs up huge deficits - and then blames it on the war."

"Plus, he's a big dumbass!" Blogger Rightwing Slayer added. more

Prepare yourself for this one... I'm serious!

In the years since the first Gulf war, Dr. Janan Hassan and other doctors in Iraq have seen what they say is an ever-growing number of babies with hideous birth defects. Last year alone, at least 137 were born with congenital malformities, five times as many as reported in 1991.

And that is not the only frightening trend. Iraqi authorities say the number of children and adults stricken with leukemia, lymphoma and other types of cancer has also soared since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

To the Iraqis, there is a simple explanation. They blame the increases on exposure to depleted uranium, a radioactive substance used in weapons fired during the war by U.S.-led forces.

"Pentagon Experts" state there is no proof of these deformities caused by depleted uranium exposure, yet they block any medical research to determine the problem.

DON'T CLICK HERE if you love children. You will be appalled at what our "weapons of mass destruction" has done to the children of Iraq, not to mention our own soldiers and future generations of Americans.



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Blix: Iraq Has Not Accepted Disarmament - What a difference 4 days makes!

Top weapons inspector Hans Blix on Monday said Baghdad had not genuinely accepted U.N. resolutions demanding that it disarm. However, the UN nuclear agency said Friday that Baghdad deserves a "B" grade for its cooperation with weapons inspectors and that the Security Council will be asked Monday to give the inspectors more time to finish their job. Why the flip flop?

Has Hans Blix handed George W. Bush his war? And what of the missing 8,000 pages the United States edited out of Iraq’s 11,800-page dossier on weapons before it passed on a “sanitized” version to the 10 non-permanent members of the United Nations security council?

Without all the information, the non-permanent members of the Security Council will have no way of testing the US claims for themselves if the US and the UK go back to the Security Council seeking authorization to wage war on Iraq due to alleged breaches of resolution 1441.

According to Geneva-based reporter, Andreas Zumach, missing pages provided the names of US corporations, government agencies and even nuclear labs that over the years have helped arm Iraq, and train Iraqi personnel in the use of these arms—illegally.

So what we have here is this: The U.S. has said continuously they have proof of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction but have refused to reveal it. If these missing pages contain that proof, then revealing them would also reveal the names of the U.S. companies that helped arm Iraq.

Is Bush protecting these companies, once again putting corporate America above all else? According to thememoryhole.org, the following U.S. companies have aided Iraq in its nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons programs: Honeywell, Spectra Physics, Semetex, Unisys, Sperry Corp., Tektronix, Rockwell, Leybold Vacuum Systems, Finnigan-MAT-US, Hewlett-Packard, Dupont, Eastman Kodak, American Type Culture Collection, Alcolac International, Consarc, Carl Zeiss - U.S, Cerberus (LTD), Electronic Associates, International Computer Systems, Bechtel, EZ Logic Data Systems, Inc., Canberra Industries Inc., and Axel Electronics Inc.

The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks wants to talk to top Bush Administration officials

After a bumpy start that included the resignation of Henry Kissinger as its first chairman, the commission investigating pre-Sept. 11 government lapses may remain just as controversial. Two commissioners of the bipartisan panel, which holds its first meeting this week, told TIME they will push for a wide-ranging, aggressive probe that will include testimony from top Bush Administration officials who didn't testify last year in a joint inquiry by the House and Senate intelligence committees.

The probe will push for testimony from Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell and Ashcroft, and perhaps even Bush himself.

"I can't imagine that we wouldn't be talking to them." Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, a key architect of the legislation forming the commission, said the Bush Administration "slow-walked and stonewalled" the House-Senate inquiry. "I don't see how you can have a thorough investigation without talking to the people who were in charge throughout the time period prior to 9/11."

One panelist, Tim Roemer, a retired congressman, feels all relevant Bush officials must be interviewed this time around, along with officials from prior Administrations dating back to the 90s.

Roemer complained in a statement he issued last month as a member of the House-Senate panel that the congressional probe suffered because such officials as Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, John Ashcroft and Condoleezza Rice "were not questioned directly about issues related to the Sept. 11 attacks." A Rumsfeld spokesman refused to "speculate on what participation will be extended" to the commission.

The commission holds its first meeting in Washington today, 16 months after the attacks. The Republican controlled congress has given the commision just $3 million and little more than a year to explore the causes of the attacks, preparations for future terrorism and the response to the airline hijackings that killed more than 3,000 Americans.

By comparison, Republicans spent 8 years and over $100 million investigating Bill Clinton, only to prove he got a blow job.

For concise timelines leading to 9/11, click here and here.

Related:

Before Sept. 11, the Bush Anti-Terror Effort Was Mostly Ambition

Commission warned Bush but White House passed on terrorism recommendations

The Lies We're Told About Iraq

The Bush administration's confrontation with Iraq is as much a contest of credibility as it is of military force. Washington claims that Baghdad harbors ambitions of aggression, continues to develop and stockpile weapons of mass destruction and maintains ties to Al Qaeda. Lacking solid evidence, the public must weigh Saddam Hussein's penchant for lies against the administration's own record for honesty. Based on recent history, that's not an easy choice... more

U.N. Officials Say Intelligence To Prove U.S. Claims Is Lacking

No surprise here! U.N. officials involved in the inspections accused the United States and other foreign governments of providing "little actionable evidence" in their search for a smoking gun in Iraq. In other words, the unelected fraud is giving bogus information to the inspectors.

"We know the Americans have concerns, but if they want to make their case . . . they should be more forthcoming with us," one official said.

The "case" Bush has made for attacking Iraq gets more and more laughable as the days go by. Still, I'm not ready to declare that Saddam isn't stockpiling weapons. I'm just saying we should give the inspections time to work.

Overall, though, Bush the texas dumbass is doing this largely for political reasons. He's lazy. He's ignoring the real powder kegs in the middle east as well as the India/Pakistan conflicts that could really lead to a nuclear exchange.

You supporters of Bush as such suckers!

Susan McDougal Speaking Out — Finally

For years Susan McDougal didn't talk. For her silence she would spend 18 months in jail for contempt of court...plus three-and-a-half months for fraud. But now she's telling her story in "The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk."

You could call it "McDougal's Revenge," It's more than her life story. It's a bitter indictment of White House Independent counsel Ken Starr, who led the battle to get her to lie about President Bill Clinton. She claims Starr's team was not interested in hearing the truth; they wanted her to accuse Bill and Hillary Clinton of fraud.

"I believe they thought they had the goods, enough to get him," she says. "Not the truth, but the goods. And I believe they went after him with untruthful witnesses, with perjured testimony... more

Between Iraq and a Hard Place

In this British comedy, the Americans see the chance to bring traditional Western values to the Middle East: democracy (from the people who brought you George W Bush); freedom (from the people who brought you Guantanamo Bay) and economic prosperity (from the people who bought you Enron).

See the movie here.

Bush approval drops in more polls

CNN: 53% approval; Newsweek: 55%; NBC News/Wall Street Journal: 54%

Ten polls now have Dubyah in the 50s. Anyone want to bet when he hits the upper 40s?

Sucker Puncher!

According to The American Prowler, Former President Bill Clinton is telling friends and Democratic insiders that the Gore campaign in 2000 never gave him a chance to enter the fray against George W. Bush. "Now that he doesn't have to hold back for anyone, he's campaigning against Bush like he wanted to back then," says a former Clinton staffer. "The gloves are off."

The article by the Prowler says signs of Clinton stepping back into the bare-knuckled political arena were evident last week, when he tore into Bush for the administration's economic stimulus package and the deficits the war on terror and the weakened economy are creating.

Another example detailed by this article happenned later in the same week when Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton lashed Bush over homeland security in a speech the former president told friends he helped craft.

"President Clinton has said he wants to use the next two years to wear down Bush so whoever is the Democratic candidate will have an easier time of beating him," says the former Clinton aide. "He's going to show the party the way to beat the Republicans. If they choose to ignore him, and lose again in 2004, it just means that Hillary will have a clearer field to run in in 2008. Either way, Clinton wins."

An article you might have missed: Documentary of US 'war crimes' shocks Europe

American soldiers have been involved in the torture and murder of captured Taliban prisoners, and may have aided in the "disappearance" of up to 3 000 men in the region of Mazar-i-Sharif, according to Jamie Doran, an Irish documentary film-maker.

Doran's latest film, Massacre At Mazar, was shown on Wednesday in in the Reichstag, the German parliament building in Berlin, and there were immediate calls for an international commission to be set up to investigate charges made in the documentary. more

BUSH AND HITLER: Is History Repeating Itself?

No one expected Hitler to rise to power. He had failed at just about everything he had ever undertaken until he discovered politics. In the world of spin and power plays, a superficial gift of gab and bullish determination could replace intelligence and idealism without missing a beat. Hitler found that the path to the top was short: Just tell a discontent people what they want to hear and make promises you have no intention to keep. more

From the mailbag!

I don't know what caused this to appear on my screen but I NEVER want this to appear again. I couldn't possibly disagree more with its content.
Ken Campbell

Well, then, Ken, FIRST you have to take personal responsibility for your actions. You either clicked a link, typed in the URL directly, or went to a site that has it as a pop-under. THAT is what caused it to appear on your screen.

Second, if you don't want it to appear again, don't do the things mentioned above. Simple, huh?

And please tell me, Ken. What did you disagree with? Everything stated is a fact. Perhaps you just don't know the difference between something that isn't true and
something you WISH isn't true.

Slow news day, so I'm out.. unless something happens...

U.S. weighs NUCLEAR STRIKE on Iraq!

Read this damnit!

One year after President Bush labeled Iraq, Iran and North Korea the "axis of evil," the United States is thinking about the unthinkable: It is preparing for the possible use of nuclear weapons against Iraq. Why? Let's put this into perspective, ok? Iraq has been under constant attack since the beginning of the first Gulf war. During the Gulf War, US-led Coalition forces dropped 88,500 tons of bombs on Iraq, more than were dropped on Europe during WWII. Targets included electrical generating plants, water treatment facilities, and sewage treatment plants. Because of the sanctions in place since the end of the Gulf war, Iraq has been unable to repair or replace these facilities which are vital to the health of the entire civilian population. As a result, disease has been rampant.

The Iraqi Ministry of Health estimates that 109,720 persons have died annually between August 1990 and March 1994 as a direct result of the sanctions. There is now a two-fold increase in infant mortality and a five-fold increase in under-5 mortality because of these samctions. There are 4,500 children under the age of 5 dying each month from hunger and disease. In Central/Southern Iraq, 27.5 percent of Iraq's three million children (some 900,000) are now at risk of acute malnutrition.

Read this damnit!

Due to the hazards of the water supply, government statistical office figures show 1,819 cases of typhoid fever in 1989 and 24,436 cases in 1994. Similarly, there were no reported cases of cholera in 1989, but 1,345 cases in 1994.

Fifty percent of rural people have no access to potable water.

Waste-water treatment facilities have stopped functioning in most urban areas.

In rural areas, only half the people have access to a water supply from a network, public tap, or well, and only 34 percent have a sanitary type of latrine.

Article 48 of the Geneva Convention reads: It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensible to the survival of the civilian population such as food, livestock, agricultural areas and drinking water installations. The United States is, and has been, in direct violation of the Geneva Convention.

... AND THE BOMBS KEEP COMING!

Now, our unelected fraud wants to add to this misery by using nuclear arms? Have you ever seen what nuclear radiation does to a person who isn't lucky enough to die instantly?



At the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) in Omaha and inside planning cells of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, target lists are being scrutinized, options are being pondered and procedures are being tested to give nuclear armaments a role in the new U.S. doctrine of "preemption."

Isn't Bush supposed to be a christian?



Everyone needs to come together and stop this madness! more and more

Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas strikes again!

I love this woman! Fresh on the heels of calling George W. Bush the worst president ever, she slams Ari Fleischer on Iraq - and snidly refers to Bush as a king!

Helen: Who in this country, beside the President and his courtiers, want to go to war with Iraq?

MR. FLEISCHER: I'm not aware of anybody here who wants to go to war with Iraq, Helen. But the President very much wants to protect the peace by making sure that Saddam Hussein cannot engage in war against us.

Helen: He's aware that there is widespread opposition to war in this country?

MR. FLEISCHER: Do you think that the majority of the Americans are opposed to war with Iraq, Helen?

Helen: I think so. What do you think?

MR. FLEISCHER: I think if you take a look at all the public surveys on this issue, there's a lot of Americans who believe that Saddam Hussein does, indeed, pose a threat. And they believe --

Helen: They'll give their brothers, their husbands, their children?

MR. FLEISCHER: -- and they believe that if the President, knowing what he knows, makes the determination that the best way to protect the American people from the risks that we have seen our nation is vulnerable to --

Helen: So he believes people want to go to war?

MR. FLEISCHER: -- is to disarm Saddam Hussein from having weapons of mass destruction, the President will make a case --

Helen: We have weapons of mass destruction. Eight other countries have them.

MR. FLEISCHER: And how many resolutions has the United Nations passed urging us to not have the weapons that we have that have successfully kept the peace for 50 years?

Helen: How many other nations have defied U.N. resolutions and gotten away with it?

MR. FLEISCHER: None like Saddam Hussein on a measure that has been this unequivocal, where the world has called on him --

Helen: I could give you chapter and verse otherwise.

(Thanks to Robear for this!)

Someone tell me why the rightwing loons are soooo pissed at this picture?



They say she is desecrating the American flag by sitting on it. They seem to forget they've desecrated "the Republic for which it stands" by installing dumbass as pResident.

I think, though, that they just HATE seeing a black tennis champion. Further, Slayer - being as white as wonderbread, thinks she's a hottie. I guess the KKK will have a burning cross on my lawn soon...



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Parents: If your sons and daughters die in Bush's oil war, they'll rot in mass graves!

The bodies of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq or future wars may be bulldozed into mass graves and burned under an option being considered by the Pentagon.

Since the Korean War, the U.S. military has taken great pride in bringing home its war dead, returning bodies to next of kin for flag-draped, taps-sounding funerals complete with 21-gun salutes. But the 53-year-old tradition could come to an abrupt halt if large numbers of soldiers are killed by chemical or biological agents, according to a proposal quietly circulating through Pentagon corridors. more

Disgusting that Bush is preparing for such a tragedy to line the pockets of his rich supporters... how many young men and women do you know who'll die to keep the Republicans in power and their oil buddies happy?

GOP Priorities - More interested in Clinton's penis than investigating 9/11!

BuzzFlash points out that the Republican controlled congress spent over $62 million investigating Bill Clinton's genitalia but will only allocate $3 million to investigate the failures leading to 9/11! It's true. Yes it is. The reTHUGlicans are puritanical morons. But a least they spend money on things they feel matter the most - like investigating a blow job instead of the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil!

Rightwing fundamentalist redneck judge suggests link between Sept. 11 and legal decisions

The Alabama chief justice famous for his Ten Commandments fight warned an audience Tuesday night of "great consequences" when America turns away from God and suggested the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks might be an example.

Roy Moore, in Washington to accept an honorary doctorate in divinity from the National Clergy Council and Methodist Episcopal Church U.S.A., implied a parallel between the attacks and what he contends has been a 40-year legal erosion of religious rights, including his own right to display the Ten Commandments in court.

When asked if he was familiar with the spirit of the First Amendment's etablishment clause, Mr. Moore asked whether it was in the old or new testament. more

World war has begun, leader says

As the Malaysian Prime Minister sees it, the Third World War has already begun between "the axis of evil and Satan."

In a provocative speech to delegates at the start of the annual World Economic Forum, Mahathir Mohamad painted a picture of the West, particularly the United States, facing an enemy it doesn't understand and doesn't seek to understand.

"We fear terrorists. We fear flying. We fear night clubs. We fear parcels. We fear white powder. We fear shoes. We fear Muslims. We fear metal cutlery," he said.

"They fear starvation. They fear military invasion. They fear being rocketed. They fear being captured and detained." more Refer to this article a year from now and see if Bush has been declared a war criminal.

Bush's Senior terror adviser to resign. Why?

Richard A. Clarke, a blunt-spoken White House adviser who raised warnings about Islamic terrorism and biological weapons years before they became nightmare headlines, is resigning. Clarke, the pResident's counterterrorism coordinator at the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks, was disinclined to accept a senior position in the new Homeland Security Department and will resign instead.

Clarke already has submitted his resignation letter to the pResident, one person said. Clarke is among the country's longest-serving White House staffers, hired in 1992 from the State Department to deal with threats from terrorism and narcotics.

Apparently, now that terrorism is no longer Bush's focus, Clarke saw no place for himself in the coming illegal war with Iraq. more

Quotes From the Crossfire!

"A report from the Associated Press earlier today said that the top nuclear watchdog investigating Iraq has plans to tell the United Nations the Iraqis' cooperation has been, quote, "quite satisfactory." In fact, the inspector planned to give Saddam Hussein a "B."

Now, the International Atomic Energy Agency later retracted this grade, saying that the comment was not appropriate and that its the U.N. Security Council's job, not its job, to pass judgment.

Now, if we're grading President Bush for the accuracy of the matter of Iraq's nuclear program, on the other hand, maybe I'd be generous to give him an "I" for incomplete. Here's why.

In September, our president told the United Nations that Saddam Hussein tried to buy aluminum tubes which, our president said were, quote, "used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons," end quote. Now, as "the Washington Post" quotes today, experts in the United States government, as well as British and U.N. experts, say that claim is now seriously in doubt. Turns out the tubes are for conventional weapons.

Said one American expert to the post, quote, "If the U.S. government puts out bad information, it runs the risk of undermining the good information it possesses."

Something to think about as President Bush rattles the sabers next week in his State of the Union address." Paul Begala

and...

"More information has come to light today on the extent to which President Bush relied on affirmative action to get his elite, private education.

Nicholas Kristof of "The New York Times" reports today that George w. Bush got a far greater boost to get into Phillips Andover Academy than minority kids get today at the University of Michigan.

What's more, when he applied to Yale, Mr. Bush's SAT scores were, according to Mr. Kristof, 78 points lower than Yale's median in math and a whopping 102 points below the median for verbal skills. No surprise there.

Yet Mr. Bush got into Andover, just as he got into Yale, just as he got into a coveted, non-combat slot in the National Guard during Vietnam.

Perhaps Hispanic and black kids today could learn from our president's example. If you want to get ahead in life, don't rely on affirmative action. Do it the old fashioned way, rely on your family's name and your daddy's money." Paul Begala

From the mailbag

Thanks for all you do, News is fun again! You are my number one read over the Morning Coffee!
Rob
Seattle Wa.

Rob, I'm honored you've chosen my blog to share your coffee with. Thank you!

I am a Scotsman who has is sick to the bones of the illusion of truth that most of the NATO country's leaders like to pull over the voting public. I beleive after personal research related to 911 that it may well have been an attack on the USA instigated by the USA. What better sacrafice to make but destroy an international business centre with citezens from most developed countrys working their. The men on the planes may thought that they were giving up their lives to martyrdom and Allah. But surely there has to be truth in various reports and facts collated by what remains of the free press.

There has to be more to life other than those at the top using our hard earned currency to buy themselves more power.

There has to be more than war in Iraq. I mean dont Bin Laden and President Hussain dislike each other so much that Bin Laden offered kill Hussain during the first Gulf War. Was it not the CIA who trained Bin Laden? Was it not The USA and UK that supplied our great ally (Iraq) with weapons of mass destruction to be used against Iran?

Why then has the propaganda Machine been painting these too suposidely evil men with the "we must destroy them" brush, when actually we created them?

We all forget too easily these important fact. It has been my own Britain that has rewritten the geographical bounderies of the Middle East for most of Modern History, all the time placing them where we wanted them to keep all the tribe suspicious and jealous of each other. Imagine if they united under one common leader, the economic power they could hold over the west. So whether it be about oil, economics, terror or whatever, uslot in the west have made our bed and well we have to lie in it.
Murray Visentin

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Bush Accuses Joint Chiefs Of Treason!

Dim Bulb's Meltdown Continues...There Will Be NO MORE TREASON!

As Senior Pentagon officials are quietly urging pResident George W. Bush to slow down his headlong rush to war with Iraq, complaining the administration’s course of action represents too much of a shift of America’s longstanding “no first strike” policy and that the move could well result in conflicts with other Arab nations, the pResident is having one his famous temper tantrums. A White House Source reveals, “the President considers this nation to be at war, and, as such, considers any opposition to his policies to be no less than an act of treason.”

Conversations with sources within the Bush administration, the Pentagon, the FBI and the intelligence community indicate a deepening rift between the professionals who wage war for a living and the amateurs within the adminstration who to want to send them into battle.

Sources say the White House has ordered the FBI and CIA to “find and document” links between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

“The implication is clear,” grumbles one longtime FBI agent. “Find a link, any link, no matter how vague or unproven, and then use that link to justify action against Iraq.” more

...And Speaking of Demented Rightwing Zealots Crying "Treason..."

Leading conservanazi pundit Ann Coulter contends quite ignorantly that liberals have been wrong on every major domestic and foreign policy issue of the last half century, from the fight against Communism at home and abroad, the Nixon and Clinton presidencies, and the struggle with the Soviet empire, right up to today's war on terrorism. "Liberals have a preternatural gift for always striking a position on the side of treason," says Coulter. "Everyone says liberals love America, too. No they don't."

In her new book, Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism, she apparently defends Senator Joseph McCarthy,a truly frightening assessment if her readers take her seriously.

She must also believe the Iran-Contra scandal that could have had Reagan impeached was a mere misundertanding. What, you say? Reagan was in danger of impeachment? Yep! A little known fact. The late Tip O’Neil, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, once considered bringing impeachment charges against Reagan. In fact, Francis Boyle, Professor of Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, said "our system of government was in jeopardy in the Reagan Iran-Contra scandal." The White House had "basically set up an underground government. But no one really made an effort to impeach Reagan over that -- though documents show that Reagan and his people were concerned about impeachment." This, after Reagan had a lengthy discussion with O'Neil.

Coulter also brings up the often repeated, widely believed, yet still exaggerated belief that Reagan ended the cold war and defeated communism. Republicans like Coulter love to wrap themselves in the American flag over this. What she, and others like her, are forgetting is their own standard argument that we brought down the Soviet Union by out-spending them. But Congress controls the purse strings of the country and, at the time, it was controlled by the Democrats. Coulter and her rightwing crew should at least be a little honest and admit that the fall of communism was brought about by a shared effort, but they're not known for their honesty.

I'm sure she also considers the liberal peace activists of the 60s who effectively ended the Viet Nam war traitors, as well as the leaders and participants of the civil rights movement.

Coulter also wants us to believe we were all wrong about the Nixon presidency, a prospect I would find laughable if I were sure that those duped into buying this book wouldn't take it seriously.

And that is the problem with Coulter and all the rest of the rightwing shills screaming "treason." A certain part of the population are going to believe them. The result could be a complete exorcism of our country's spirit of dissent.

Hopefully, this latest wave of rightwing hysteria will be looked upon one day in the same light we hold McCarthyism to. Then history will show who really committed treason.

“This is the worst president ever.. he is the worst president in all of American history.”

Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas began reporting in 1943 and has covered every U.S. president since JFK. In 1972 she was the only woman on the Nixon China trip. She seems to "have sympathy and affection for everyone but George W. Bush, a man who she said is rising on a wave of 9-11 fear — fear of looking unpatriotic, fear of asking questions, just fear. 'We have,' she said, 'lost our way.'"

Thomas believes we have chosen to promote democracy with bombs instead of largess while Congress “defaults,” Democrats cower and a president controls all three branches of government in the name of corporations and the religious right.

“This is the worst president ever,” she says. “He is the worst president in all of American history.”

The woman who has known eight of them isn't joking. more

Read the Draft Impeachment Resolution Against President George W. Bush here

The pResident might ask himself, "Wait a minute. How did I get into Yale?"

George W. Bush is all for diversity, he explained last week. However, If our unelected impeachable dumbass had the slightest sense of irony, he might have paused to ask himself, "Wait a minute. How did I get into Yale?" It wasn't because of any academic achievement: his high school record was ordinary. It wasn't because of his life experience--prosperous family, fancy prep school--which was all too familiar at Yale. It wasn't his SAT scores: 566 verbal and 640 math.

They may not have had an explicit point system at Yale in 1964, but Bush clearly got in because of affirmative action. Affirmative action for the son and grandson of alumni. Affirmative action for a member of a politically influential family. Affirmative action for a boy from a fancy prep school. These forms of affirmative action still go on.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Harvard accepts 40% of applicants who are children of alumni but only 11% of applicants generally. And this kind of affirmative action makes the student body less diverse, not more so. George W. Bush, in fact, may be the most spectacular affirmative-action success story of all time. Until 1994, when he was 48 years old and got elected Governor of Texas, his life was almost empty of accomplishments... MUCH more... heee heee!

Senate Blocks Funding for Pentagon Database

Saying they feared government snooping against ordinary Americans, U.S. senators voted on Thursday to block funding for a Pentagon computer project that would scour databases for terrorist threats.

By a voice vote, the Senate voted to ban funding for the Total Information Awareness program, under former national security adviser and convicted felon John Poindexter, until the Pentagon explains the program and assesses its impact on civil liberties. more



MP3 Audio Collage of January 18 Rally Against War from Whatreallyhappenned.com! Download HERE! Excellent!

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NBC/WSJ Poll Shows Bush Under 50% In 2004 Matchup With Kerry

US begins secret talks to secure Iraq's oilfields

The US military has drawn up detailed plans to secure Iraq's oilfields. The US state department and Pentagon disclosed the preparations during a meeting in Washington before Christmas with members of the Iraqi opposition parties. Breaking...

Photo-op Cover-Up! Those Boxes REALLY Said "Made In China!"

President Bush gave a speech touting tax breaks for small businesses yesterday and stood against what appeared to be a backdrop of cardboard boxes stamped “MADE IN U.S.A.” However, the boxes in the south St. Louis warehouse were actually painted on a large screen behind the pResident. The real boxes in the warehouse were stamped “Made in China,” although someone tried to obscure the stamps by plastering over them with blank white labels or marking through them with back markers.

Asked about one of the labels by The Washington Times, Randy Shore, warehouse manager for J.S. Logistics and obvious dumbass, smiled and lied: “I don’t know how it got there.” He later lied again and said the labels would be filled in with numbers to identify their location on racks throughout the warehouse. Pressed on why the stickers were placed precisely over the “Made in China” stamps, he added: “That’s as good a place as any.”

“Nobody instructed me” to obscure the stamp, he insisted.

But the White House later acknowledged the stickers were affixed intentionally. White House Deputy Press Secretary Claire Buchan attributed the move to “an overzealous volunteer.” Ah! ANOTHER dumbass!

“Obviously, it’s not appropriate,” she added.

Asked if an overzealous volunteer was responsible for the “MADE IN U.S.A.” backdrop, she smiled and said: “No.”

AIDS Panel Choice Calls The Disease A "Gay Plague."



Proving that the Bush administration are equal opportunity bigots, they've chosen Jerry Thacker, a Pennsylvania marketing consultant who has characterized AIDS as the "gay plague," to serve on the Presidential Advisory Commission on HIV and AIDS.

If you're thinking "this would be like appointing the fox to head an advisory of hen house chicken and egg production," you're right!

Thacker, a former Bob Jones University employee (racist) is an AIDS victim himself and he says he contracted the AIDS virus after his wife was infected through a blood transfusion.

In his speeches and writings on his Web site and elsewhere, Thacker has described homosexuality as a "deathstyle" rather than a lifestyle and asserted that "Christ can rescue the homosexual." However, some material has disappeared from the Web site after word of his nomination spread throught the gay community.

Thacker obviously feels praying for Jesus to strike down all the homosexuals is one way of dealing with AIDS and Bush probably agrees.

"This individual is an extremist ideologue who persecutes and demeans an entire class of people impacted by this disease," said David Smith, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign. "That type of person has no business advising the president of the United States on how the government should address the epidemic." more



Of course, this appointment is consistant with Bush's method of operation: Replace anyone you can with those who share your ideology, regardless of how credible that person is.

Thacker joins Bush's nominee for Treasury secretary, John W. Snow, a convicted drunk driver and deadbeat dad, as the latest members of the Bush junta.



Abortion, Cloning Are on Bush Agenda

Discussing Bush's continuing plan to mold America into the image of the recently deposed Taliban in Afghanistan, White House senior adviser Karl Rove said yesterday that bans on late-term abortions and human cloning are high on President Bush's agenda and should be achievable in the new Congress. more

Republicans in my neck of the woods feel prayer is a much more effective means of curing diseases than the medical discoveries cloning would provide. They're also pushing to reclassify women as incubators for their next wave of Hitler Youth.

Speaking of women's reproductive rights...

The three U.S. senators seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina and three other announced presidential candidates, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean,
received a stern warning Tuesday night at NARAL Pro-Choice America's celebration of the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

"I fully expect pro-choice senators to filibuster any nominee who does not affirm a woman's constitutional right to choose," NARAL President Kate Michelman warned the presidential hopefuls.

Ed Harris ROCKS! Bush isn't a man, "God damnit!"

Hollywood actor Ed Harris on Tuesday questioned President Bush's manhood, suggesting that real men are pro-choice on the abortion issue.

Addressing the NARAL Pro-Choice America celebration of the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Mr. Harris declared:

"Being a man, I have got to say that we got this guy in the White House who thinks he is a man, who projects himself as a man because he has a certain masculinity. He's a good old boy, he used to drink, and he knows how to shoot a gun and how to drive a pickup truck. That is not the definition of a man, god damnit!"

The remarks garnered wild applause.

No less than 7 major polls show Bush approval dropping like a stone in a pond!

A new NBC poll of 1,025 adults, sampled for opinions between Jan. 19 and 21, showed the unelected fraud's approval numbers spiraling downward over the past seven weeks. The data indicate that Americans are increasingly pissed with Bush’s performance in the Oval Office. The president’s overall approval rating slipped to 54 percent in this latest poll.

Other polls that have Bush numbers in the 50s now are the ABC News/Washington Post Poll, the Newsweek Poll, the CNN/Time Poll, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey, the Investor's Business Daily/Christian Science Monitor poll, and the Ipsos-Reid/Cook Political Report Poll. more

Of course, last week right wing shill Matt Drudge tried to downplay the latest CNN/Time poll, sarcastically referring to it as a "gloom and doom" poll. Other polls are now mirroring those CNN/Time numbers.

Answer this: Bush's numbers have dropped by 37%! If you had an investment that lost 37% of it's value, how long before you dumped it? Hmmm?

Don't click here. You'll go blind!

... I warned you...

Something Is Going On At Fort Hood... Something... Odd...

On this gigantic military base in Texas, something is boiling under the surface.

Soldiers are refusing their vaccines. They are not being jailed or forcibly inoculated.

Some soldiers who did take their vaccines are sick.

Two weeks before 9/11, all 60 gates at the facility were blocked with concrete barriers and barbed wire. Guard patrols were stepped up.

At least a few soldiers there believe that 9/11 was a military OP carried out by the US government. They also believe that the imminent war on Iraq has the clandestine purpose of enlarging the borders of Israel... interesting, huh? Believable...?

You want proof! I'll give you proof!

Kentuck at the DU forum points out:

It's the one question that the corporate media has yet to ask the Bush Administration. How do you know Saddam still has weapons of mass destruction and chemical weapons? They might be surprised at the answer.

"Well, when Poppy and Ronnie were in power, we gave Saddam these weapons....and the last inspectors could never account for all of them. We want to know where they are? We had an inventory of everything that we gave Saddam and we have not yet found all the deathly weapons that Poppy and Ronnie gave to this madman...."

Why don't they frame just as such?

To all the liberals who take the high road when dealing with our fascist government and those who support it

"My next thing is to drive mealy-mouthism from the Democratic Party... the American people are not going to elect somebody to defend America who cannot defend themselves... Republicans have learned that they can say anything they want to. When you answer it, a lot of Democrats are horrified. They say you can't do that, that it's negativism. No, it's not. It deciding that you aren't going to let thuggery work."

James Carville

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BREAKING!! Bush Owned Company Was In Charge of Security At Key Locations On 9/11!

The company had an ongoing contract to handle security at the World Trade Center "up to the day the buildings fell down."

A company that provided security at New York City's World Trade Center, Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., and to United Airlines between 1995 and 2001, was backed by a private Kuwaiti-American investment firm with ties to a brother of President Bush and the Bush family, according to records obtained by the American Reporter.

Two planes hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001 were United Airlines planes, and another took off from Dulles International Airport; two, of ocurse, slammed into the World Trade Center. But the Bush Administration has never disclosed the ties of a presidential brother and the Bush family with the firm that intersected the weapons and targets on a day of national tragedy.

Marvin P. Bush, a younger brother of George W. Bush, was a principal in the company from 1993 to 2000, when most of the work on the big projects was done. But White House responses to 9/11 have not publicly disclosed the company's part in providing security to any of the named facilities, and many of the public records revealing the relationships are not public.

Nonetheless, public records reveal that the firm, formerly named Securacom, listed Bush on its board of directors and as a significant shareholder. The firm, now named Stratesec, Inc., is located in Sterling, Va., a suburb of Washington, D.C., and emphasizes federal clients... According to its present CEO, Barry McDaniel, the company had an ongoing contract to handle security at the World Trade Center "up to the day the buildings fell down." Yet instead of being investigated, the company and companies involved with it have benefited from legislation pushed by the Bush White House and rubber-stamped by Congressional Republicans. Stratesec, its backer KuwAm, and their corporate officers stand to benefit from limitations on liability and national-security protections from investigation provided in bills since 9/11. more

Did Bush Sign His Impeachment Warrant?

After the Civil War, a politically rabid House of Representatives set a precedent which determined that firing a Cabinet member without the House's authorization is an impeachable offense.

In a no-brainer, House members 27 years ago regarded obstruction of justice to investigate a burglary as an impeachable offense.

Three years ago, another politically rabid House of Representatives set a precedent which determined that, in essence, actions stemming from a lie about one's sex life are impeachable offenses.

If those offenses are impeachable, then surely it must be impeachable to conspire to kidnap, illegally detain and murder, and violate up to five federal laws.

Such offenses appear to have been documented in newspaper accounts of President Bush's actions ostensibly to combat terrorism following the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. ... more

Bush and Snow: Two Drunk Peas In A Pod!

President Bush's nominee for Treasury secretary, John W. Snow, was arrested for drunk driving in 1982 and was involved in a child-support dispute with his ex-wife, according to information released late last night by the Senate committee handling his nomination.

The Bush administration learned about both issues as part of its vetting process and informed the Senate, White House officials told the Associated Press. Mr. Bush stands by his nominee, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said.

Oh great! Now drunks are running the country and handling our money!

Speaking of Snow's apparent drinking problem, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said, "It's not relevant to his duties. We support him."

Not relevant to his duties, huh? Yet, Republicans impeached a president over a blow job! Was that relevant to Mr. Clinton's duties? No! Wait, I forgot. Sex is the vilest of sins according to the American Nazi Party where hypocrisy abounds. Now we're going to have two drunks stumbling around trying to lead the country!

European Union says "NO" to Iraq war without UN approval

The European Union rejected a war on Iraq without the backing of the United Nations Tuesday and said weapons inspectors must have time to do their job.

Prime Minister Costas Simitis of Greece, EU president until the end of June, said a war would harm peace and stability in the Middle East. more

This news comes a day after France suggested it would wage a major diplomatic fight, including possible use of its veto power, to prevent the U.N. Security Council from passing a resolution authorizing military action against Iraq. more

Both actions are sure to send pResident Bush into a Texas-style hissy fit! Currently, only 31% of Americans support an attack on Iraq WITHOUT the support of the UN. So, If France uses its veto power to prevent the U.N. Security Council from passing a resolution authorizing military action against Iraq, and the European Union refuses to participate without said UN approval, Bush has no choice but to act alone. This could pose a serious problem with 63% of America.

pResident Bush, however, is still demanding to know how our oil got under their sand!

Studies: Hispanics largest U.S. minority; Likely to vote Democrat

Hispanics have surpassed blacks as the nation's largest minority group, the Census Bureau said Tuesday.

The Latino population grew to 37 million in July 2001, up 4.7 percent from April 2000. more

You may recall on my Jan. 20 update, I mentioned how so much was made in the mid term elections about the hispanic voting block turning out in large numbers to vote republican and that it turned out to be a myth! A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies finds no evidence of a Republican surge among Latino voters in the 2002 midterm elections. In fact, the report found that hispanic voters are, in fact, likely to vote Democrat!

Ésa es vida!

CBS newswoman Lesley Stahl ambushed on Fox News

CBS newswoman Lesley Stahl, interviewed by Cal Thomas on theFox News Channel program "After Hours," scoffed at the idea of liberal bias at the broadcast networks. She said, "today you have broadcast journalists who are avowedly conservative" and that the voices being heard on the networks "are far more likely to be on the right."

Mr. Thomas then asked, "Can you name a conservative journalist at CBS News?"

A loaded question to be sure. If she had named names, it would have been a violation of her journalistic integrity. She correctly answered, ""Well, I don't know of anybody's political bias at CBS News. I really think we try very hard to get any opinion that we have out of our stories."

The right is gloating at this, thinking it somehow proves there is a liberal media bias. (funny what they consider evidence,huh?) However, if Ms. Stahl had been a little quicker she might have said, "I won't name a conservative journalist at CBS but I can name a slew of them at FOX News!"

Really, this "liberal media bias" excuse is getting real old and many on the right know it is a myth. GOP strategist William Kristol once said, "I admit it: the liberal media were never that powerful, and the whole thing was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures." Pat Buchanan also admits, "The truth is, I've gotten fairer, more comprehensive coverage of my ideas than I ever imagined I would receive." He further conceded: "I've gotten balanced coverage and broad coverage -- all we could have asked… For heaven sakes, we kid about the liberal media, but every Republican on earth does that." ("Politics: What is Disinformation?" San Francisco Bay Guardian, August 8, 1996.)

If conservatives are really that concerned about this bogus "liberal bias," why did they fight so hard to get rid of the fairness doctrine? And why won't they bring it back? Lesley Stahl should have asked Cal Thomas that!

Want to debate me on this issue? Click here

Bush plan gives huge tax break to buyers of big SUVs

Buying big, luxurious sport-utility vehicles could cost a lot less under the Bush administration's economic stimulus proposal, even though a Bush appointee blasted SUVs last week as dangerous fuel hogs. Jeffrey Runge, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, scolded automakers at an industry conference one week ago for not making SUVs safer and more fuel efficient. He told reporters that he considers some SUVs so dangerous he wouldn't allow his family in them ''if they were the last vehicles on Earth.'' more

Yet, if you buy them, you get a tax break? Is Bush drunk? Wait... nevermind!

France Vows to Block Resolution on Iraq War

France has suggested it would wage a major diplomatic fight, including possible use of its veto power, to prevent the U.N. Security Council from passing a resolution authorizing military action against Iraq.

France's opposition to a war, emphatically delivered by Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, is a major blow for the Bush administration, which has begun pouring tens of thousands of troops into the Persian Gulf in preparation for a military conflict this spring. more

Of course, the shills on the right are already screaming, "Them damn French! Is this how they pay us back for bailing them out of two world wars... blah blah blah" Do they need reminding that without the French, we may not have won our independence? And perhaps with their current stance on Iraq, the French are hoping no one else needs "bailing out" of a world war.

Let's Keep 'em Barefoot and Pregnant!

"Why haven't our courts and lawmakers made greater progress in protecting the unborn when polls suggest public support is there?" Peggy Noonan asks at www.OpinionJournal.com. "Lots of reasons, but one that I think is not sufficiently appreciated is this: Abortion is now the glue that holds the Democratic Party together."

Really, Peggy? Hmmm... ok... look at these:



It, seems, Peggy, that the public is overwhelmingly pro choice. The only instance in which the American public's opinion wanes is in partial birth cases. But your statements are meant to hide these facts. Like your kind does in all other issues, you think if you repeat a lie long enough, people will believe it or if you're vague enough in your assertions and careful enough with your words, people will draw the conclusion you want them to without you actually saying it. No cigar this time, Ms. Noonan.

However, there are many pro choicers who might agree with you on the partial birth issue but do you know why they are hesitant to jump on your bandwagon? They know if you give the Republicans an inch, they'll take a mile. If we allow you to make one form of abortion illegal, you use it as a precedent to make all forms illegal.

Instead, why not support nitty gritty explicit sex education? Teach our children about realistic ways to avoid having to make the abortion decision. But your kind doesn't believe in that, either. You'd rather teach abstinence and ignorance - a sure way to put kids into the position of making a choice on abortion first hand.

Do you think we're ALL dumbasses?

Captain Jean Luc Picard: "Bush, you have a CHOICE!"

Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard) talked recently about the similarities between current events and 'Nemesis,' and called upon world leaders to follow the lesson taught in the latest Trek film.

"Of course you can't fail to draw parallels between the latest events in the world and certain aspects of our story," Stewart told the German magazine TIP.

"Shinzon throughout the film displays a certain similary with Saddam Hussein. Primarily, 'Nemesis' asks the question, are we helpless victims of our surroundings? Or do we have, and this is what I myself believe, a choice? When you live in America, you get the feeling that George Bush is firmly decided to wage war against Iraq. I would like to remind Bush, Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder that they have a choice." more

Conservative Positions by Bush Could Cost Votes From Center

President Bush's decision to take strong conservative positions on an array of foreign, economic and social policy issues is drawing warnings from moderates within his party that he could alienate the centrist voters he needs for his re-election.

As he prepares for the second half of his term — he was sworn in two years ago today — Mr. Bush hardly lets a day go by without pleasing his supporters on the Republican right. He has maintained a hard line against Iraq even as much of the rest of the world urges him to slow down. He has proposed a new round of tax cuts that pleasantly surprised even ardent supply-siders. He has denounced quotas in affirmative action programs. On Wednesday, the 30th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, he plans to make a supportive statement to demonstrators rallying against abortion. more

A word to all the centrist voters who voted against Al Gore and the largest economic expansion in this country's history: How do you like your boy Bush now? Bunch of dumbasses.



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Why is the GOP scared of this woman?

Could it be that her last name is "Clinton," a name that strikes fear in the political hearts and minds of Republicans everywhere? According to conservative columnist and Crossfire co-host Robert Novak, A prominent conservative operative in Washington, fearing the prospect of Hillary Clinton on the Democratic ticket for vice president next year, is urging Senate Republicans "not to do anything to help her ambitions by building a Senate record." Specifically, he urged republicans not to co-sign letters or co-sponsor legislation with Clinton, not to get photographed with her, and not to socialize or travel with her!

Senator Clinton recently showed her rising influence in Congress when she quelled an all-out Democratic rebellion on opening day concerning the unemployment compensation bill that Democratic Leader Thomas Daschle himself could not control. As for presidential aspirations, Ms. Clinton leads all Democratic candidates when she is included in the polls.

C'mon, all you reTHUGlicans! The Clintons are damaged goods, right? No good American in their right mind would ever vote for a Clinton again, right? You all made sure of this with your smear campaigns, right? Didn't you... ? Then why are you all so scared of her?

Matt Drudge's smear machine kicks into high gear! Rightwing shill targets Presidential hopeful Senator John Kerry. But Drudge is caught in a major LIE!

Speaking of conservative operatives, last week Matt Drudge went digging for dirt on John Kerry and came up with a 1996 article in which the senator expresses his disdain for the campaign financing system. Talking about political fundraising, Kerry said "I'm not suggesting this is a virtuous process... I hate it, I detest it. I hate going to places like Austin and Dubuque to raise large sums of money. But I have to."

Drudge, desperate for a scandal, took Kerry's comments out of context and tried to make it appear as if he hated Dubuque! Further, Drudge quoted an angry Dubuque resident named Marsha Vittal who supposedly said, "I am sorry he hates coming here and taking our money!... He wants to be my president, but he detests, detests coming to where I've chosen to live my life, to ask for support?!" more

The only problem is Marsha Vittal might not exist. Yep! She could be a "made up" source! According to the Telegraph Herald editorial board, how the site (Drudge Report)found her - or selected her, out of tens of thousands of Dubuquers - was not clear. "Indeed, we are not even sure there is a Marsha Vittal in Dubuque. If she does exist, she is not a registered voter."

Matt Drudge is such a slimeball and a very poor excuse for a journalist. Is the the best the conservaNAZIS can do?

Sorry, republicans, when it comes to the Latino voting block, your leaders lied to you... again!

So much was made in the mid term elections about the a latino voting block turning out in large numbers to vote republican. Turns out it was a myth! A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies finds no evidence of a Republican surge among Latino voters in the 2002 midterm elections.

The CIS report by James G. Gimpel, a professor of government at the University of Maryland, is based on Fox News Election Day polls in 10 states with key races for U.S. Senate or governor.

Among the key findings:

• The Latino vote for Republican Senate candidates was similar to prior years, at about one-third.
  
• Turnout of lower- and middle-income Latinos was much lower in 2002 than in 2000.
  
• Latino voters who identify themselves as independents are, in fact, likely to vote Democrat. The fact that many of these independents stayed home in 2002 helped Republicans.
  
• Despite everything we hear from President Bush and fellow Republicans, there is no Latino voting bloc. There is no difference between Latino voting and the voting pattern of non-Latino whites in 2002.
  

Please Don't Go!

"President Bush has heard all the murmurings about how some staffers are burned out (uh, pissed off and ready to bail!). That's why he and his top aides have quietly gone around to the most valued staff to ask them to stay, at least through the 2004 election," Paul Bedard writes in the Washington Whispers column of U.S. News & World Report.

ReTHUGlican group admits George Dubyah Isn't Very Articulate!

"Iowa Republicans have started an organization they hope will become the voice of balance when Democrats seeking to challenge President Bush in 2004 visit the state and criticize the president's policies.

Iowa Presidential Watch, coming to an Internet site soon, will defend Bush and Republicans during the "war of words" that former state Republican Party Chairman Mike Mahaffey of Montezuma expects Democratic presidential candidates to wage in the next year.

"Given our place in the political sun, many articulate Democratic candidates for president will be making the case in Iowa against George W. Bush," said Mahaffey, a member of the group's advisory board. "This Presidential Watch is making sure there's an... answer to that. It seemed to me to be instructive, constructive and politically useful." ..."

Hold on, now! A grass roots organization has to defend Bush from many articulate Democratic candidates? When Bill Clinton was doing his job (with a 73% approval rating) while his name was being dragged through the mud, did any grass roots organization in his favor get media attention? While he was building the most robust economy this country has ever seen and the Nazis were trying to tear down everything he did, who but his wife and himself was given media attention to defend his presidency? ISN'T BUSH ARTICULATE ENOUGH TO DEFEND HIMSELF?

Apparently not. But we knew that already. Rightwing Slayer is salivating at the chance to take on Iowa Presidential Watch! Bunch of dumbasses! more

From The Mailbag!

Best anti-war sign of the weekend: "How did our oil get under their sand?"
Peter Jung

Slayer, you've got a great site. But Christian Debate Techniques 101 is a satire. You know that, but your post was just too subtle to get your message across, fooled me just for a second.
Bruce Webb

You know, Bruce, I didn't realize it might be satire until after I posted it. I'm still not so sure unless you know for a fact it is. See, I encounter "christians" like that all the time. Once in college, a religious nut with an obsession for "X-Men" started a "business" called "X-Factor of Jesus." His mission was to deprogram people who were seduced by the secular world and lead them back to Christ. When he heard I was Agnostic, he was chomping at the bit perform some sort of exorcism or something on me. When I began talking rationally to him, he froze, then said Jesus had just told him I was too evil and that it would take someone with more power than him to save me! I kid you not!

What he was actually admitting was he didn't have the intelligence to speak outside the confines of his 2000 year old book of myths.

Who is King? Teachers must resort to own ingenuity to teach kids about the civil rights leader honored today

Today is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Now - who is he?

There are only a few paragraphs about the civil rights leader in most history textbooks, forcing many local teachers to create their own materials so their students will know something about him.

"He was a peace builder. He was a great man," said 10-year-old Timothy Williams of West Side Tolson Elementary, whose teacher makes civil rights a year-round theme.

"He stopped segregation. People should know what he did," added Tolson fifth-grader Cory Hobbs, also 10.

But parent Sarah Holler said she wishes her second-grade daughter had spent more time learning about King at central Peter Howell Elementary.

"Ashlie spent a month learning about Pilgrims. . . . She could tell you everything about Pilgrims, down to what they ate," she said. "But she just started learning about Martin Luther King Jr. this week."

"Some schools do schoolwide activities, and some schools will do little or nothing at all," said Kelly E. Langford, director of the African-American studies department for the Tucson Unified School District.

"If you're textbook-bound, then it will be very shallow, very hit and miss," he said. "Typically in textbooks they aren't devoting that much space to those type of things."

Shame.

Approval Rating For Bush Sinks To 53%! 56% Say The Country Is In Deep and Serious Trouble!

According to the latest TIME/CNN poll, barely half of Americans, 53%, approve of the job George W. Bush is doing as president. It is suspected that many among this 53% are in fact dumbasses and are more concerned with republicans having a "check" in the win column than how the country is doing!

These numbers are 15 points lower than Bill Clinton's the day he left office and 20 points lower than his the day after he was impeached! This, of course, proves people would rather have a president that screws an intern than one that screws the country!

Over half (56%) say the country is in deep and serious trouble and only a quarter (27%) think economic conditions will get better in the next 12 months, down from 35% in October 2002.

Over half (51%) think Bush is doing a poor job handling the economy, up from October 2002, while half (50%) think he is doing a good job handling foreign policy which is also down from October 2002.

Telling numbers, huh? The bread and butter Bush built his artificially inflated approval numbers on, foreign policy, has bitten him in the ass. His total disregard for Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind 3000 American deaths on 9/11, combined with his fixation on settling on old score with Saddam Hussein for his daddy and a hypocrital approach to the North Korea situation has sent his foreign policy approval numbers plummeting! And the way the unelected fraud is handling the economy - teetering dangerously close to a depression - is shameful.

Rightwing Slayer prediction: A small spike in his approval numbers after another numb brain feel good state of the union address, then down hill into 2004.

The American People, and People Worldwide, Say "NO" To Bush's Ilegal War in Iraq!

Tens of thousands rallied in the capital Saturday in an emphatic dissent against preparations for war in Iraq, voicing a cry — "No blood for oil" — heard in demonstrations around the world. A rally in the shadows of Washington's political and military institutions anchored dozens of smaller protests throughout Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States.

In Washington, police said 30,000 marched through the streets, part of a much larger crowd that packed the east end of the National Mall and spilled onto the Capitol grounds. Some of the biggest demonstrations took place in Japan, Russia, Pakistan, Germany and London, all protesting the buildup of U.S. military hardware and personnel in the Gulf region. A volley of protests opened in Washington, where thousands of people converged on the Mall, which lies between the Capitol and the Washington Monument.

In Paris, anti-war protesters shouted in English, "Stop Bush! Stop war!" The 6,000-strong march is the third nationwide demonstration since October, The Associated Press reported.

"You can see people are waking up (to the issue) when they see us marching," said Flore Boudet, a 21-year-old demonstrating with her classmates from the Sorbonne University.

In Moscow, Russians chanted "U.S., hands off Iraq!" and "Yankee, Go Home!" at a march outside the U.S. Embassy. One banner read: "U.S.A. is international terrorist No. 1."

Others held banners with slogans such as "Iraq isn't your ranch, Mr. Bush."

Elsewhere in Europe, a demonstration in Goteborg, Sweden, attracted 5,000 peaceful demonstrators, while a few hundred people marched in the German cities of Cologne and Bonn.

Protesters in London also gathered outside the Permanent Joint Headquarters of the British Armed Forces to voice their opposition.

Bush IGNORED North Korea for 6 months at the start of his term!

You know, everytime the unelected dumbass tries to blame his failings on the prior administration, something out of his past jumps out and embarasses the hell out of him!

Shortly after George W. Bush was sworn in as president, he broke off talks with North Korea regarding long-range ballistic missiles, claiming there was no way to ensure North Korea would comply with any guidelines that were developed. The news came as a shock to South Korean officials, who had spent years negotiating with the North, assisted by the Clinton administration. By June, Mr. Bush had reopened negotiations with North Korea, but only at the urging of his own father. more

Christian Debate Techniques 101

Want a laugh? Here's a page I ran across called "Christian Debate Techniques 101." It shows just how unintelligent and lost many fundamentalists are. Example:

Don’t get engaged in a discussion about issues, logic or evidence. That is a satanic ploy.

Issues, logic, and evidence is a satanic ploy? HA HA!

Here's another fun one:

Remember that no matter what you do, as a Christian you are a Better Person than the non-believer. Therefore, you must pity them. Also, it is obvious that the only reason people don’t believe in Christ is because they need an excuse to live licentious and immoral lives.

Are THESE the people who will benefit from lamebrain's faith initiative programs?

Just asking...

Democrats Blast Bush on Economy, Civil Rights... like they should!

Democrats blasted President Bush on Saturday for opposing a major university's policy to increase minority enrollment and for his tax-cut plan, which they said undermines Martin Luther King's dream of equality and opportunity for all. more


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US Prepares for MAJOR Anti-War Protests...

click

Tens of thousands Gather In DC...

click

Thousands of Anti-war protesters flock to San Francisco...

click

World capitals gird for peace protests

click

Rice persuaded Bush to condemn race-conscious admissions policies?

Ha Ha Ho Ho! Now THAT IS FUNNY! Rice has admitted she's an affirmative-action baby!

The Washington Post expects us to believe that National security adviser Condoleezza Rice helped persuade President Bush to publicly condemn race-conscious admissions policies at the University of Michigan. Rice supposedly told Bush that she worked to increase the number of African American faculty members at Stanford while she was provost there but that she was "absolutely opposed to quotas." The only problem is Rice got her position as provost of Stanford based on affirmative action!

In a review of the book Condi: The Condoleezza Rice Story, William F. Gavin of the Washington Times writes: "At a crucial point in her academic career Ms. Rice was the beneficiary of affirmative action hiring at Stanford University. I found the author's treatment of the episode not quite as penetrating as it might have been. No one can doubt Condoleezza Rice's credentials, yet the fact is, as she herself states, she was hired at least in part because she was "a black female who could diversify" the ranks of the Stanford political science department. It would be useful to learn how Ms. Rice reconciled her acceptance of the position under those conditions... But the author—or is it Ms. Rice herself?— essentially avoids the complex issues involved, except to say there is a difference between getting a job through a quota system and keeping the job.

OK, Ms. Rice! There is also a difference in getting into a college and staying there! But just so there is no doubt that you are, indeed, a supporter of affirmative action, I'd like to remind you of another quote you made in the June 2000 issue of George Magazine: ""I'm an affirmative-action baby and believe in preferences at hiring."

It is pretty obvious that the unelected fraud looked to his cabinat to find an African American whose arm he could twist to agree with him. Why are you selling out African-Americans and whoring for Bush?



Bill Clinton compared to the Beatles

"Janeane Garofalo was the host -- and Bill Clinton was the guest of honor -- at a fund-raiser for Seeds of Peace, a New York-based organization that's brought thousands of young people from 22 warring lands to a Maine camp to learn peace-brokering."

Garofalo described Clinton's arrival at a private VIP reception at the Hammerstein Ballroom Tuesday night “like The Beatles deplaning -- it was hysteria.” more

Why we don't trust Bush

The British are usually undaunted by the prospect of war, and Tony Blair is generally the most effective communicator of his political generation. So you can appreciate the bafflement inside Downing Street that the Prime Minister is finding it so difficult to convince his country that he is right to mobilise military force against Saddam Hussein. Mr Blair's advisers are frustrated, and increasingly bewildered, that all his exertions of rhetoric and argument have not managed to swing public opinion behind the case for disarming the Iraqi tyrant... Why can't he even convince a majority of his own Cabinet? I think Mr Blair's essential difficulty can be summarised in three words: George Walker Bush. more

Israel to kill in U.S., allied nations

Taking a page from the George W. Bush Book of Foreign Policy, Israel is starting a more aggressive approach to the war on terror including staging targeted killings in the United States and other friendly countries, former Israeli intelligence officials told United Press International. This means if Israel finds the actions of a certian US dictator wannabe conflict with their best interests, he could be nuetralized. Right? I mean, if Bush can do it to Iraq, wouldn't Israel have the right to do it if they or their allies felt in any way threatened by us? What if we had something Israel wanted as much as Bush wants Iraqi oil? What's good for the dumbass is good for the gander... right?



HA HA! Patriots BUST Rep. Ken Calvert, California Republican

Poor Ken Calvert! Until just a few days ago he was hoping to become chairman of the House Resources Committee. Then something happenned. An e-mail bearing Mr. Calvert's name was sent to members of the House Steering Committee: "Welcome to the 108th Congress! As we prepare to go back to work, I thought you would enjoy knowing more about my record, including my work with law enforcement. The two links below demonstrate my work for California."

The first link informed the congressman's colleagues about Mr. Calvert's 1993 curbside encounter with a prostitute in Corona, Calif.

The second link presented an actual photocopy of the Corona Police Department report of the incident, during which Mr. Calvert was briefly detained.

Police Officers Steve Sears and Fred Austin wrote in the report that Mr. Calvert was sitting in his parked car with a woman and when they arrived on the scene the congressman started up his vehicle and attempted to drive away.

"I ordered him three times to turn off the vehicle, and he finally stopped and complied," one officer wrote. "I asked [the woman] if she had ever been arrested for anything, and she said, 'Yes, for prostitution and under the influence of heroin.' "

Mr. Calvert, who is now divorced, is considering stepping down altogether from the Resources Committee.

Hey, all you nazi conservative scumbuckets. As soon as YOUR opinions on morality quit being an issue in politics, we'll quit shoving it right back into your face!

Fourth major poll finds Bush approval numbers in the 50s

Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey find dumbass at 58%

Jimmy Carter - next Georgia Senator?

From The Hill: Newly-crowned Nobel Laureate, former president of the United States, former governor of Georgia, and now, the next senator from Georgia?

That’s the rumor about Jimmy Carter circulating around the Peach State after Democratic Sen. Zell Miller’s surprise announcement that he won’t run for reelection next year.

According to Democratic sources, Carter was so offended by the tone of last fall’s Senate campaign in which Republican Saxby Chambliss defeated Democratic Sen. Max Cleland after questioning the patriotism of the quadraplagic Vietnam war hero, that he wants to make sure Democrats don’t lose Miller’s seat.



Get the 1040-W (pronounced "dubyah") tax from by clicking here!

Defintely a keeper! In fact, xerox some copies and hang them up a work today!

After Daddy Bush left the White House, he went to work for a company called Barrick Gold Corporation in Canada, something you haven't read in the United States. The first thing he does is pick up a big, fat check and stock options from Barrick Gold Corporation for, essentially, selling them the presidential seal and the presidential Rolodex. And he writes letters to dictators like [former president of Indonesia] Suharto, saying, "Give these nice guys gold-mining concessions." more



CIA and FBI agents told BBC Television, for which I was reporting, that they were ordered not to investigate Saudi Arabian financing of terror networks such as al Qaeda. The FBI agents "accidentally" left a file about the Bin Laden family on the desk of one of my researchers. They called up and said, "Oops, we left our file on your desk by accident. You haven't read it, have you? Well, we'll be back to pick it up in 30 minutes-unless you need 45." The FBI agents handed us material dated September 13, 2001, two days after the attack. It was on that date that the FBI was finally released to go after two members of the Bin Laden family, who they had already identified as being involved with a suspected terrorist organization. But by September 11th, they were flown birds. more



Just after the no-fly restriction was lifted, a private Saudi Arabian jet airlifted the Bin Laden family members out of the country before the FBI could talk to them. Everyone thinks there's just one black sheep in that family, but the FBI agents were telling us at BBC they think there's a couple of gray sheep, and they had some questions for the family members. There were a lot of people dead under the rubble at that moment when those people left. more



Bill Clinton had already put a go-slow on investigations of Saudi Arabian financing of terror networks... however, he never actually stood in the way of investigating them, whereas George W., according to FBI and intelligence agents, said, "You can't go there. You may not look. You may not investigate the Bin Ladens." more



out...

Bush continues his assault on minorities

Last week I reported how obvious it is that reversing the Supreme Court's 1973 ruling that recognized a woman's fundamental right to make her own reproductive decisions is Mr. Bush's primary mission. Of course, abortion is not Bush's only target. Now, the unelected dumbass is weighing in on two other issues that will adversely effect women and minorities in this country.

Proving once again that the reTHUGlican party is a "rich white boys only" club, dumbass dubyah is demanding stiffer welfare-to-work laws.

"Work is the key to success in helping families lift themselves out of poverty," Bush said in an East Room speech. Of course, what Bush failed to mention is where the hell this work is going to come from. With unemployment figures at 6% (11% for African-Americans), and more layoffs announced everyday, our international embarassment of a leader has picked a fine time to lob this current bomb in his war on the less fortunate.

"While President Bush pushes a massive, $674 billion tax cut to benefit mostly wealthy families, hundreds of thousands of families are out of work and teetering on the edge of poverty," said Deepak Bhargava, director of the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support. "States are already crying uncle, yet the president proposes to pile on new work mandates that will be difficult and costly to meet."

Bush's new welfare abolition measures have been called "a step backward that undercuts much of what was accomplished by the successful 1996 welfare reform law," offers too little state flexibility, has too many restrictions on education and job training and burdens states with $11 billion in unfunded mandates.

As if all of that isn't a slap in the face to anyone suffering under Bush's economic near-depression, our pResident is sticking his nose into a University of Michigan affirmative action case, going so far as to file a brief on the subject with United States Supreme Court, that could seriously undermine the 1978 affirmative action ruling and jeopardize 25 years of diversity-based programs.

At the core of the University of Michigan affirmative action case is the fact that the undergraduate admissions program awards black, Hispanic and native American students 20 points, one-fifth of the total normally needed for admission.

Bush has a problem with this.

What Bush and others opposed to this DON'T seem to have a problem with is that the same preferential treatment is given to atheletes. In addition, the dean of any college can award more points to science majors, art majors, math majors, or any other student he or she feels is under represented on the campus. And, of course, more points are awarded if a family member is an alumni. That is the ONLY reason Dubyah got into Harvard University! Yep! Dumbass Dubyah benefited from a quota system!

So why does the "white boys only" GOP hate women and minorities so much? According to Steve Kangas, "When the U.S. was first founded, white males commanded 100 percent of the vote. And this translated directly into... advantages for white men, in a number of ways. First, they could devise laws that gave them... privilege, like slavery, or banning women from the workforce. Second, they could vote to spend 100 percent of public funds on themselves. Thus, giving blacks and women the right to vote meant giving them a much larger slice of the... pie. Abolishing slavery had the same effect. The gains to women and blacks were at the proportional expense of white males."

Now you know!

"I trust Bush with my daughter, but I trust Clinton with my job"

HA HA! These words were actually spoken in an article in USA Today by Craig Patterson, a 45-year-old ironworker in St. Louis worried about dwindling construction jobs. It seems more and more people are waking up to Bush's American nightmare and suddenly a president who gets a blowjob in the White House - and leads the country during it's greatest peacetime economic expansion in history - doesn't look so bad.

However, Mr. Patterson should rethink his position on trusting Bush with his daughter. Perhaps he hasn't heard George W. Bush's statutory rape and abortion story.

White House Deficit Outlook Worsening. Well of course it is! Bush is no Bill Clinton!

President Bush's budget chief said Wednesday that the White House envisions federal deficits in the $200 billion to $300 billion range over the next two years, a dramatic worsening of the government's fiscal picture since last summer.

Budget director Mitchell Daniels also refused to say when federal surpluses would return, commenting only, "Stand by." more

Where have you gone, President Bill Clinton
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you... wooo wooo wooo...

U.S. heading toward Big Brother society

Spurred by loosened legal standards following the 2001 terrorist attacks, the United States is evolving into a Big Brother society as technology advances and surveillance grows, the American Civil Liberties Union warned in a report released Wednesday.

The report, titled "Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains: The Growth of an American Surveillance Society," says Americans' privacy and liberty are at risk. more

Not only that, a convicted felon is running the whole goddamned show! On February 13, 2002, John M. Poindexter was appointed Director of the Pentagon's Information Awareness Office. Poindexter lost his job as National Security Adviser under Ronald Reagan, and was convicted of conspiracy, lying to Congress, defrauding the government, and destroying evidence in the Iran Contra scandal. The convictions were overturned in 1990, based on the fact that Congress had given him immunity in exchange for his testimony, even though the testimony he gave Congress turned out to be A LIE! Click here and get pissed!

And a related story...

Pentagon database plan hits snag on Hill

A plan to link databases of credit card companies, health insurers and others--creating what critics call a "domestic surveillance apparatus"--raises concern in Congress. more

Boos For Bush!

George H. Bush, the former president — and father of the current appointed president — delivered a taped message at the American Music Awards on Monday night, and the crowd booed him. HA HA! Remember, Georgie, you were REJECTED by the American people in favor of Bill Clinton! Did you really think you'd be accepted by an audience full of liberal music fans? At last Britney Spears, Ozzy Osbourne, and Creed fans found something they could agree on! The most pathetic part is that ABC tried to make sure the television audience didn't hear it! more

George W. Bush's uncle will benefit substantially from war with Iraq!

A conflict of interest of heinous proportions! According to Prince George's Journal , William H.T. (``Bucky") Bush, an uncle of George W. Bush, is on the Board of Directors of a company which will benefit substantially from war with Iraq, according to financial analysts.

The company, Engineered Support Systems, is based in St. Louis. William H.T. Bush was also a major Bush donor and campaign fund-raiser.

Astute business articles have boosted the company's stock this fall. As Russ Mitchell, writing in Smart Money, put it: ``War may not be healthy for children and other living things (not in the short run, anyway), but it's healthy for military stocks, right?

Bush declares "National Sanctity of Human Life Day"

In yet another attempt to undermine women's constitutionally protected right to choose her own reproductive options, Monkey Brians Bush is declaring a National Sanctity of Human Life Day. In response, Rightwing Slayer is declaring an International Sanctitiy of Life day to draw attention to real human lives in danger of being snuffed out because of America'a conservative agenda.

Well over a million and a half Iraqis were dead due to economic sanctions and the Gulf War; the remaining are starving and malnourished. The Iraqi desert is littered with Depleted Uranium, used by the U.S. and Britain in making armor-piercing shells (Britain admits to that), with cancer and Lukemia rates surging through the roof. Iraqi crops are overcome by weeds. Rare diseases, such as Cholera and Typhoid --easily treated/non-existent before the war-- are now rampant in Iraq. And Bush wants to add to this!

The United States has the economic power to end disease and hunger worldwide, yet choose to spend untold billons of dollars on an unjustified war.

In his five years as governor of Texas, Bush executed 131 prisoners -- far more than any other state. If you want to read some chilling statistics on these executions, click here

We see just how sacred this "compassionate conservative" thinks life is, huh? Remember, International Sanctity of Live day. When should it be?

It's my birthday! So I'm taking suggestions on what kind of mid life crisis I should have.

out... bye!

Rumsfeld considered poisoning Afghan food supply!

Deep inside the sixth of eight glowing articles in its series "10 Days in September" about what wonderful crisis managers George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice are, The Washington Post on February 1, 2002, buried the following bit of information: The Pentagon was considering poisoning Afghanistan's food supply.

Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld prepared a briefing for Bush on September 17, Bob Woodward and Dan Balz reported.

Rice, head of the National Security Council, "and Frank Miller, the senior NSC staffer for defense, went with the President to the Pentagon. Before the briefing, Miller previewed the classified slide presentation prepared for Bush and got a big surprise," Woodward and Balz reported.

"One slide about special operations in Afghanistan said: Thinking Outside the Box--Poisoning Food Supply. Miller was shocked and showed it to Rice. The United States doesn't know how to do this, Miller reminded her, and we're not allowed. It would effectively be a chemical or biological attack--clearly banned by treaties that the United States had signed, including the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention.

"Rice took the slide to Rumsfeld. 'This slide is not going to be shown to the President of the United States,' she said.

"Rumsfeld agreed. 'You're right,' he said." more

You might recall during our campaign in Afghanistan that the US was accused of not only poisoning the food supply there but also making the food packets dropped by planes the same size and color of cutter bombs. Read about it yourself. Google these words together: cutter bombs food drops

Of course, knowing what we know about Bush, Rumsfeld, and their gang of thugs, does any of this surprise you?

Bush approval numbers falling down... down... down...

Let's see... hmmm... there's the secret Time/CNN poll that has him at 55%. Now the Gallup Poll, CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll, and the Ipsos-Reid/Cook Political Report Poll all have him at 58%!

For all the republicans dropping by each day, just a little reminder: Bush's approval is now 18% LOWER than Bill Clinton's was the day after his groundless impeachment and 13% lower than Clinton's the day he walked out of the White House.

Senator McCain, when will you stop being the whipping boy of the GOP?

Sen. John McCain had no response yesterday to word of a challenge by Rep. Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican, for his Senate seat in 2004. John, I've just got to ask: Do you LIKE being dissed by your party on an almost weekly basis? Or will it even matter when 2004 gets here? Do you have a plan? Mr. McCain, you will NEVER be president as long as the current GOP powerbase is in place. In fact, Dubyah isn't ever going to allow you to be any more than you already are... unless you switch parties. Then you have a shot... If you don't drop out of the American Nazi Party, you'll just be their bitch.

The United States of America has gone mad!

Fresh on the heels of the TimeEurope poll where over 80% of the respondants chose the United States as the biggest threat to world peace comes this article: The United States of America has gone mad!

"America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War.

The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams. As in McCarthy times, the freedoms that have made America the envy of the world are being systematically eroded. The combination of compliant US media and vested corporate interests is once more ensuring that a debate that should be ringing out in every town square is confined to the loftier columns of the East Coast press.

The imminent war was planned years before bin Laden struck, but it was he who made it possible. Without bin Laden, the Bush junta would still be trying to explain such tricky matters as how it came to be elected in the first place... more

Annan Sees No Reason for Attack on Iraq

Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday he sees no reason for an attack on Iraq and is optimistic that war can be avoided if the international community maintains pressure on Saddam Hussein and inspectors do their job aggressively. more

No reason? HA HA! Kofi, you haven't been listening! The unelected warmongering fraud doesn't need inspectors to tell him Iraq has what he's looking for. OIL! Lots of oil there, Kofi! THAT will be the reason he attacks!

GOP says Democrats seeking a coup in the Senate!

The dumbassery of the right never ceases to amaze me! According to UPI, a dispute over the composition of Senate committees in the new Congress has boiled over into a full-blown battle, with the Senate's Republican leadership accusing Democrats of attempting a coup! Yep! A coup! A taking of power by force. If only we could be so lucky!

At the heart of this conflict is the GOP proposal on the composition and funding of committees. The Democrats' argument is based on the agreement in the last Congress -- when the Senate was controlled by the Democats -- that allowed the Republicans to keep even committee ratios after power shifted to the Democrats. Usually, the party in power receives an average of two-thirds of the committee budget, while the minority receives the remainder. Now the Republicans are pissing on that good will gesture by demanding the vast majority of the funds. No biggie. It is their right to do so. But the whining coming from them is, well, pathetic!

"It's tantamount to an attempted coup right here on the floor of the Senate," fumed Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., to reporters.

"The citizens of 11 states are being denied, in effect, their full rights as citizens," he said of the 11 new senators who have not received committee assignments. "This delay effectively voided the results of the elections last fall." whined
New Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, R-Ky

This crap is coming from the party that stole the White House in 2000! This crap is coming from the party who gained power in the senate via computerized voting on machines created by Republicans! The GOP is a bunch of dumbass crybabies who lie, cheat and steal then have the nerve to cry foul when the Democrats get one up on them!

out...

Senator Bob Graham: 'I am going to be president'

Senator Bob Graham, twice elected governor from Florida and three times senator, has not said he is running for president. He's said he's going to be president. He didn't say "I'm thinking about it," or "I'm putting together an exploratory committee" or "well, now that Gore is out I might..." NO! He has confidently declared, with all the balls of a street fighter, that he's going to be president. Rightwing Slayer likes that! But what do we know about this latest entry into the democratic presidential sweepstakes?

Graham voted against pResident Bush's recession causing tax cuts and is the only southern senator who voted against Bush's Iraq resolution - two key issues that may cause Bush to lose votes when all is said and done. According to skippy the bush kangaroo (all of us bloggers have WWF sounding names), Graham experienced Bush's incompetance first hand as the former chairman of the Senate intellegance subcommittee. In a conversation over national security issues, detailed in Bob Woodward's book 'Bush At War' Graham butted heads with Bush, leading to a "real stream of Texas profanity."

I'm not sure Graham is the one, yet. But it is refreshing to see confidence in a Democratic leader.

Neal Boortz: Libertarian talk show host makes racist comment

You know Neal Boortz, right? He's a nationally syndicated rightwing talk radio host. He has a dislike for Jesse Jackson and he lets us know it everytime the opportunity arises. This morning, Boortz is railing against the civil rights leader because Jackson has expressed concern with the nation's 11% unemployment rate among African Americans (compared to the 6% overall unemployment rate).

Jackson feels that this disproportionate unemployment figure for blacks has to do with racial discrimination. Perhaps it does. Sure, there are other factors that could skew the numbers such as the area of the country in which many black people live and the overall unemployment there. But the numbers wouldn't be skewed enough to justify an unemployment rate among blacks that is almost twice the rate among whites. And when you consider that only 12.8% of the total US population is black, you really see how unemployment has disproportianately effected African Americans.

Let's put these numbers into perspective. Total black population in the US: 12.8%; Unemployment rate among blacks: 11%!

Neal Boortz doesn't feel these numbers have anything to do with racial discrimination.

He feels they have to do with the "work ethic" among African Americans! THEIR WORK ETHIC! Boortz said this in his first hour this morning. And his website goes further: "There is something pathetic about someone sitting on their ass all day, refusing to take any job that doesn’t suit their sense of self-importance, while complaining about all of this racial discrimination that is keeping them from finding work."

Boortz is calling blacks lazy. Saying they have a poor work ethic. That the 11% unemployment rate among them is their fault! UNBELIEVABLE!

But then, that is to be expected from a libertarian loon!!

Republican spam mail BUSTED! Fight back against the dumbass conservative propaganda machine!

Repeat something often enough and people will believe it. That's what dumbass conservatives are thinking everytime they forward those urban legends to everyone with an
e-mail address! When I get them, I typically hit "reply all," expose them for the bullshit that they are and then hit "send."

Merlin, over at the DU message forum, has composed a beautifully sourced response to one of the more popular rightwing spam mail that makes the rounds. Here is the
e-mail, followed by the reply:

The following trash piece about Clinton is making the rounds among Republicans. One of them, believing it to be true, sent it to me. I researched it and was happy to send an itemized response which prove that Bill Clinton was true to his word in every single case. Here's the drivel that's being spread around:

American Disasters

A wise man once said, "He who fails to remember the past is destined to repeat it."

AMERICAN DISASTERS - DON'T FORGET!

A little political review---time to think &remember!!

After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six and injured 1,000; President Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

After the 1995 bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed five U.S. military personnel; Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

After the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 and injured 200 U.S. military personnel; Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

After the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa, which killed 224 and injured 5,000; Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

After the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 and injured 39 U.S. sailors; Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

Maybe if Clinton had kept his promise, an estimated 3,000 people in New York and Washington, D.C. that are now dead would be alive today.

Here's the itemized response demonstrating the promises kept:

After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six and injured 1,000; President Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and
punished.

THE RESULTS:

http://www.cnn.com/US/9804/03/wtc.bombing/

Last World Trade Center bombing conspirator sentenced
Eyad Ismoil gets 240 years, $10 million fine
April 3, 1998

NEW YORK (CNN) -- As his mother sobbed behind him in the courtroom, a young Palestinian who federal authorities believe drove a bomb-laden truck into the parking garage of the World Trade Center in 1993 was handed a 240-year prison term Friday.

Ismoil is the sixth and last conspirator sentenced for the trade center bombing. The other five were given the same 240-year sentence.

Prosecutors say Ismoil helped the alleged mastermind of the bomb attack, Ramzi Yousef, load the bomb into a truck the day before the bombing. He then parked the vehicle in a garage beneath the twin 110-story trade center towers in Manhattan, and one of the men lit a fuse, prosecutors say.

Both men fled in another car. Ismoil eventually escaped to Jordan, where he was arrested in 1995.

=====================================

After the 1995 bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed five U.S. military personnel; Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

THE RESULTS:

http://www.newsaic.com/ftvww63n.html

November 13, 1995: Bombing of U.S.-operated military training center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Incident results in deaths of one US citizen, several foreign national employees, more than 40 others. The Saudi government arrested four Saudi men in connection with the bombing, coerced them into giving public confessions that they had been inspired by communiqués from Osama Bin Laden, and then beheaded the suspects before the United States could interview them.

=====================================

After the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 and injured 200 U.S. military personnel; Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

THE RESULTS:

http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020602-77594722.htm

The Washington Times
June 2, 2002
Khobar bombing suspects sentenced

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia has sentenced some of the people it arrested for the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing that killed 19 U.S. servicemen and injured hundreds, the deputy interior minister was quoted as saying yesterday. Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, however, did not say how many were sentenced or what the sentences were. The verdicts "must be announced at the right time," the brother of King Fahd said in an interview with the al-Jazirah newspaper.

Last June, the United States indicted 14 persons — 13 Saudis and a Lebanese — for the 1996 bombing in Dhahran by members of the dissident Saudi Hezbollah group. Some of those indicted, who are charged with murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, are in Saudi jails.

The United States does not have an extradition treaty with Saudi Arabia, and the kingdom said that since it wasn't consulted, it would not recognize the indictments. U.S. officials have criticized Saudi Arabia for its lack of cooperation.

In the interview, Prince Ahmed said the suspects in the bombing, except for two or three still at large, had been sentenced under Islamic law.

"The sentences will go to a higher court, then to the Supreme Justice Council and then to the king for approval," Prince Ahmed was quoted as saying. Under Islamic Shariah law, all sentences must go through several stages of ratification before they are carried out.

The kingdom, which follows a strict interpretation of Islamic law, imposes the death penalty for murder, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking.

=====================================

After the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa, which killed 224 and injured 5,000; Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

THE RESULTS:

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/africa/9808/17/embassy.bombings.01/
Suspect confesses to plotting embassy bombings, links Saudi exile to blasts
August 17, 1998
Web posted at: 2:03 a.m. EDT (0603 GMT)

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- An Arab man detained by Pakistani authorities the day bombs gutted U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania has acknowledged being a member of a team recruited by renegade Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden to bomb the Kenya embassy, The Washington Post reported Monday.

Sources at four Pakistani police and intelligence agencies told the Post that Mohammad Sadiq Howaida, 34, was turned over to U.S. officials in Islamabad three days ago.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/eafricabombing/keystories.htm

Following are key Washington Post stories about the bombing of two U.S. embassies on August 7, and its aftermath.

Thursday, Dec. 17, 1998
5 Fugitives Indicted in Embassy Bombings
Five fugitives were indicted in New York for allegedly conspiring to organize the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Tanzania on behalf of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden.

Thursday, Nov 5, 1998
Charges Filed Against bin Laden
Osama bin Laden, the radical Islamic multimillionaire who has become the public face of anti-American terrorism, was formally charged with orchestrating the Aug. 7 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and with leading a wider conspiracy to kill Americans around the world.

Thursday, October 22, 1998
Sudan Plant Link to bin Laden Disputed
When U.S. officials destroyed a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant in August, they claimed it was making ingredients for chemical weapons sought by Osama bin Laden. But since the attack, many have come to dispute the links, and the U.S. refuses to elaborate on the evidence.

Sunday, September 20, 1998
U.S. Is Unraveling Bin Laden Network
The FBI is unraveling Osama bin Laden's far-flung network, but no one is sure how much of a dent law enforcement ultimately can make on his operations.

Sunday, September 6, 1998
Tanzania Detains 2 Bombing Suspects
Tanzanian investigators have arrested two suspects in the Aug. 7 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, and the FBI has filed an arrest warrant seeking a third suspect in the nearly simultaneous bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, law enforcement sources said.

Saturday, August 29, 1998
Complaint Links Bin Laden to Bombing
Federal prosecutors accused Osama bin Laden's militant Islamic organization of bombing the U.S. Embassy in Kenya, offering the most detailed description to date of an alleged terrorist conspiracy to kill Americans in East Africa.

Friday, August 28, 1998
Bombing Suspects to Stand Trial in U.S.
Two suspects with alleged ties to international terrorist Osama bin Laden will stand trial in New York in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya.

Tuesday, August 25, 1998
U.S. Jury Indicts Bin Laden
A federal grand jury in New York has handed up a sealed indictment against exiled Saudi multimillionaire Osama bin Laden for terrorist acts against the United States that preceded his suspected involvement in twin bombings at U.S. embassies in Africa earlier this month, senior U.S. officials said.

Sunday, August 23, 1998
President Freezes Bin Laden's Assets
President Clinton announced new steps aimed at choking the financial enterprises that Islamic extremist Osama bin Laden uses to fund his violent campaign against the United States. An executive order freezes any U.S. assets owned by bin Laden, two of his senior lieutenants, or their Islamic Army organization.

Friday, August 21, 1998
U.S. Strikes Terrorist-Linked Sites
American cruise missiles struck without warning at paramilitary training camps in Afghanistan and a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant that U.S. intelligence identified as a chemical weapons facility. President Clinton described the blows as retaliation for the twin bombings this month of U.S. embassies in Africa and an effort to preempt further terrorist attacks.

=====================================

After the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 and injured 39 U.S. sailors; Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

THE RESULTS:

http://asia.cnn.com/2001/US/02/18/uss.cole/

Yemen says 2 more USS Cole suspects arrested
February 19, 2001

Afghan connection
Eight now held in case

SAN'A, Yemen -- Two new suspects have been arrested in the bombing of the USS Cole, Yemen's president said in an interview broadcast Sunday.

But Yemen has not yet found evidence linking Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden to the October 12 Cole attack that killed 17 U.S. sailors.

"They are Yemenis, among those that used to go to Afghanistan," President Ali Abdullah Saleh told the Arabic TV network Middle East Broadcasting of the two new suspects. "They are still under investigation and we will see what exactly their link was to the bombing of the USS Cole."

Saleh said the primary suspect in the Cole attack -- Mohammed el-Harazi -- is believed to be in Afghanistan, as well as an alleged accomplice.

The new arrests bring the total number of men to be tried in the Cole case to eight. The trial is expected to take place in Aden, the Yemeni port where the ship was attacked.

"The U.S. administration has asked us to delay it because they want the entire investigation to be finished before the trial," Saleh said.

So the results are clear. Clinton accomplished what was promised. Period!

O'Neill assails Bush tax cuts

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said Monday that President George W. Bush's plan to eliminate taxes on corporate dividends would do little or nothing to improve the U.S. economy. more

Rightwing Slayer agreed, calling the plan little more than "trickle down dumbass voodoo economics."

Republicans take out full page anti-war ad in Washington Times

According to Antidolt over at the Bartcop forum, Yesterday's WSJ had a full page ad sponsored by True Majority partnered with Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities. This should lift all of our spirits. In the center of the ad is a picture of what one assumes are Iraqi children, and imposed over it is the message "A Billion Bitter Enemies Will Rise Out Of This War".

The text of the ad carries the headline "A Republican Dissent on Iraq".

It begins:

Let's be clear. We supported the Gulf War. We supported our intervention in Afghanistan. We accept the logic of a just war. But Mr. President, your war on Iraq does not pass the test. It is not a just war.

The candidate we supported in 2000 promised a more humble nation in our dealings with the world. We gave him our votes and our campaign contributions. That candidate was you.

We feel betrayed. We want our money back. We want our country back.

It is signed by a couple dozen business leaders and CEOs.

Now, of course, you wonder if these Republicans feel strongly enough about it not to support the unelected fraud in 2004!

Bush Administration's shameful ABC Policy: Always Blame Clinton!

'Pass The Buck Bush' Now Blames Bill Clinton for North Korea Mess!

You've got to be kidding, right? Last week, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said he gave "great credit" to the Clinton administration for freezing North Korea's plutonium enrichment program with the 1994 Agreed Framework. But now, a senior Bush administration official has suggested that the nuclear crisis with North Korea was the predictable result of a flawed 1994 agreement signed by the Clinton administration.

The dumbasses in this adminstration never cease to amaze me! Not only is this senior Bush administration official calling Powell a liar but he/she also seems to be rewriting history. So, for the sake of hitorybooks, let's set the record straight...again!

Prior to the Agreed Framework signed by the United States and North Korea on October 21, 1994, intelligence sources believe that North Korea could have extracted plutonium from their reactors for use in nuclear weapons-perhaps enough for one or two nuclear weapons. How prior to 1994?

North Korea was supposed to have produced 0.9 gram of Plutonium per megawatt every day over a 4-year period from 1987 to 1991. The 0.9 gram per day multiplied by 365 days by 4 years and by 30 megawatts equals to 39 kilograms. When the yearly operation ratio is presumed to be 60 percent, the actual amount was estimated at 60% of 39 kilograms, or some 23.4 kilograms. Since 20-kiloton standard nuclear warhead has 8 kilograms of critical mass, this amounts to mass of material of nuclear fission out of which about 3 nuclear warheads could be extracted. Who was President from 1987 to 1991? Hint: It wasn't Clinton!

So, with the overwhelming possibility that at least 3 nuclear warheads were produced in North Korea before Bill Clinton ever darkened the door of the White House, how in the hell can these morons blame Bill Clinton for North Korea's nuclear program? Let's take this further...

In July 1990 The Washington Post reported that new satellite photographs showed the presence in Yongbyon of a structure which could possibly be used to separate plutonium from nuclear fuel. Again, under the watch of Bush Sr.

The GOP and their shills would like you to believe that all of this started when Clinton signed the 1994 Agreed Framework, but we now see it goes back much further. But lately, a NY Times article reported the White House (Bush) has ignored federal statutes that require President Bush to impose stiff economic penalties on any country involved in nuclear proliferation or, alternatively, to issue a public waiver of those penalties in the interest of national security. Mr. Bush last year removed penalties that were imposed on Pakistan after it set off a series of nuclear tests. Was it Clinton that removed the penalties from Pakistan, the country helping North Korea with their nukes? According to the BBC, who waived the Agrred Framework's requirement that North Korea allow inspectors to ensure it has not hidden away any weapons-grade plutonium? Yep! George W. Bush!

How curious that this latest round of ABC (always blame Clinton) coincides with a host of accusations from strong Bush administration supporters that President Bush may have antagonized North Korea by labeling it part of the "axis of evil" and helped provoke the crisis. That sentiment appears to be shared by North Korean officials. North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Han Song Ryol, says the Bush administration's policy towards North Korea is motivated by Bush's desire to do the opposite of what Clinton did on foreign policy. In a Washington Post article, Han asserted that Pyongyang had been developing a working relationship with Washington toward the end of the Clinton era -- indeed, then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang just before President Bill Clinton left office -- but then faced a reversal of policy under Bush.

There are also those who believe that Bush withheld information on the North Korea crisis until after the midterm elections so the truth of the matter wouldn't hurt the GOP!

C'mon, dumbass reTHUGlicans. DENY IT!

********** Rumsfeld's insulting comments about Viet Nam War vets in a nutshell **********
CLICK HERE

Senate stunner for W tax plan

Moderate Republicans Join Democrats; Oppose Bush's Tax Plan

HA HA! I love this. Dubyah is sinking like a stone in a pond! President Bush's $674billion economic slammed into a wall in the Senate last week when moderate Republicans and centrist Democrats signaled it may be dead on arrival. Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) said he'll vote against the package, joining Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, John McCain of Arizona and George Voinovich of Ohio. more



How many poor and middle class republicans reading this who support Bush's plan really understand it? ZERO! NONE! Because if you did understand it, you would join Lincoln Chafee, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, John McCain, and George Voinovich in condemning it. But nooooooo! You're more concerned with Dubyah getting that check in the "win column" than what's good for our country.

Bush's War Against Women

During election 2000, Bush deceived the voters. Plain and simple. During the campaign, Bush never once signaled a desire to take away a woman's reproductive rights. Instead, he promoted a larger "reverence for life." Moderate voters were encouraged to believe that while Mr. Bush was anti-choice, he didn't want to reverse Roe v. Wade.

Fast forward to 2003. SURPRISE! Bush duped moderate voters... again! It is now apparent that reversing the Supreme Court's 1973 ruling that recognized a woman's fundamental right to make her own reproductive decisions is Mr. Bush's mission. But abortion is not Bush's only target. The administration is also moving to block women's access to contraceptives, declaring war on any sex education that discusses ways to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, and remoing scientifically accurate information about contraceptives and abortion from federal government Web sites... more

George Orwell, here we come!

The biggest problem with criticism of Adm. John Poindexter's massive spy proposal is not in the argument over the system being so darn creepy.
Of course it's creepy. This new federal agency deliberately chose the motto "knowledge is power," crafted a logo certain to inspire conspiracy theories, and is itching to assemble a detailed computerized dossier on every American. And that a figure such as Poindexter--disgraced in the Iran-Contra scandal and with a database addiction dating back to at least 1987--is running the show is a detail worthy of a Jonathan Swift satire.

No, the biggest problem with the criticism of the Total Information Awareness system is that it's too shortsighted. It's focused on what the Poindexters of the world can do with current database and information-mining technology. That includes weaving together strands of data from various sources--such as travel, credit card, bank, electronic toll and driver's license databases--with the stated purpose of identifying terrorists before they strike.

But what could Poindexter and the Bush administration devise in five or 10 years, if they had the money, the power and the will? more

Supreme Court Justice and rightwing DUMBASS Antonin Scalia says Thomas Jefferson, the Constitution, and all other Supreme Court decisions were WRONG!

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia complained yesterday that courts have gone overboard in keeping God out of government. Justice Scalia, speaking at a religious ceremony in Fredericksburg, Va., said the constitutional wall between church and state has been misinterpreted by the Supreme Court and lower courts, the Associated Press reports. Imagine that! All these years everyone has somehow misinterpreted the first amendment and the founding father's exact words because Scalia says so. Dumbass!

Thousands march to protest a possible war with Iraq in downtown Los Angeles, Saturday, Jan. 11, 2003.


Chanting 'no blood for oil' and 'stop Bush now,' thousands of people opposed to a United States war with Iraq rally. Organizers said at least 20,000 people participated in the protest.

Letters to the White House

Out of the mouths of babes and all that...

A third grade social studies class. Yep, third grade! A heated discussion about George W. Bush and war. Well, as heated as a third grade class can get! A letter writing campaign to the White House. A sophistication beyond their years...

Scott Zimny, 9, wrote his letter from the perspective of a solider to a family, apologizing for killing their son.

"I started to think about what if I were a solider," Scott said. "I wouldn't want to be a soldier, and I think the idea of war is scary."

Several of the students were upset about the thought of war.

"I'm angry that President Bush wants to declare war," said Emily Drutis, 9. "Lots of people will get killed."

Jennifer Ostrowski, 9, had another idea.

"The government should be fighting the war if they declare it," she said. "They should leave innocent families alone. I don't like thinking about war."

Gigi Gonzales, 9, worried about her family.

"I don't want war. I love my brother, and I don't want him to be drafted," she said. "He's 11 or 12, but I hear there are very young kids in the Army." more...

Can we let these kids vote next year?

When liberals attack... each other!

Liberals often squabble amongst themselves. We have so many ideas and such diversity of people and cultures within our ranks that such disagreements are expected. They're never serious, though, unless it comes to entertainment. Then everyone is an expert and everyone else has no taste! Discussions about movies and music often become nasty among liberals. Since I am a capitalistic liberal, I'm in it for the money. After all, show business isn't called show business for nothing!

But often, on various liberal message boards, I run into folks I call culture elitists. They're the ones who swear by music and movies no one else had ever heard of and think you're a moron for liking Madonna and Spider-man. They're reasoning for this disdain over anything popular is that the flick or artist in question "sold out."

Peter Bart, Daily Variety Editor-in-Chief, nailed these types of people recently in an article on year-end movies. His reasoning can just as easily be applied to music. He states that film [music] critics [fans] fall into a couple of different schools:

1. The "pop culture is yucky" school. Elitist by nature, critics [fans] find it positively unbearable to endorse any movie [music] that has found acceptance from the mass audience. If the great unwashed liked it, could it be any goddamn good?

2. The obscurantist school. Since every filmgoer [music an] is convinced he's an expert, their best defense is to cozy up to movies and music no one else has ever likely seen or heard or , indeed, ever heard of. There's no way to contradict someone if his favorites a really obscure.

Toxic attack on city is 'likely soon'

Uh oh! British ministers have been warned by their security advisers that a west European city is "likely" to be the target of a terrorist attack using a chemical or other non-conventional weapon in the short-to-medium term. Now, these security advisors won't say when or even how they know this... more

Now the question begs (please please pretty please) to be answered: What should everyone in every west European city do now? Leave? Buy gas masks? This sounds just like the vague terror alerts Dumbass W. Bush squeals about everytime he needs a poll numbers spike - and we all know a lot of those are made up!

I'm willing to give a lot of people the benefit of the doubt as are most Americans (obviously.) But if our governments keep using these scare tactics without telling us what to do in case of these attacks, how long before we all assume they're crying wolf?

Rumsfeld Radio: WLIE - All lies all the time!

"It just isn't. There are certain things like that, myths that are floating around. I'm glad you asked. This war has nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do with oil."
Donald Rumseld in a recent CBS radio interview.

There's only one thing worse than a dumbass. A dumbass who thinks the rest of us are dumbasses. Here is a counter-quote:

"The Defense Department claims 12 nations with nuclear weapons programs, 13 with biological weapons, 16 with chemical weapons, and 28 with ballistic missiles as existing and emerging threats to the United States. But only one of those countries sits atop the second largest oil reserves in the world."
- Charles Peña, Senior Defense Policy Fellow of the Cato Institute, for The Chicago Tribune

and another...

"The Turkish daily Sabah said yesterday that Turkey informed the US officially that it wants a share of the Iraqi oil at a rate of 10%, noting that in case that Washington approves the said request, Ankara will get a 5.5 billion dollars of the oil revenues annually." more

Mr. Rumfeld, don't insult our intelligence. We just read last week that Bush administration officials are seriously considering proposals that the United States tap Iraq's oil to help pay the cost of a military occupation. more

Just a reminder to all reading this, I'm going to share that picture of Donald Rumsfeld and Saddam Hussein again from back when they were a little chummier! Rumseld was probably trying to hammer out an oil deal then! Dumbassery at work!



NFL playoffs tonight. GO FALCONS!

out...

Republican operative and former alleged Bush lover Bo Derek gets Presidential appointment and steals money from animal shelter! Typical Republican!

When I was a kid I had all the pin-up girls plastered to my wall. Farrah Fawcett. Linda Carter. Susan Anton. Many more. But no Bo Derek. For some reason, I didn't care for her. Now I know why!

Fast forward twenty-three years. Bo Derek, a former Playboy model, actress (she sounds like a liberal) and long time republican supporter, was appointed to the Kennedy Center's board of trustees by pResident Bush. She's now involved in a dispute with a suburban Philadelphia animal shelter. In August 2001, Derek pocketed $21,402, including first-class airfare for two, to headline the shelter's September 2001 fundraiser, but canceled her trip after the 9/11 attacks and kept the money. Shame on you, Bo! Not only are you a bad actress and a Republican but you're a criminal, too!

Wait, damnit! My headline made another allegation! Were you at one time George W. Bush's lover, Bo? A lot of people think so. Rumor has it that you and Dubyah did the nasty a few times while the two of you were campaigning for his daddy! In fact, Dubyah once said, "a man needs imagination, Laura is my Rock of Gibraltar, Bo my imagination."

That doesn't matter though, does it? I mean, we're not going to spend millions investigating an allegation just to embarass you and the pResident. We'll just leave it at you being a typical hypocritical reTHUGlican ho' who gets special treatment from the pResident of the United States and who has stolen money from an animal shelter. Period!

U.S. Says Knows 'For a Fact' Iraq Has Weapons

The White House insisted on Thursday that it knows "for a fact" that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction but provided no evidence, saying it will wait to see where U.N. inspections lead. more...

Hey! I agree Iraq has (or did have) chemical and biological weapons because the Reagan/Bush administrations sold them to Iraq!

However, according to the Washington Post, chief U.N. weapons inspector Blix says No Smoking Guns Found in Iraq!

"We have now been there for some two months and been covering the country in ever wider sweeps and we haven't found any smoking guns," Hans Blix told reporters at the United Nations.

But the Bush boys, being the kids that they are, are screaming "nah nah nah nahnah! We know for a fact Iraq has these weapons but we don't have to tell you why! ha ha! 'Cause we are the biggest dudes on the playground! 'Cause we have special knowledge no one else has! 'Cause we're gonna let the UN waste all that time and money and when they find nothing, we're still gonna go in and steal that oil!'

What? No Smoking Gun in Iraq? Is Bush looking for excuses to invade now?

Suddenly the Defense Department has obtained additional intelligence stating that a missing Navy pilot is alive and being held by the Iraqi government. The intelligence officials believe that the reports refer to Navy Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, whose status was changed to "missing/captured" by the Navy in October.

We've heard this before. Look. I feel for the family of Michael Scott Speicher. If he is alive then hell, yes, lets send a covert team in and snatch him out or let's negotiated for his release.

I just question the timing of this news with Bush looking for any reason to kick sand in the face of Iraq. And Speicher's family should seriously question whether the Bush adminstration is really concerned about him.

"The Defense Department claims 12 nations with nuclear weapons programs, 13 with biological weapons, 16 with chemical weapons, and 28 with ballistic missiles as existing and emerging threats to the United States. But only one of those countries sits atop the second largest oil reserves in the world."
- Charles Peña, Senior Defense Policy Fellow of the Cato Institute, for The Chicago Tribune

New Chairman of 9/11 Commission had business ties with Osama's Brother in Law

..and we thought we would get a fair 9/11 investigation! (snicker) more...

Chafee, Feinstein Partner to Freeze Tax Cut for Top Bracket

Moderate Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R.I.) broke with his party Thursday to join Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) in introducing legislation to freeze part of President Bush's tax cut. Senator Chafee, is your conscience calling? Don't you think its time you broke with the American Nazi Party for good?

Ditto for Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Connecticut. He now knows the political price for bucking his party's leaders last year and forcing a landmark bill to the floor over their objections: He will not get the long-coveted chairmanship of a powerful House committee. more...

I'm sure there's a special bunk in the camp barracks for you, Chris!

Well, President Bush today -- speaking of our president -- likes to trot out carefully screened and scripted yuppie families to demonstrate the effect of his tax cut. He calls them tax families. He uses them to argue that his tax cut is not only for the mega rich.

So I thought in fairness we'd take a look at how two mega rich families fare; specifically, the Bush and Cheney families. The Bloomberg News Service reports that Mr. Bush would have saved a total of $44,500 on his taxes last year if the new Bush tax cut had been the law of the land at the time. Dick Cheney does even better, pocketing an extra $320,000 a year from the Bush tax cut.

Now look, none of this is to say that the president and the vice president designed their tax cut to benefit themselves. Rather it just happens that the people who benefit most are corporate kingpins and quick buck artists who get rich by insider deals of looting, failing corporations. When asked by Bloomberg to comment, Mr. Bush noted that his wealth is in a blind trust, then he laughed his ass off. Unbelievable. - Paul Begala, Crossfire

"Conspicuous intelligence seemed actively unwelcome in the White House."- David Frum, "The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush"

From The Mailbag!

They killed their dog...

Sad sad sad. The police in this country have been out of control long before terrorism became a buzz word. What law enforcement has been doing to minorities all these years is terrorism in and of itself. Lets not use that word. It cheapens the argument. At least this time they screwed someone with the money and the where-with-all to sue the bastards. If these people were black they most likely would not have that opportunity at their disposal. Again though however, I must mention the fine job you're doing with your BLOG. I read it daily and for the most part agree with you on most of your views (better yet, lets call them observations). Keep up the good work. You're a true American.
Paul A. Zimmon

Hey! Your point about police brutality being terrorism is well taken. I believe that after all of George W. Bush's cowboy talk, there are a lot dumbasses with a gun and a badge who thinks he/she is Buffy the Terrorist Slayer.

In reference to your article "Bush likened to ruthless killer Herod the Great. So what's wrong with that?" Christ said in the Gospel of John 18:38 "My Kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place." Christ came to seek and save the lost. If Christ was so interested in social issues, why didn't he free his people from the tyranny of the Romans? That would have been very 'messiah-like" to the world. Maybe the peace you refer to is not of this world either - maybe it's in the souls of men and women of his kingdom. I was also there when this sermon was preached. I always thought the priest should preach the good news of Christ? Didn't sound much like Christ's teachings in the New Testament to me.
Jim Shoenhard

Jim, I'm not sure of your point, but I'll take a stab at it anyway. I gathered from your letter that you feel the priest should stick with biblical lessons and leave out the social commentary. The priest, in my opinion, was comparing one tyrant to another - Herod and Bush. The United States's policies on Iraq have killed countless children or "innocents." Those children that survive and see the tyranny of the US might one day rise and be the terrorists we contend with later.

I find your question "If Christ was so interested in social issues, why didn't he free his people from the tyranny of the Romans?" interesting. Based on the behavior of churches today, "Christ" must really be interested in social issues because the religious right wants a say - often the final say - in government decisions on social issues.

Fortunately, I don't concern myself with superstition and when I read fiction, I prefer Star Trek and Stephen King novels over the bible.

out...

John McCain teams with two democrats on two important issues... Leaving the darkside, John?

Wednesday's news revealed that Senator John McCain (Republican from Arizona) was considering joining forces with Democrat Senator Russell D. Feingold to to reintroduce legislation that would limit the consolidation of radio station ownership and punish radio conglomerates that stifle competition. The bill died last year, mostly because republicans have seen the benefit of allowing major conservative campaign contributors to hold near monopolies on radio properties.

According to Congressional Quarterly, McCain spokeswoman Pia Pialorsi said McCain 'is interested in the topic and has talked to Feingold about it. He's definitely looking at' backing Feingold's legislation, which could be introduced in the coming weeks.

Now, Environment News Service is reporting McCain and Joe Lieberman will be working together to curb global warming by establishing a market based trading system in greenhouse gas emissions. The bill, the first major piece of environmental legislation to be introduced in the 108th Congress, was met with rousing endorsements from the conservation community.

Of course, the reTHUGlicans are opposed to both of these. After all, they will severly limit the power of energy and media conglomerates, companies that are traditionally big GOP contributors. But that shouldn't surprise us. See, the dumbassery of the Republican party has no limit. They will only be happy when every media outlet is presenting the same programming blocks and slanted conservstive bias. And when the devestating effects of global warming finally take their toll on this earth, the Republicans will at least be able to say "yeah, but look at all the "X's" we have in the "win"column! "

Unless, of course, the American people wise up before 2004!

Schumer vows filibuster to fight renomination of Pickering

Sen. Charles Schumer on Wednesday vowed a filibuster if necessary to block the White House's renomination of racially insensitive Mississippi judge Charles Pickering. Pickering was rejected 10-9 in the Democrat-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee last March.

Pickering sought a lighter sentence for a conservative bigot who burned a cross on the lawn of an interracial couple.

"This is not a brilliant man who made one mistake," Schumer said of Pickering. "We can do a lot better, and we can do a lot better at bringing people together."

Here's a quick rundown on Pickering's career: Mississippi District Court Judge with segregationist background, friend of Trent Lott. Hostile to civil rights cases and plaintiffs in his courtroom. Opposes principle of one-person one-vote. Allows personal beliefs to interfere with cases. Advocated constitutional amendment to overturn Roe v. Wade. Unilaterally dismissed allegation under which defendant had been found guilty in a cross-burning case in order to reduce jail time served by the cross-burner. Opposed by Mississippi NAACP and Black Congressional Caucus, NY Times and LA Times. (thanks to realFedUp at DU)

Man arrested for allegedly shooting 'demonic' neighbors

A gunman who apparently believed his neighbors were demons shot to death a 67-year-old man and critically injured his son before surrendering, police said.

"This loser shows classic signs of being a republican," R.W. Slayer says. "He owns a gun and thinks he's been given a godly mandate to expose and kill demons."

What U.S. papers say about Bush economic plan

This plan is much less about the economy than about the White House's belief that it needs to take action, any action, to show that the president cares...

...if Mr. Bush is truly concerned about the people who "spend their entire adult lives living paycheck to paycheck," he should be pushing a more targeted plan along the lines proposed Monday by Congressional Democrats.

America may be about to get the debate it needs on how to get the economy moving. By going for broke -- as in flat broke -- President Bush seems to have awakened sensible critics from a long national snooze. The unexpectedly lavish $674-billion "growth and jobs" stimulus plan he announced Tuesday in Chicago, like the $1.35-trillion tax cut Congress passed in 2001, is focused on helping the wealthy. But the first tax cut package hasn't revived the economy -- and neither would Bush's latest
proposals...

The economic plan that the president proposed yesterday is in keeping with [his] irresponsible philosophy... more

War's Cost May Dwarf Stimulus Effect

The president's determination to push more tax cuts as the nation prepares for war has struck some economists as folly, since the economic shock of war would likely dwarf the impact of Bush's stimulus plan. Moreover, no tax policy at the moment could actually address what many economists believe to be the greatest drag on the nation's economy: the uncertainty of war. more

Bush is in such a tight little spot, ain't he? He wants to lower taxes and take out Saddam so he won't be like his daddy...but doing either of these could sink his presidency -which would be a good thing, huh?

This will PISS YOU OFF! U.S. Can Hold Citizens As Combatants and even shoot family dogs if they get in the way!

What a paranoid time we live in! Terrorists are everywhere! That's why a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the government can hold U.S. citizens as enemy combatants during wartime without the constitutional protections afforded Americans in criminal prosecutions. The Bush administration can now be so bold as to order a clandestine search of a U.S. citizen's home and, based on the information gathered, secretly declare the citizen an enemy combatant, to be held indefinitely at a U.S. military base. Courts would have very limited authority to second-guess the detention, to the extent that they were aware of it.

So who can be declared an enemy combatant? I can! Yep! This very blog could get me in hot water with the dumbass ruling party for daring defy the unelected fraud. I could be declared a terrorist!

Here is a story that will sadden you. A few paranoid Tennessee redneck dumbasses thought they were going to catch themselves some terrorists! Police video released Wednesday shows a North Carolina family kneeling and handcuffed, who shrieked as officers killed their dog -- which appeared to be playfully wagging its tail -- with a shotgun during a traffic stop.

The Smoak family was pulled over the evening of January 1 on Interstate 40 in eastern Tennessee by police officers who mistakenly suspected them of a robbery. An investigation showed James Smoak had simply left his wallet on the roof of his car at a gas station, and motorists who saw his money fly off the car as he drove away called police.

Huh? Having some money in your wallet means you're a criminal?

The family was driving through eastern Tennessee on their way home from a New Year's trip to Nashville. In the video, released by the THP, officers are heard ordering the family to get out of their car with their hands up. James Smoak and his wife, Pamela, and 17-year-old son Brandon are ordered onto their knees and handcuffed.

"What did I do?" James Smoak asks the officers.

"Sir, inside information is that you was involved in some type of robbery in Davidson County," the unidentified officer says. What he really meant was "we don't know ye in these here parts and you might be causin' some trubel - like dos' enemy folks on the TV."

Smoak and his wife protest , telling the officers that they are from South Carolina. They plead with officers to close the doors of their car so their two dogs won't get out, but the officers refuse.

The tape then shows their medium-size brown dog romping playfully, its tail wagging, coming towards the family. An officer then aims his shotgun at the dog and fires at its head, killing it immediately.

"Y'all shot my dog! Y'all shot my dog!" James Smoak cries. "Oh my God! God Almighty!"

"You shot my dog!" screams his wife, distraught and still handcuffed. "Why'd you kill our dog?"

Because y'all might be some of them enemy folks on the TV!

People, this even is a direct result of all the FAKE terrorist alerts the Bush adminstration puts out. The dumbasses that believe them think every shadow, every suspicious activity, every little mistake, is somehow related to terrorism.

These idiot officers in freeperland probably have them cute little American flags pinned to them. They're harassing innocent people and killing their dogs for god and country.

You may be next.

out

The Donald Rumsfeld Meltdown: He lies about a former quote, then insults Viet Nam vets!

The Donald Rumsfeld Meltdown sounds like a new dance, but its not! What it is is a sad example of a warmongering lying dumbass republican trying to backpedal on a statement he made weeks ago then sticking his foot in his mouth!

Back on December 23, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned North Korea not to take advantage of America's preoccupation with Iraq, as the United States is capable of fighting and winning two wars at once.

"I have no reason to believe that ... North Korea feels emboldened because of the world's interest in Iraq," he told a briefing at the Pentagon. ""If they do, it would be a mistake," because the U.S. military was perfectly capable of fighting two major regional conflicts while continuing to engage terrorists across the world.

"We are capable of winning decisively in one and swiftly defeating in the case of the other," he said. "Let there be no doubt about it." more...

Now, Rummy is lying about it! At a DoD briefing Tuesday morning, he ws asked this question about it:

Q: Your stated military capability is to -- regarding two major regional wars -- to go to a nation's capital and win the first one decisively. Even though General Myers says we are posed to meet any threat, is America's military now capable, if asked, to go to Baghdad and win decisively?

To which he replied...

Rumsfeld: Wait a second, let's just take that one. And -- now, the last time I was asked this, I responded to a question, and the headlines across the world said terrible, terrible things had come out of my mouth, none of which ever came out of my mouth.

Ha ha! I can just see Rummy flapping his wrists around and screaming 'they said terrible terrible things came out of my mouth...ewwwwww!'

But you're cold busted, Rummy!

And then he sticks his foot in his mouth again with this statement on how he really feels about Viet Nam vets:

The disadvantages to the individuals so brought in are notable. If you think back to when we had the draft, people were brought in; they were paid some fraction of what they could make in the civilian manpower market because they were without choices. Big categories were exempted -- people that were in college, people that were teaching, people that were married. It varied from time to time, but there were all kinds of exemptions. And what was left was sucked into the intake, trained for a period of months, and then went out, adding no value, no advantage, really, to the United States armed services over any sustained period of time, because the churning that took place, it took enormous amount of effort in terms of training, and then they were gone.

Is Rummy a crackpot or what? Our men and women in uniform, past and present, must all be saying collectively: "Rumsfeld, KISS MY ASS!"

What the world thinks of us...

Interesting poll on TimeEurope.com today. The poll asks "Which country poses the greatest danger to world peace in 2003?" The results aren't really surprising up to this point:



Even Bush's lapdog Tony Blair recently warned President George Bush to "listen back" to the international community's fears over Iraq and other global concerns or risk "pent-up feelings of injustice and alienation" pushing mainstream world opinion into the anti-US corner. I think its too late, Tony. World opinion seems to be against our sham of a leader now... more

This is contrast to Bill Clinton, who was loved around the world while president and is still given a rock star's welcome wherever he goes. In fact, the contrasts between Clinton and Bush are astounding when you consider them. Clinton: Rhodes Scholar; Bush: Dumbass. Clinton: Peace and Prosperity; Bush: War, recession, and dumbassery. Which brings us to our next story...

Bill Clinton heads Oxford's wishlist for new Chancellor

Damn, is this really going to make conservanazi reTHUGlicans mad! BILL CLINTON, who has made no secret of his love for Oxford and whose daughter is a student there, may be asked to stand for Chancellor of the university to succeed Lord Jenkins of Hillhead... If he indicates that he would like the post he would be a hot favourite among younger graduates and dons dazzled by his star appeal. The former US President, 56, has said that he spent two of the happiest years of his life while a Rhodes scholar at University College.

Lord Jenkins even joked with Mr Clinton during the latter’s visit to the university in May 2001 that he was welcome in any capacity provided he did not have premature ambitions towards the chancellorship... more

Has a former president EVER outshone a current one like this? Ha ha! After all the tricks, lying, and stealing to get an "X" in the win column, the republicans install a dud! Dumbasses!

..and... more on polls...

I mentioned the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press story on Monday, Jan. 6th, that detailed how reTHUGlicans are more likely to vote in online polls. Remember, Republicans like to vote in these online surveys over and over and over and over again, hoping to give the grossly false impression that their opinion is shared by a majority of people. Here's proof... Notice how these rightwing dumbasses call on people to "freep" the polls mentioned...

Pizza rule squashed

Republicans pushed changes through the House yesterday that would make it easier for lobbyists to send boxes of pizza and buckets of chicken to congressional offices. The changes would also allow charities to give lawmakers travel and lodging at resorts. The changes by the majority Republican leadership caught Democrats by surprise and ignored the House ethics committee's warnings against skirting the spirit of ethical conduct, the Associated Press reports.

Think of the implications. Terrorists can now deliver buckets of bombs and anthrax-covered pizzas to the congressional offices. What were these bozos thinking? In a post 9/11 America, isn't this a serious breach of security?

And what about the second part? Do Republicans now get a ski trip for contributing to charities? Is that kind of like a bribe...?

Bush's "Pre-employment" Accounts...

Bush wants Congress to create "re-employment accounts" of up to $3,000 that could be used by states in a variety of ways - including awarding bonuses to people who quickly leave unemployment rolls.

Under the two-year, $3.6 billion plan, people would be able to draw from the accounts to pay for child care, job training, transportation, moving costs and other expenses of finding a job, senior White House officials said.

A person who lands a job in 13 weeks would be able to keep any money left over in his account, the officials said.

Hmmm... I think lorelynn over at the Bartcop forum nailed it when she said "what this ploy does is encourage people to take jobs that pay far lower wages than the job they've lost. Rather than wait for a comparable job to come along, this allows you to take something you wouldn't normally take and survive for a few months. It's an ingenious way to drive unemployment numbers down quickly and delay the the real moment of truth for the unemployed."

Not to mention it will make Bush look real good when those unemployment numbers tumble down via people working jobs they're overqualified for... IF they can even get hired for those jobs. Unemployed people I've spoken to say If you have a degree or advanced training, the employers say, "We won't hire you, because when the economy gets better, you'll leave."

On the subject of Bush's new economic plan...

Here's what a few people from an article in the AJC have to say about it...

• "I'm sixty-four years old. I've paid income taxes since leaving high school at age seventeen. I'm a veteran of four years service in the U.S. Air Force, father of five, grandfather of seven.
  
  Sadly, this bunch is no different than each of the previous Republican administrations I've suffered under during my tax-paying lifetime. They worm their way in, immediately give unnecessary breaks to the already very wealthy, and completely destroy the economy, all the while using catch phrases like "the working man" ..."middle income Americans" ...and etc.
  
  This already had the looks of a one-term presidency. Today's stupid economic proposal clinches it. The first tax cut destroyed the surplus, millions of jobs, city, county, and state revenues, didn't it? For what purpose, we wonder?
  
  I sincerely hope that the ones who voted this group in, the ones who find themselves unemployed or under-employed, will begin to realize the folly of their actions. Now, we older folks who ought to remain retired are taking up jobs normally occupied by much younger people. We'll work harder, and cheaper, and they will suffer. I'm so sorry for them, for their children and for our rich nation." - Mike Warner, Roswell GA
  
  
• "The common person is in deep trouble, again. Brought to you by, you guessed it, Reaganomics. Can't blame Clinton for what's about to happen." - Lagarius Taylor, Santa Barbara, CA
  
  
• "As a parent in a household where both parents work and pay $205/week in daycare the child tax credit will help a tiny bit BUT I don't know anyone who will benefit from the dividend cut other than the very very wealthy. I am a die-hard Republican and I am even for tax relief but the dividend cut is the wrong target at the extremely wrong time." - Neal Pelsor, Dacula, GA
  
  
• "Stock dividends are income, period. Income is taxed in this country. It is illogical for the current president to state that taxation on stock dividends is double taxation. Perhaps he does not realize not all Americans have a source of that "negligible" income. Nor do we all have children for a childcare tax credit. Where is the benefit for working young and middle-aged Americans without stock and without children? Maybe those are just neglible citizens." - Peggy Davis, Atlanta, GA
  
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Bush likened to ruthless killer Herod the Great. So what's wrong with that?

pRresident Bush was compared to ruthless killer Herod the Great during the Rev. Canon Michael Wyatt's sermon on Iraq at Washington National Cathedral on Sunday, Dec. 29th. I wasn't there. I wish I had been, though. Apparently it pissed off one churchgoer who seems to have forgotten that Jesus didn't care too much for warmongers. In a whiney letter to the Washinton Times, He described the sermon as "startling and appalling."

I've never stood up and cheered in church before but, damn, Wyatt gave one helluva sermon! Here is the transcript:

"The Church celebrated yesterday the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the children Herod ordered slaughtered in an attempt to kill the newborn King of the Jews, Jesus," Mr. Wyatt said in his sermon. "The acknowledged good of a stable dynasty veiled a brutal and reprehensible fact, and for the sake of that perceived possible positive outcome, actual flesh was ripped open. The self-indulgence of the indolent is paid for out of the flesh of the innocents of the world, those powerless to defend themselves, except by acts of terror.

"Our consuming and combative choices hack away at the fabric of life, and we are slashed and burned in return," he continued. "And if we answer, even sincerely, that we do not know on whose back we ride, that ignorance will not save us, and if we are lucky enough to die before the verdict comes in, that escape does not mean that we are numbered among the holy innocent.

"For over a decade, the United States has held to an intensification of the U.N. sanctions on Iraq, blocking with its veto and entangling in debates any attempt to relieve that nation. As part of the 'dual-use' considerations of the sanctions, by which items which might conceivably be used for military purposes are kept out, equipment to repair Iraq's sewage plants have been held up," Mr. Wyatt said.

"This, of course, has meant an increase of cholera, typhoid and dysentery. But the necessary vaccines are also blocked, with the claim that they might be used to make biological weapons — a technically unlikely claim," he opined, pointing out that 25 percent of children in southern Iraq are chronically malnourished.

"Is it better not to know about these Holy Innocents? By the grace of God, moments of brutality can become moments in which the powerful are forced into the most horrific knowledge of themselves by seeing their own violence and brought to repentance. We must see how flesh pays for our words if we are to change. The question remains, with whom do you identify — and if it is Herod, wail."

I think the Rev. Canon Michael Wyatt nailed it! So why is anyone pissed off? Wasn't Jesus the prince of peace? Anyone who has a problem with that sermon has a mentally challenged buttox! (I'll explain later!)

This quotes says it all!

"The Defense Department claims 12 nations with nuclear weapons programs, 13 with biological weapons, 16 with chemical weapons, and 28 with ballistic missiles as existing and emerging threats to the United States. But only one of those countries sits atop the second largest oil reserves in the world."

- Charles Peña, Senior Defense Policy Fellow of the Cato Institute, for The Chicago Tribune

Offense taken at the term "dumbass"

I received an e-mail from a reader named Dan who thought it was disrespectful for me to call conservatives dumbass. Dan, would you prefer "mentally challenged buttox?" Nahh... doesn't have the same sting!



Q Ari, other than Elliott Abrams, how many convicted criminals are on the White House staff?

MR. FLEISCHER: (Laughter.) You tell me, Russell. You seem to keep count.

Q Can you give me a list of convicted criminals on the White House staff, other than Elliott Abrams?

MR. FLEISCHER: I'll go right to the convicted criminals division and ask them to turn -- (Laughter.)

Q No, seriously -- why isn't being convicted of a criminal a disqualifier for being on the White House staff?

MR. FLEISCHER: Russell, this is an issue that you like to repeat every briefing. I refer you to the --

Q But you don't answer --

MR. FLEISCHER: -- repeat I gave you the third time you asked it, which matched the second, which corresponded to the first.

From a recent press briefing by Bush henchman Ari Fleischer

Anyone want to guess how many convicted criminals are on the White House staff staff? I'll give you a hint: A bunch! Aren't the grown-ups supposed to be in charge now? Isn't this the party of personal responsibility? Why didn't Ari answer the question? Mr. Fleischer, I think, has a mentally challenged buttox! (that means dumbass by the way.)

IRAQ: ANOTHER FAKE LIBERATION?

Ted Rall asks: Will Americans Fall For the Same Lies Again?

During his radio address a few weeks back, George W. Bush promised that the U.S. would "lead a coalition to disarm the Iraqi regime and free the Iraqi people." Once Saddam is dead or has flown safely into exile, Bush and his allies at Fox News swear, America will stick around to help liberated Iraqis. We'll rebuild whatever we've bombed better than it was built in the first place. We'll supervise democratic elections. Then, without asking for anything in return, we'll leave.

The Bushies insist they have no interest whatsoever in Iraqi oil. Their war aims, they say, are the elimination of a dangerous dictator and his potential arsenal, liberating the Iraqi people, rebuilding the country and spreading democracy, all while keeping nosy neighbors--Iran, Turkey, Syria--out. Sounds nice. Maybe the cost--billions of dollars, thousands of lives--will be worth it.

There's just one thing. Does anyone remember September 2001?

Bush marketed the invasion and subsequent occupation of Afghanistan (news - web sites) exactly the same way. First we were going to go in and get Osama and his buddies, "dead or alive." Then we'd liberate the long-suffering Afghan people from Taliban rule. After supervising free elections, we'd wish Central Asia's first democracy all the best and drive off in our Humvees.

Since our intentions were purely honorable, we'd never try to revive the idea of building a Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline to carry gas and oil from landlocked Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to Indian Ocean oil tankers. Liberation, not exploitation, was what we had in mind for Afghanistan.

One year after Hamid Karzai--a former consultant for the oil company that came up with the Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline--took over as interim president, it's become painfully apparent that neither liberation, nor rebuilding, nor democracy, have begun.

Post-Taliban Afghanistan is essentially the Taliban Afghanistan minus law and order (news - Y! TV). Stonings continue and women remain under burqas, but now thugs and rapists roam the streets unchecked.

Bush didn't liberate Afghans. He didn't rebuild anything. He spread dictatorship, not democracy. And he didn't even try to catch Osama.

Bush's one accomplishment in Afghanistan, it turned out, was the one thing he promised that he would never do. On Dec. 26, Karzai met with the president of Turkmenistan and the foreign minister of Pakistan to work out the final details of the $3.2 billion Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline Bush's friends had sworn would never be built. more

The heat is on... or off... depending on how much Bush likes you!

Blaming political instability in Venezuela and the possibility of war in the Middle East, Bush is turning off the heat on thousands of low income families. Funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, is slated to drop considerably in this fiscal year, which began in October. The Bush administration says energy prices are just too high... yet...

...they can spend billions on a war with Iraq? They can call for hundreds of billions of dollars in new tax breaks for the very wealthy? And they can't heat the homes of our nation's poor? Man, that sux! Bush, YOU are a... du... du... DUMBASS! THERE, I SAID IT! I WON'T SUGAR COAT IT. YOU'RE BEYOND HAVING A MENTALLY CHALLENGED BUTTOX. YOU ARE A DUMBASS!!!

Bush family Nazis

click

Unanswered Questions - the song!

Clarity, a progressive group from New York produced by C*Supreme, has just released "buddy, buddy," perhaps the most controversial song of the year. It has been dubbed by Scoop Media & Unanswered Questions as "UNANSWERED QUESTIONS - the song"

"buddy, buddy" has a political intensity unlike anything in recent years. It's a song guaranteed to make waves that cannot be ignored.

Download song here

out...

"...dearth of really high-powered brains"

"One seldom heard an unexpected thought in the Bush White House or met someone who possessed unusual knowledge."

dearth ( P ) Pronunciation Key (dûrth)
n.
A scarce supply; a lack of.

Oh, now, THIS is rich! Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report (of course) has broken a story detailing a controversial new book by former Bush speech writer David Frum. The book, "The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush," is the first insider account of the W. Bush Administration. Frum, you may recall, is credited with the phrase 'Axis of Evil.'

Though the Drudge Report is portraying this as some kind of hit piece and claiming the Bush Administration is pissed off, a fluff job for the pResident is more like it. Sure, Frum states that there is a "dearth of high powered brains" in the White House and further claims he seldom met anyone with unusual knowledge there but he also believes Bush is neither dumb (as portrayed by the left) nor nice (Frum describes him as "tart.")

Let's take this in. Throughout the past two years it has been an assumption by everyone that Bush is dumb as a stick but those around him possess the political and diplomatic skill to get things done. Now, Frum comes along and tells us that there is a "dearth of high powered brains" in the white house and very few have unusual knowledge but Bush is the one who is smart? Ha ha! Forgive me if I don't buy it (the story or the book!)

So, in honor of Bush, the tart but smart president as portrayed by "Axis of Evil" former speech write David Frum, I give you "Bush's Greatest Hits!"

• "Neither in French nor in English nor in Mexican."—Declining to answer reporters' questions at the Summit of the Americas, Quebec City, Canada, April 21, 2001
  
• "You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.''—Townsend, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2001
  
• "The fact that he relies on facts... is going to undermine his campaign."—New York Times, March 4, 2000
  
• "I think we need not only to eliminate the tollbooth to the middle class, I think we should knock down the tollbooth."—Nashua, N.H., as quoted by Gail Collins in the New York Times, Feb. 1, 2000
  
• "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family."—Greater Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000
  
• "Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"—Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000
  
• "They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program." - Nov. 2, 2000
  
• "I mean, there needs to be a wholesale effort against racial profiling, which is illiterate children." - Oct. 11, 2000
  
• "I think we ought to raise the age at which juveniles can have a gun."
  
• "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream." - Oct. 18, 2000
  
• "We cannot let terriers and rogue nations hold this nation hostile" - Sep. 9, 2000

So, Is Bush one of the greatest Americans of all time?

If you listen to the Limbaughs and ditto heads of the world, Bush is the best thing since KFC's Original Recipe. However, the most recent Time/CNN poll (you know, the one they're hiding?) has Bush at 55% approval. The latest FOX News poll puts Dick Cheney at 53%. Now, nearly 900 adult Americans were asked by political pollster Frank Luntz to name the "Greatest American of All Time." The top 10 vote-getters were Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, John F. Kennedy, Theodore Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. Bill Clinton tied with Jesus for 13th place. (Jesus? American?)

Very telling, huh? Haven't seen the complete list so I'm not sure where and if Dubyah ranks, but I'm sure the howler monkeys are screeching about Jimmy Carter being in the top 10 and Bill Clinton being ranked at all (and tied with Jesus at that!)

Another apology from another republican racist!

The heir to the leadership of California's Republican Party apologized over the weekend for distributing an e-mail newsletter in 1999 that contained an opinion piece that asserted the country would have been better off if the South had won the Civil War. State party Vice Chairman Bill Back, who needs party approval through a vote usually considered a formality, sent the article written by Bill Lind, director of the Center for Cultural Conservatism, an arm of the Free Congress Foundation.

"Given how bad things have gotten in the old U.S.A., it's not hard to believe that history might have taken a better turn," Mr. Lind wrote. "The real damage to race relations in the South came not from slavery, but from Reconstruction, which would not have occurred if the South had won."

Yeah, dumbass, and slavery may have never been abolished either. And the US would be a smaller, weaker country that may have lost several wars it had won! But, at least dumbass racists like Bill Black (how ironic is THAT last name?) would have their own country.

Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to participate in online surveys

Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to participate in online surveys, according to a poll that found a modest growth in the number of people using the Internet to get campaign news. What the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press poll DID NOT mention is that Republicans like to vote in these online surveys over and over and over and over again, hoping to give the grossly false impression that their opinion is shared by a majority of people. This practice has become known as "freeping," named after the rightwingers at freerepublic. These rightwing nuts prowl the net for polls then post them up on their message forums with instruction to everyone on how to vote and how many votes are needed to change the direction of the survey.

To their credit, it is a very smart strategy. Knowing that most voters are sheep, they know that if liberals see opinion polls that overwhelmingly take conservative sides on positions, these people will come to believe that is what the majority of Americans feel. Then, when it comes to real votes on the matter, these liberals may not bother to vote because they may think their votes won't matter.

DON'T FALL FOR IT! If the above mentioned poll on the Greatest Americans had been on online survey, George W. Bush would have been number 1 (perhap tied with Jesus, ha ha!) Online polls are almost ALWAYS skewed Republican and they MEAN NOTHING!

UN inspectors fear Bush will ignore them

UN weapons inspectors in Iraq fear their work - which has failed to turn up any evidence thus far of weapons of mass destruction - will still be used as an excuse to trigger a US-led invasion of Iraq... Nuclear weapons sites that the British and the Americans claimed as late as last September had been reactivated have been revealed as rusting, disabled shambles. It may be that Iraq has squirrelled away its most portable weapons and components. But as one inspector complained to the LA Times last week, they had found 'zilch'... Yesterday, as they set up a new base near Mosul in northern Iraq, UN inspectors were more aware than ever that it was their work that would be likely to trigger a war. Some of the inspectors are understood to be convinced that their mission has become a 'set-up job' and America will attack Iraq regardless of what they find. Read all about it...

Nominate, then vote, for Rightwing Slayer! (please?)

Then 2003 Bloggies are coming up. These are like the Academy Awards for blogs. Since I'm new to the blogging game, have no shame, and I'm pandering for fame (Eminem, look out) I'd like your vote. A nomination would be a vote of confidence! Thanks! Vote here!

From The Mailbag!

Slayer,

"....if it is the possible war in Iraq you want to debate" (Jan 5,
2003)

In what way are the United States and Britain (principal players) not
already at war with Iraq?

Just a nitpick.

Nice blog!
Mark
UK

Good point.

I guess the answer is: Full scale military occupation with the primary objective of securing Iraq's oil fields and Bush's fat cat oil buddies in perpetual orgasm. That hasn't happenned. Yet.

(In reference to the freeper talking about outbreeding liberals from Sunday, 01/05) I think he was also trying to tell you that he really doesn't know anything about Christianity, besides being a total dumbshit about the Constitution.
Ken

What exactly are the details of Bushes DUI arrest? Was he sodomised in a holding cell by other detainees? Did the deputies look on sipping whisky and chuckling?
Estelle

HA HA! Funny thought! I'm not sure of the all details but here is the record:



Bush was arrested near his family's summer house in Kennebunkport, Maine, on September 7, 1976 for drunken driving. He paid a $150 dollar fine and had his drivers license suspended in Maine, but did not spend a night in jail.

In an interview the arresting officer, the Associated Press reported that Bush -- who as 30-years old at the time -- failed a roadside sobriety test and a second test in the police station, registering a 0.10 blood-alcohol level, which was the legal limit at the time.

"I'm not proud of that," Bush told reporters. "I've often said that years ago I made some mistakes."

Bush maintained that the he had kept the news quiet because he did not want his daughters to know about the incident.

Yep, the daughter who often appear drunk in public themselves...



out...

Blogger has issues lately...

For some odd reason, my archives vanish when I update, only to reappear later. Then they sometimes appear twice. The they sometimes disappear again. So, catch them here until it gets fixed:

12/15/2002 - 12/21/2002
12/22/2002 - 12/28/2002
12/29/2002 - 01/04/2002
01/05/2002 - 01/11/2002

In the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field

There are those of you who are not into professional football that don't see the significance of Atlanta's 27-7 win against Green Bay at Lambeau field. For starters, no team has ever beaten Green Bay in a playoff game there. Until last night. And for a team that has more often than not been the joke of the NFL, the Atlanta Falcons made a statement all year with second year starting QB Mike Vick. Last night was the exclamation point. They may not triumph against Philadelphia next week, but they have done the city of Atlanta proud. Congratulations Falcons!

Oh Boy! A challenge!

Someone has challenged me to debate. You have to realize that that doesn't happen often so when it does I get downright giddy! The challenger seems intelligent so It should be productive, unlike the last one. In fact, here is what one freeper wrote to me when the prospect of a debate became more than just rhetoric to him:

"Do you wonder why I don't study the Constitution like you have? I didn't feel that I needed too. I am not looking for loopholes. People like you make me itch to restudy it to put you in your place. I also want to have a million little Christian youngin's to out breed you libs. You can bet that my money and efforts will be thwarting you and your ilk, more than ever. Especially since this last election. Oh I know personal attacks. Quit being a pussy and be a man and take it like one. If I hear this poppycock again I might puke on the next lib I encounter. It really isn't a personal attack when a conservative talks about a libs cause because lib causes are superficial not at the core of their being. It really is a cause that is outside of them. When you attack a conservative you are attacking their very soul. I don't have to argue with someone whose thinking is an inch deep. Your whole approach is humanistic and therefore faulty."

In other words, he was chickenshit.

Now, you might recall Peter Cuthbertson of ukconservatism.com writing me and taking exception at the way I present my thoughts on this blog compared to the ideas laid out in an earlier article about debating. (You Wanna Take Me On?)

Here is his latest e-mail to me, followed by my reply:

Joey

I assumed you did make the distinction between debating with people and calling them names behind their back. If you think that makes sense, fair enough, but I can't see why the absolutely correct arguments you made against name-calling, insults and personal attacks in debates do not apply to any other attempt at persuasion. If slurs on the character of those with whom you disagree are a signal that you have run out of arguments and supporting facts, what makes the difference to that when you aren't addressing any conservative in particular?

Anyway, I would like to take you up on your offer to debate. I've read a few email/letter debates on politics and I like the way they offer people time to think through the issues and questions raised in their response. It means a higher class of debate. It's something I've been interested in starting in the past but never really seen an obvious correspondent. You will do nicely. :)

I am open to ideas on what we could debate. I suggest something not related solely to the US. Issues relating specifically to certain policies tend to be more number crunching statistics games than deep conflicts of ideas, and so less interesting. As a foreigner, this would also put me at a disadvantage. Maybe we could discuss how big government should be as a general rule, whether the free market economy works in the best interests of everyone, the morality of abortion or the legal dos and don'ts of homosexuality. I suggest a foreign policy question such as whether the US and UK should go to war with Iraq as a particularly topical issue to debate right now, and I think it might attract a fair bit of interest. Your blog suggests you oppose the war, so this would be something we could take opposite sides on in a debate.

This is a discussion I'll probably want to post on my blog and perhaps you want to do the same. Anyway, I'll let you think about your post. If you want me to make my case first, and to respond to it, we can do it that way. If not, please make your case in your next email on the chosen issue and I'll find what fault I can with it.

Peter,

Far too long the liberals in this country have been branded as mild, pushovers, weak, etc. etc.

There is a growing grassroots movement here consisting of angry liberals. Angry that millions of dollars were spent chasing Bill Clinton's zipper. Angry that an election was stolen. Angry that Bush squandered the budget surplus. Angry that 8 years of peace and prosperity have been flushed down the toilet. Rising unemployment. Down Jones down over 36%. And most of all, angry that Bush and his oil cartel feel they have a mandate from the American people.

I've become one of the high profile angry liberals who is fighting back - using the same tactics the conservatives used against us accept for one obvious difference - I'm not making stuff up as I go.

If you're a student of history, you should know that in politics "insults and personal attacks" have always been a means of pursuasion. The conservative movement in the US is a prime example.

You asked: "If slurs on the character of those with whom you disagree are a signal that you have run out of arguments and supporting facts, what makes the difference to that when you aren't addressing any conservative in particular?" The answer to this is simple: When I use these tactics, I haven't run out of arguments and supporting facts. They're not inspired by frustration at losing the debate as is the case so many times with conservatives. They're my personal opinion of the conservative in question once the facts show him/her to be wrong.

For example, if you don't agree that George W. Bush is a dumbass because he inacted grand tax cuts for the wealthy which slashed the greater percentage of the surplus, refused to extend unemployment benefits at Christmas for hundreds of thousands of Americans, has done nothing so far to stimulate the economy, wants to lead us to war with Iraq before he's through in Afghanistan because he thinks they have nukes (and he knows they have oil), doesn't want war in North Korea because he knows they have nukes (and knows they DON'T have oil), then that is ok. You can call him what you want for those things. I'll call him a dumbass.

OK, for debates I usually insist on chat rooms for a variety of reasons, one of which is to force my opponent to be prepared. In real debates, people don't have time to "think through the issues and questions raised in their response" and that, to me, is the challenge (just like in sports, when the opposing team scores, your team doesn't have time to go back to the practice field and sharpen their defensive skills)

I also insist on chat room debates because it allows others to witness it. This discourages one party of trying to alter the outcome after the fact.

But if you want to do it via e-mail, I will. But I do have rules that must be agreed to.

Clarity: Avoid use of terms which can be interpreted differently by different readers. When we are talking to people who substantially agree with us we can use such terms as "rednecks" or "liberals" and feel reasonably sure that we will be understood. But in a debate, we are talking to people who substantially disagree with us and they are likely to put a different interpretation on such words.

Evidence: Quoting someone who is not an authority is not evidence (A quote by Rush Limbaugh about the economy, for example). Quoting a majority opinion is not evidence. Any argument that starts with, "Most biologists believe..." is not based on objective evidence. Saying, "The Bible says..." is not evidence.

Emotionalism: Avoid emotionally charged words. Certainly the racial, ethnic, or religious hate words have no place in rational debating. Likewise, avoid argumentum ad hominem. Personal attacks on your opponent in a debate are an admission of intellectual bankruptcy. Also, slurs directed at groups with whom your opponent is identified are usually nonproductive. Try to keep attention centered on the issue itself. There is a special problem when debating social, psychological, political, or religious ideas because a person's theories about these matters presumably have some effect on his own life style.

A (Short) List of emotionally charged words and phrases:
Liberal!
Tax and spend!
Fascist!
Politically correct!
(The opponent) is spouting! his (whatever)!
All pejorative names for races, sexual preference, ethnic groups, or religions
Baby killer!
Socialist!
Hippy!
Druggy!
Saying that your opponent "trots out" his argument.

Be sure of your facts. What is the source of your information? Take this test - if that same source printed/broadcasted something that hurt your arguement, would you still trust the source?

Peter, if it is the possible war in Iraq you want to debate, then let's do it. I'll be waiting for your opening statement.

Democrats Pounce on Bush Stimulus Plan - As Well They Should!

Let's not forget, people, that the Bush adminstration has admitted that wealthy taxpayers will be the primary beneficiaries of this "stimulus" package. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts called Bush's emerging package "a stimulus mirage, not a plan for economic growth."

"They won't propose major investments in infrastructure, or provide help to small businesses, and instead cling to ineffective and unaffordable new tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans," Kerry told The Associated Press. "I don't think we've ever witnessed an administration more out of touch with the economic needs of average Americans and small businesses."

Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri said of the plan: "President Bush must accept that his economic plan is flawed and start from scratch instead of compounding our economic challenges with this deeply flawed proposal."

"Simply accelerating a wrong-headed economic plan is not a solution to our economic ills," Gephardt told the AP. "We need a fiscally responsible economic stimulus that puts money in the consumer's pocket in the short term and puts us back on track to economic growth in the long term."

Sen. John Edwards (news, bio, voting record) of North Carolina said the White House is "trying to use the Bush recession to put money in the pockets of the richest Americans over a long period of time while providing very little help for regular people."

"If this is what he thinks is going to help regular people in times of an economic downturn, it just shows how out of touch he is," Edwards said in remarks his campaign staff said were taped for broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

Yes, it is essentially the same old same old. Sure, the pResident is NOW promising to extend unemployment benefits to those who were put out of work by his policies and recession, but where was he and his reTHUGlican congress during Christmas when those benefits expired for hundreds of thousands of Americans? Is that the only bone he's going to throw the non-upperclass? Is he going to try to buy us off again with a $300. deferrment? Do you think we're stupid, Mr. pResident?

Blogger has issues lately...

For some odd reason, my archives vanish when I update, only to reappear later. Then they sometimes appear twice. The they sometimes disappear again. So, catch them here until it gets fixed:

12/15/2002 - 12/21/2002
12/22/2002 - 12/28/2002
12/29/2002 - 01/04/2002
01/05/2002 - 01/11/2002



out...

Terror alerts manufactured? FBI agents say White House scripting 'hysterics' for political effect

Intelligence pros say the White House is manufacturing terrorist alerts to keep the issue alive in the minds of voters and to keep President Bush's approval ratings high. Of course, democrats have been saying this for months and months!

Does this really surprise anyone? more

Party of Personal Responsibility Fails To Condemn Westerfield. Are They Blaming Clinton?

According to his brother-in-law Johnny Neal, David Westerfield is a normal guy who likes to drink beer, talk politics and watch the Chargers on television. He describes Westerfield as a man who did well for himself designing products for which he holds patents and who spent a lot of money on his "toys" – a pool table, a boat, dune buggies. He once owned a 1982 Porsche. He's also the man who kidnapped and murdered 7-year-old neighbor Danielle van Dam.

The investigation leading up to his arrest and conviction took a momentary tabloid slant last February when the conservative website FrontPageMagazine.com published an article blaming Danielle's death on her parents. The article did not deny the probability that Westerfield committed the murder but it attempted to put the ultimate blame on her parents because they allegedly lead a "deviant" lifestyle.

The Van Dams were swingers and FrontPageMagazine.com seemed to take glee in pointing it out. They called Danielle a "victim of an alternative lifestyle," a lifestyle that her parents denied Westerfield the opportunity to share with them. According to the theory set forth in this article, Westerfield wanted revenge against the van Dams for not including him in their sexual activities so during one of their parties, he kidnapped young Danielle. You know the rest.

So, does this article condemn Westerfield? No. It condemns the Van Dams for their sex lives, strongly implies that those activities are what put Danielle in danger, and criticizes the media for not reporting it. Along the way it takes stabs at Bill Clinton, Gary Condit, and our right to privacy. In fact, the only person this article does not judge is David Westerfield!

I don't want to politicize the tragic death of a young child. That is not my intention. Of course, FrontPageMagazine saw it as the perfect opportunity to express their views on what a "normal" sex life is, whether it should be private, and how side stepping questions about their sex lives somehow made Danielle's parents responsible. Disgusting!

So, you may be wondering why a conservative magazine would attempt to relieve David Westerfield of some of the responsibility for murdering and raping a seven year old girl.

David Westerfield is a registered Republican.

And although nothing can ever bring Danielle back to her parents, I think it is shameful for a magazine to use her death to rally their rightwing oppressive minions! SHAME ON FrontPageMagazine!

Rest in peace, young Danielle. Your killer has been caught and will die.

Bill First let a police officer die to save the life of an assasin! He, thus, has committed a crime!

Andrew Ferguson, contributing editor of the Weekly Standard and a columnist for the Bloomberg News, appeared on C-SPAN Friday where he discussed the case of Dr. Sam Mudd. Dr. Mudd gave Abraham Lincoln assasin John Wilkes Booth medical attention and was arrested and convicted as a conspirator in Lincoln's assasination. Andrew Fergusan believes Dr. Mudd was, indeed, guilty for this action.

However, new Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist also rendered medical assistance to a would-be assasin in 1998. The incident began on the ground floor of the Capitol before 4 p.m. on July 24th of that year. The shooting started after the gunman entered and magnetometer alarms went off. The man, armed with a handgun, opened fire as he ran toward the office of Texas Republican Rep. Tom DeLay, the House Majority Whip. When the man got to DeLay's office, he allegedly got into a gunfight with a security guard there. Before being shot himself, the gunman wounded law enforcement officials and an innocent bystander.

Good thing Dr. Bill Frist was there! He immediately sprang to attention and rendered medical assistance to... the gunman! While two law enforcement officers lay dying Bill Frist provided medical attention to the would-be assasin! The assassin was shot in the head, and had multiple gunshot wounds to multiple parts of the body, yet Frist chose to assist him instead of the fallen officers, one of which died. You might be asking yourself, "Isn't this the same thing Dr. Mudd did?" Amen, from the bartcop forum, thought so, and called Andrew Fergusan on it. Listen to that phone call here

Bush has a new $600 billion economic stimulus package. Same old results!

According to the New York Times, President Bush could propose as much as $600 billion in tax cuts and new spending measures over the next 10 years, an economic stimulus package nearly twice as big as even Republican lawmakers had been expecting, administration officials said today.

But buried waaaaaaaay down in the article is the most important part of this story. This is a quote: "Administration officials acknowledge that wealthy taxpayers will be the primary beneficiaries."

Dude, are your TRYING to lose in 2004? C'mon, folks! A big collective DUMBASS for our pResident!

You wanna take on me?

In an earlier update I wrote a piece lamenting the fact that conservatives refuse to debate. I defined the word "debate" as a good healthy exchange of ideas, policies, and opinions between two or more parties void of rumor spouting, mud slinging, and name calling.

Now, Peter Cuthbertson of ukconservatism.com has written me and seems to take exception at the way I present my thoughts on this blog compared to the ideas laid out in my article about debating.

He has cut and pasted excerpts from my various posts here in which I strongly question the mental aptitude of conservatives and then interspersed them with points made in my debate article - specifically where I state that conservatives love to hurl insults when debating.

What he has attempted to do is show that I'm a hypocrite for insulting conservatives while condemning them for insulting liberals.

He has failed at his attempt. Here is why.

First, in true conservative fashion, Peter is so anxious to make his point that he has overlooked the fact that the rantings in my blog are not debates nor are they public interactions with anyone. They are my personal thoughts. I specifically defined "debate" in my article and personal thoughts were not included in that definition. Further, I don't have to use the colorful decriptive words I use here in debates because the facts I present in a debate make my conservative opponents look silly enough.

So, Peter, if you would like to debate something, let me know.

From The Mailbag!

In regards to your article "Conservative perverts are EVERWHERE!" you left out the best part... Did you know Mary Kay LeTourneau's brother is married to Columba Bush's sister? This makes him an uncle to Noelle and [related to] the rest of the Bush clan!
- BemLexKy

Ha ha! No, I didn't know that! So much for family values! Just as a reminder, Mary Kay LeTourneau is the daughter of former Congressman John Schmitz. Schmitz's career ended when it ws discovered he had two out of wedlock children. Ms. LeTour made national headlines when as a school teacher, she was arrested twice for having sex with an underage boy (13 years old), by which she had two children. Currently she is serving time. And now we now she is part of the Bush family, too! Now THATS funny!

Is there any reason Bill Clinton couldn't run for President again? I think his personal popularity and strategic agenda for the country still resonate highly with the American public. I don't know WHY in the world he'd want to take the reigns back from W after he's completely put this county in the toilet, but I do think if he could/would run, he'd be easily nominated and elected. Wow...what a kick in the %@$#^& that would be for the reTHUGlicans!- Kris

Kris! I love your enthusiasm! Unfortunately the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution doesn't allow anyone to be elected president more than twice. However, constitutional scholars see a loophole in that!

Michael C. Dorf, vice dean and professor of law at Columbia University where he teaches civil procedure and constitutional law, wrote a brilliant piece on this subject. Read it here.

As for Clinton undoing the damage of Bush, he did before with Dubyah's daddy. You should read How George Bush Sr. Almost Got Indicted for Fraud. Though much of the article is speculation, it is very interesting reading.

Thanks for the service you provide to Americans. It is a shame the fight against immoral, lying Republicans/Conservatives has to be so hard. I have a suggestion to any vets who "deserted" their military post. If you want to come clean with your situation, throw yourself on the mercy of the military court system and call George W. Bush as a character witness! He deserted his military unit in '72. He ripped off shareholders of Harken Industries in 90' that had Fastow led away in handcuffs... Bush should be court martialed for desertion and sent to jail for corporate fraud. Thanks again Slayer. Keep ripping 'em! Ashcroft, if you're reading this, sue me for slandering the commander in thief. I look forward to the trial!
- John Shuler

Keep reading and I'll keep writing!

out!

How do YOU feel about citizen dossiers?

The Los Angeles Times did a poll back in December, the results of which are chilling. Here is how it was worded:

"The Department of Defense is developing a program which could compile information from sources such as phone calls, e-mails, web searches, financial records, purchases, school records, medical records and travel histories to provide a database of information about individuals in the United States. Supporters of the system say that it will provide a powerful tool for hunting terrorists. Opponents say it is an invasion of individual privacy by the government. Based on what you just heard, are you inclined to support this program, or inclined to oppose it, or haven't you heard enough about it to say?"

Of all respondants, 31% felt inclined to support it. 36% were opposed. 28% had not heard enough and 5% just didn't know. But then the results were broken down by political party affiliation. Of Democrats, only 18% support it while 42% oppose it.

However, the "anti big government" Republicans support this by 50%! Half of you dumbass conservatives think it is just peachy for the government to spy on us but think it is horrendous for them to help the needy. Are you guys on crack? Did your moms drop you on your heads when you were kids?

Listen lame brains, if someone is suspected of being a terrorist then yeah, sure, spy on them! Otherwise, my search engine queries for babes in thigh high leather boots are of no concern to Big Brother. The government does not need to know that I bought two off-brand frozen pizzas and a half gallon of peppermint ice cream last night or that I'm going to buy my wife a new diamond ring on our 10th wedding anniversary. No they don't. Hey, reTHUGlicans... No... they DON'T!

You guys are selling out everything your party has supposedly stood for to keep a simple minded red neck in the white house.

The "No Shit, Sherlock" Award goes to Matt Drudge for THIS headline:

Bush Administration Said To Be More Secretive Than Its Predecessors

Bwahahhahhahhahaha! more

From The Mailbag!
I've been reading your garbage and I can tell from your tone that you are not a Christian. If you were you would know that President Bush was chosen by God to lead us from the world wide embarassment caused by Bill Clinton. You and Bill Clinton are just a couple of fools!
-Murray

Murray! You're going to hell! Yesiree you are! Because you called me and Bill Clinton a couple of fools. Your Bible agrees with me, too! Look at Matthew 5:22 - But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be liable to the hell of fire.

Ain't no budweiser or Ice tea there, Murray! And as for Bill Clinton being an embarassment, well, only to nimble minds like you. Nice little soundbite on that very topic for you right here from a British born American on the Joey Joe Joe show...

Physicist blows whistle on US missile defence

I'll give Bush one thing. He has balls. It takes them to spend billions of dollars of our tax money on a missille defense system that doesn't work and then try to conceal the fact. Yep! BIG BALLS.

"THE credibility of President Bush’s multibillion-dollar missile defence plans are being questioned by leading scientists after claims that the results of key tests were falsified.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is considering an investigation into accusations that fundamental flaws in the proposed “Son of Star Wars” system have been covered up.

The criticism is led by Theodore Postol, a physicist and missile defence critic at MIT, who has said that the institute is sitting on what is potentially “the most serious fraud that we’ve seen at a great American university." more

I guess it takes a serious fraud to committ a serious fraud. Say it with me now... Bush is a what? A DUMBASS!

Arabs urged to seek nuclear arsenal

Saddam Hussein's son, who I've heard is even less of a boy scout than his daddy, has a newspaper that is reporting the Arab world should follow North Korea's example and arm itself with nuclear weapons to prevent further humiliation at U.S. hands.

"Korea insists on its right to possess a technology used by the United States to raze Japanese cities, and which it still uses to blackmail the world and force it to obey... Arabs need to learn the lesson from the Korean example." the newspaper Babel said as it urged the Arab world to take heed. more

Now there is a certain sense of logic in that. Afterall, as long the US limits the amount of countries with nuclear capabilities, we stand a better chance in keeping the upper hand. However, certain countries with certain types of governments have shown themselves to be, well, a bitch to deal with. Some Arab and communist countries are prime examples. So it is in the best interests of the United States to "discourage" certain countries from getting the bomb. It may not be fair but the biggest kid on the block doesn't always have to be fair.

You've got to wonder,though, if a peaceful county like Canada could develope a nuclear program with no whining from the US. My money says no...

Speaking of Iraq and North Korea, why don't dumbass republicans see Bush's hypocrisy?

New York Times columnist William Safire writes "Last year, politicians opposing an attack on Saddam claimed it would somehow interfere with our global war on al Qaeda... this year, a new excuse for delay is being advanced: The nuclear threat from North Korean Stalinists is more immediate and therefore we should seek an accommodation with them before taking on Saddam."

OK, Mr. Safire, you've once again confirmed for us all just how illogical conservatives can be. Is dealing with a rogue nation with nukes instead of one without them really an excuse not to invade the nukeless one, oh clueless one? Where are YOUR priorities?

Now Corporations Claim The "Right To Lie"

You've just GOT to read this! Just when you thought corporations couldn't stretch your asshole any larger there is this! While Nike was conducting a huge and expensive PR blitz to tell people that it had cleaned up its subcontractors' sweatshop labor practices, an alert consumer advocate and activist in California named Marc Kasky caught them in what he alleges are a number of specific deceptions. Citing a California law that forbids corporations from intentionally deceiving people in their commercial statements, Kasky sued the multi-billion-dollar corporation.

Instead of refuting Kasky's charge by proving in court that they didn't lie, however, Nike instead chose to argue that corporations should enjoy the same "free speech" right to deceive that individual human citizens have in their personal lives. If people have the constitutionally protected right to say, "The check is in the mail," or, "That looks great on you," then, Nike's reasoning goes, a corporation should have the same right to say whatever they want in their corporate PR campaigns.

They took this argument all the way to the California Supreme Court, where they lost. The next stop may be the U.S. Supreme Court in early January, and the battle lines are already forming.

For example, in a column in the New York Times supporting Nike's position, Bob Herbert wrote, "In a real democracy, even the people you disagree with get to have their say."

True enough.

But Nike isn't a person - it's a corporation. And it's not their "say" they're asking for: it's the right to deceive people. more

Thanks to IrateCitizen on DU for alerting me to that story.

Bush and company worried about election 2004

The democrats could when in 2004 no matter who they put on the ballot! Matthew Dowd, who headed up polling for the Bush campaign in 2000 and now runs the Republican National Committee's polling operation, has admitted to the WashingtonTimes that the increasingly important minority vote could make or break the president in the 2004 election.

Mr. Dowd recently told the Republican Governors Association that Mr. Bush would risk losing his re-election bid by 3 million votes if he were to win the same percentage of white, black and Hispanic votes in 2004 as in 2000.

"After the 2000 election, there has been substantial growth among Hispanics, in particular and if we stay status quo, we will lose ground," Mr. Dowd explained . "We just can't stand still. We have to keep expanding the base because of the demographics — not only whites and African Americans, but women and other constituencies."

The way I see it, ol' Bush has a problem. If he goes after the minority vote, he risks alienating his white conservative base. If he ignores the minority vote, he loses. BIG!

Kinda makes you smile, huh?

Question or comments to RightwingSlayer? CLICK

CONFIRMED! Bush gutting his tax plan - sure to piss off Republicans!!

You might recall yesterday I posted up a rumor here. Well, now the Associated Press confirms it!

To avoid a political backlash, advisers say they are likely to recommend that Bush no longer consider speeding up tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. He is expected to propose acceleration of the 2001 tax cuts for middle- and upper-income earners, but he might not include cuts in connection with the top rate, which is 38.6 percent for income over $311,950, they said. more

And to think If Al Gore were in office, we wouldn't have wasted two whole years!

Anti-Choice Zealots Push For Major Anti-choice Bills In Congress

Apparently the superstitious simpletons of this country see their best chance in a long time to deny women reproductive rights over their bodies. At the center of this current move to enact forced birthing on women is the new senate majority leader Bill Frist. Frist is considered a strong ally by the National Right to Life Committee, which has given him a 100 percent rating on major votes for the last six years despite the fact he owns stock in his family business which performs abortions for profit on a regular basis.
Hopefully, though, cooler (and smarter) heads will prevail. Several Republican strategists on Capitol Hill have said their party needs to focus first and foremost on the economic agenda and not appear to be overinterpreting its Election Day victories by pushing social issues right out of the gate.

Let me translate THAT for you. These Republican strategists know they'll lose a WHOLE BUNCH of women voters if they push through any anti-abortion legislation. Bloody coathangers are a VERY effective symbol for keeping abortions safe and legal and they know they'll see thousands of protest signs depicting that symbol should they try to pull this off. more

Global Warming inspiring animals to seek cooler and higher homes

You know that global warming thing that dumbass ignorant ditto heads say doesn't exist? It's convincing some animals to forsake their home in search of cooler places to live. According to the BBC, two groups of US biologists say this is evidence that climate change is affecting living systems, as climatologists have predicted.

But, of course, Republicans have their heads in the sand (because it's cooler?) You may recall that last summer, our international embarrassment of a leader Bush dismissed a report put out by his administration warning that human activities are behind climate change that is having significant effects on the environment. Bush said the EPA report was "nothing more than a product of government 'bureaucracy' and said he would not accept an international accord to reduce heating-trapping emissions.

Of course, Bush's motives are simple. Votes and money from the industries that are most effecting the environment. After all, none of them will be here to see the outcome of the damage they are causing, But their grandchildren will.

UN inspection teams find... ZILCH! NADA! NOTHIN'!

The Guardian is reporting that UN inspection teams in Iraq have found "zilch" so far, but have had little help from intelligence agencies to guide them in their hunt for illicit weapons, one of the inspectors said yesterday.
"If our goal is to catch them with their pants down, we are definitely losing," the inspector told an American newspaper. "We haven't found an iota of concealed material yet."
Mr. Bush, however, is certain the Iraqis are using Romulan cloaking technology to conceal weopons so he still wants to bomb them!

Thanks to Santhoshi for pointing this story out.

And The Winner Is....

PBS reporter Bill Moyers has won first place in the Mediawhore Research Center's 15th annual awards for the Year's Worst Reporting.
Apparently Bush's lapdogs took offense at Mr. Moyers' quote from the Nov. 8 broadcast of his PBS show "Now," expressing his views on the 2002 midterm elections.

"The entire federal government — the Congress, the executive, the courts — is united behind a right-wing agenda for which George W. Bush believes he now has a mandate. That agenda includes the power of the state to force pregnant women to surrender control over their own lives. It includes using the taxing power to transfer wealth from working people to the rich... Above all, it means judges with a political agenda appointed for life. If you like the Supreme Court that put George W. Bush in the White House, you will swoon over what's coming. And if you like God in government, get ready for the Rapture... Republicans outraised Democrats by $184 million and they came up with the big prize: monopoly control of the American government and the power of the state to turn their radical ideology into the law of the land."

Why is Mr. Moyers being criticized for reporting the truth? Oh, wait! Forget I asked...

Double Standard? No, idiot! Aren't you smart enough to know the difference?

Clinton "Sexgate" whistleblower ignoramus Kathleen E. Willey, in an interview to WABC radio in New York, has taken exception to Time Magazine naming FBI agent Coleen Rowley, ex-Enron employee Sherron Watkins and WorldCom worker Cynthia Cooper "Persons of the Year."

"I found it very interesting that all of a sudden we're looking at the 'Persons of the Year' and there are three female whistleblowers," Mrs. Willey told the station's "Batchelor & Alexander Show."

"I guess that if you blow the whistle against somebody that Time magazine doesn't like, it's OK to be a whistleblower."

No, Kathleen! If you blow the whistle on an organization that blocked a terrorist investigation that could have saved thousands of lives, THAT is OK! If you blow the whistle on an organization that is stealing their employees' financial futures, THAT is OK, too! But if you blow the whistle on a president for an alledged incident that was never proven, an alledged incident that you apparently could not rememeber the details of (because you changed your story, lied, and tried to get others to lie!), an alledged incident that was so serious to you that you sent a handwritten personal invite to Bill Clinton to attend your child's engagement party AFTER the alledged incident, an alledged incident so factual that you had to ask people to LIE in court for you to prove it, that is NOT OK! The situations are NOT the same.

There was NO honor in what you did, Kathleen Wiley. None. Sorry. But that's just the way it is... dumbass!

Conservative perverts are EVERWHERE! EEEEEK!

On the subject of Kathleen Wiley, I think a reminder to all about just how hypocritical republicans are is in order.

"We can't forgive what occurred between the President and Lewinsky," said Ken Calvert (R-California) in 1998. Calvert, a Christian Coalition ally, was caught by police in 1993 receiving oral sex from a prostitute. His ex-wife also sued him for failure to pay alimony. What immediately jumps out at me about this report is the money factor. Money was being exchanged - which makes both instances business deals and not moral issues. Despite the illegality of both. And we all know that when it comes to shady business practices, Republicans are always innocent, right?

Matthew Glavin, President of the Conservative Legal Foundation (which attempted to destroy Clinton by first bringing up his sexual conduct), was arrested in Atlanta, GA in 2000. He was arrested for masturbating in front of an undercover male police officer, and trying to fondle him. He also plead no contest to a similar charge in 1996. Eww!

Former Green Bay Packers football player and GOP conservative activist Mark Chmura once refused to meet with President Clinton, saying Clinton "didn't have the moral authority to be President." Chmura was arrested for raping a 17-year old girl. I guess it takes less “moral authority” to be a role model for millions of football fans.

Christian leader Randall Terry is most noted for his leadership of the anti-choice organization "Operation Rescue," and the traditional marriage Christian group "Loyal Opposition." This pillar of the community recently left his wife after allegations of extramarital affairs with several women, both married! Daniel J. Little, Terry’s pastor at Landmark Church in Binghamton, NY, is said to be "shocked and bewildered" at Terry's actions. Maybe his lovers looked like Cindy Crawford. That would take a little of the shock and bewilderment away, huh?

Recently ousted senator and chief architect of Clinton’s impeachment, Bob Barr, was the principal sponsor of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. He attained this “lofty” designation despite being married three times and licking whipped cream off of two women’s breasts at a party in 1993. Nothing wrong with whipped creams games and divorces, right? Unless, of course, your claim to fame is family values!

The list of Republicans who have had affairs, some of which were Clinton accusers, is extensive. Henry Hyde, Bob Livingston, and Newt Gingrich - who left his wife as she lay dying of cancer - just to name a few.

One tabloid story in the 90s that was finally proved false was that of Clinton’s supposed illegitimate biracial “love child.” Oddly enough, many on the conservative spectrum have their own out of wedlock kids hidden away. Dan Burton, for example, never kept in contact with his child and refused to give that child his last name. Helen Chenoweth, one of the first to condemn Clinton for his affair, admitted to having one herself. An underling in the congressional mailroom, perhaps?

"This former congressman (1970's) and one-time presidential candidate had his career ended when it was discovered he had two out-of-wedlock children. But wait! It gets better (or worse, depending on your perspective.)"

Sometimes the exploits of our self proclaimed moral guardians border on the bizarre. Take John Schmitz and his daughter, for example. This former congressman (1970's) and one-time presidential candidate had his career ended when it was discovered he had two out-of-wedlock children. But wait! It gets better (or worse, depending on your perspective.) His daughter, Mary Kay LeTourneau, made national headlines when as a school teacher, she was arrested twice for having sex with an underage boy (13 years old), by which she had two children. Currently she is serving time for being such a fine representative of family values.

All of this makes you proud to be an American, right? Proud to have a “self recovered” alcoholic, cocaine user, and inside trader in the White House. Quite a team, that Republican Party! And sure, Democrats and liberals are no angels themselves (if you use the “conservative family values” model to measure such things) but they’re not condemning others for the same moral behavior they’re partaking in. That is the difference.

SMACKDOWN! and... out!

pResident Bush is listening to those pesky democrats...AGAIN!

The White House is hinting that President Bush may gut his tax-cutting plan (they're saying ''soften his stimulus package'") before it's even proposed this month. The Wall Street Journal says "White House aides also let slip that the administration is dropping plans to accelerate marginal rate cuts for higher earners. These self-described 'political advisers' are admitting, believe it or not, that they're afraid that Democrats will attack Republicans for proposing tax cuts for 'the rich.'"

Of course, Republicans have long argued if democrats call for the easing or the elimination of any of Bush's tax cuts, they'll be accused of wanting to raise taxes. It seems now that we can turn that around. If Bush eases or eliminates any of his tax cutting plans, HE can be accused of raising taxes.

Somewhere in the distant past I'm hearing a voice exclaim "read my lips!"

Bush = DUMBASS! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

Outflanked Democrats Wonder How to Catch Up in Media Wars

"Worried that their party has been outgunned in the political propaganda wars by conservative radio and television personalities, influential Democrats are scouring the nation for a liberal answer to Rush Limbaugh and the many others on the deep bench of Republican friends...The efforts among influential Democrats, particularly liberals, range from a grass-roots talent search for progressive radio hosts to the creation of research organizations to provide a Democratic spin for the news media, to nascent discussions by wealthy supporters about starting a cable network with a liberal bent...the recent Republican gains have perhaps set the backdrop for the emergence of an angry liberal who could claim the same outsider status that worked so well for Mr. Limbaugh in the early 1990's." more

Well, DUH! It's about friggin' time! I think the grassroots talent search is a great idea BUT there are already a handful of somewhat known talent out there BEGGING to be heard. There's The Joey Joe Joe Show, Mike Malloy, and my personal favorite, Randi Rhodes - the liberal talker Rush Limbaugh is SCARED of! For more on her (yep, she's a she which further threatens conservatives) read the excellent piece on her from Take Back The Media






ReTHUGlican Public Relations

You might recall several TV ads that ran on news outlets like CNN in the past 6 months that attempted to bolster Suadi Arabia's image in the wake of 9/11. What you MIGHT not know is that the Suadis forked over $14.6 million to Washington-based Qorvis Communications to create and place the commercials.
Qorvis Communications has strong ties to the Republican party. In fact, Arctic Power, a self-described "grassroots" organization, laid down $4 million dollars to hire Qorvis Communications to promote President Bush's plan to expand oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Remember - Most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi citizens and more recently we learned money from the wife of Saudi Arabia's U.S. ambassador might have went to supporters of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Am I implying that high ranking republicans recommended Qorvis Communications to the Saudis to help clean up their image knowing full well they are supporters of terrorism?

You're damn straight I am! Because Saudi Arabia also has oil and a strategic foothole into the Middle East - something the reTHUGlicans cherish more than American lives.

Dick Morris - another GOP with "foot in the mouth" disease.

Little Dick Morris writes in the New York Post that "when Hillary [Clinton] is silent, she gains in popularity — but when she starts talking, she loses support." Pencil Dick, was she silent during her Senate campaign? Noooo...but she must have been popular because she WON!

"Her recent decision to become a spokesperson for the Democratic Party in the wake of its fall mishap is misguided and will only lead to an increase in her negative ratings," Mr. itty bitty Dick Morris said.

The "old" Hillary, he said, made her husband look like a weak president.

Damn! Is Dick Morris a dumbass or what? Maybe we should call him Dickless Moron! First of all, any woman who isn't barefoot and pregnant is a feminist bitch to the reTHUGlicans. But, man oh man do they hate Hillary! Why? Because she's a STRONG woman!

Most typical conservative types, however, can't really give you a specific reason as to why the hate Hillary. Here, however, is an event that may certainly have added to their hatred. In 1998, the Feminist Majority Foundation esentially boycotted Unocol (the oil company who was trying to build a pipeline in Afghanistan) for "supporting a dictatorhip whose social policy included the subjugation of women." When Hillary publically endorsed this organization, Unocol gradually pulled it's teams out of Afghanistan and closed it's offices there.

Hillary caused the reTHUGlicans to lose all that oil!

That dayem bitch! And her husband? A Sombitch! We had ta' steal us an election and go to war to git that thar pipeline back!

Bush: Iraqi Attack Could Cripple U.S. Economy

The George Dubyah Bush Comedy Tour rolls on into 2003! The dumbass and chief delivered a New Year's Eve warning Tuesday that any attack on the United States by Iraq or a group working on its behalf could cripple the U.S. economy.

OK. #1, the economy is already crippled. #2, Iraq CAN'T attack the US homeland. They don't have the capability. #3, there is no evidence that there are any groups working on Iraq's behalf who can attack us. So, what exactly was the pResident's point?

Well, it plants the seed to all the ditto heads out there that the economy ain't that bad. It then instills fear that we will be attacked again.

Of course, if we defeat Iraq or reach a peaceful solution (yeah right!) Bush will then take credit for protecting us from an impossible attack by Iraq or a non existant group working for Iraq and saving the economy.

Makes sense to them!

Forbidden Truth Revisited...

When I fist read it, I speculated that the English version of "Forbidden Truth" was "edited." Censored may be a better description...

...it's no wonder that chapter six of Forbidden Truth has been touted as the smoking gun that proves Bush's indirect responsibility for 9-11—or that Nation Books, the publishing arm of The Nation, published the book in English. What's really interesting is that after The Nation's hard-nosed Washington editor, David Corn, denounced the authors as conspiracy theorists, Nation Books neatly excised the smoking-gun allegations from the text. more

It seems I have become someone's intern...

After I posted the personal e-mail reply I recieved from the editor of pollingreport.com yesterday concerning the Time/CNN Bush approval numbers, another blog posted the message a few hours later and attributed it to his "intern." How do I know it was copied? Because the text was edited down from a slightly longer piece and paraphrased. The other blog posted the exact edited text from rightwing slayer. Sure, anyone could have contacted pollingreport.com and received a reply. Sure, pollingreport could be sending out form responses. I mean it is possible, right? But they didn't send someone else a response that I edited.

I would like a retraction from this blogger and his intern to be instructed on the art of attribution.

From The Mailbag

Since I started reading blogs like yours, I have been hard at work reading and studying politics. Trent Lott, another sacrificial lamb for p.c.. I won't defend his words but I am dead set against p.c.. Democrats are still stupid enough to think that Bush is dumb. He has out foxed you all. A lot of folks realize the Democratic message is dead and dying and the party is imploding. I was ashamed of the 60's radicals then and now we will route them all out. Are you one of the professors that we have seen on the major networks lately ranting about the environment, the potential war, give me a hint so I can watch and laugh.
- A. Conservative

Mr. A. Conservative - If you believe Trent Lott's undoing was just political correctness yet you won't defend his words, you must really believe it WASN'T political correctness. If you loathe political correctness soooo much, DEFEND LOTT'S WORDS! And Bush is a dumb as a bump on a log.

Your site is Brilliant! I found your site, through Buzzflash. You are doing an excellent job of debunking the lies of the Thuglicans. Keep up the great job.
- Joan Pasley

Hey! As long as people want to read it, I'll write it. But brilliant? Nahhh! Just pissed off!

Daschle for President? Don't bother!

The New York Times is reporting that Tom Daschle Daschle, the Senate Democratic leader, will likely to run for president in 2004 and is creating a presidential exploratory committee sometime this month.

Mr. Daschle, I don't think you understand. We need a fighter as a candidate. I realize that at times you lead the way in opposing pResident Bush's agenda and were labled an obstructionist. But you've also caved a few times, too. Which candidate will you be, Mr. Daschle?

And now a word to the Democratic leadership. You strong armed Al Gore into not running in 2004 yet you'll support wishy washy fence sitters like Daschle? As Jacobin over at DU said we need an opposition party candidate to challenge the Chimp and not a cheerleader for the junta. Oh well, business as usual.

Frist asked to atone for killing cats

Bill Frist, the disgusting cat killing hypocritical racist finanically corrupt cat killing abortionist - and new reTHUGlican Senate Majority Leader - is being asked by an animal advocacy group to support legislation for better animal treatment to make up for fraudulently adopting cats from animal shelters then experimenting on and killing them while he was a medical student. more

"Fat chance," Frist, a Nazi in training then, said in response to the animal advocacy group. "Would they rather I had experimented on homeless and colored folks?"