Rightwing Slayer: 03/01/2003

Monday, March 31, 2003

Famed Journalist Peter Arnett FIRED For Daring To Criticize Bush; Says: Bush's War Plan Has Failed

Peter Arnett, who won a Pulitzer Prize reporting in Vietnam for The Associated Press, and garnered much of his prominence from covering the 1991 Gulf War for CNN, said in an interview aired Sunday that the American-led coalition's war plan had failed because of Iraq's resistance and said strategists are "trying to write another war plan."

Arnett, currently reporting for MSNBC from Baghdad, could now become a target for the blood and oil thirsty fanatics who support this war.

The first Bush administration was unhappy with Arnett's reporting in 1991 for CNN, suggesting he had become a conveyor of propaganda because he refused to report the official whitehouse spin that was fed to him.

He was denounced for his reporting about an allied bombing of a baby milk factory in Baghdad that the military said was a biological weapons plant. The American military responded vigorously to the suggestion it had targeted a civilian facility, but Arnett stood by his reporting that the plant's sole purpose was to make baby formula.

NBC, in a statement Sunday, praised Arnett's "outstanding" reporting from Iraq and said he was trying nothing more than to give an analytical response to an interviewer's questions.

In the interview, Arnett said his Iraqi friends tell him there is a growing sense of nationalism and resistance to what the United States and Britain are doing.

"Clearly, the American war plans misjudged the determination of the Iraqi forces," Arnett said during the interview broadcast by Iraq's satellite television station and monitored by The Associated Press in Egypt. more

I had fogotten about that baby milk factory incident. Now everytime a rightwing dumbass brings up that never proven alleged "pill factory" incident with Clinton I'lll say "But we know for a fact 'Bush the first' bombed a baby milk factory!"

UPDATE: Arnett FIRED by MSNBC more

Speaking of bombing civilian targets: ABC News Reports Iraqi Hospital Bombed

This is so sad. Bruised and bleeding, in need of medical care, the Americans stranded in Iraq's western desert approached the mud-brick town and found the hospital destroyed by bombs.

"Why? Why?" a doctor demanded of them. "Why did you Americans bomb our children's hospital?" Scores of Iraqi townspeople crowded around.

The American's account was the first confirmation of a report last week that a hospital in Rutbah was bombed Wednesday, with dead and injured. They said they saw no significant Iraqi military presence near the hospital or elsewhere in Rutbah. The doctor did not discuss casualties, the Americans said. more

Rightwing Center for Public Integrity: Clinton administration "tossed out on the street."

According to the Associated Press, a study being released today by the Center for Public Integrity has found that more than half of the top 100 officials in the Clinton administrations have stayed in Washington. The study found that 51 lobby the government or work for companies that do.

"This shows systematically what happens to an administration when they're tossed out on the street," said study director Charles Lewis.

Tossed out on the street? I seem to remember Bill Clinton beating a popular war time president in 1992, winning a landslide re-election in 1996, and having a 68% approval rating the day he left office after his second term. Needless to say if not for the 22nd Amendment, Bill Clinton would still be president. And this dumbass says he was tossed out on the street?

And what, may I ask, is the problem with former members of a president's administration working in Washington? If Charles Lewis has a problem with that, surely he sees a similiar problem with all the republican retreads George W. Bush has working for him - like Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle, and Poindexter. They all served under Reagan and Bush Sr.

Now, if you want to talk about an administration who was tossed out on to the street, let's talk George H.W. Bush!

To express your feelings to Charles Lewis and the Center for Public Integrity, click here

Undercutting the 9/11 Inquiry

" ... Reasonable people might wonder if the White House, having failed in its initial attempt to have Henry Kissinger steer the investigation, may be resorting to budgetary starvation as a tactic to hobble any politically fearless inquiry. The committee's mandate includes scrutiny of intelligence failures and eight other government areas.

"The White House vows that in coming budget initiatives there will be no shortchanging of the nation's duty to face the facts of the tragedy. As things now stand, $3 million budgeted as start-up funding could run out this summer. An estimated $14 million is needed for the task of finding out precisely how the attackers were able to pull off their plot in which nearly 3,000 people died. This seems a bargain given the importance of the mission. By comparison, the inquiry into the shuttle disaster's loss of seven lives may cost an estimated $40 million, and the inquiry into the Whitewater controversy ate up more than $30 million. ..." more

BuzzFlash pointed out recently 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!

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.

In Hitler's first radio speech after becoming Chancellor on January 30, 1933, he pledged [this is a direct quote from that address] "to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation" and invoked God's blessing on the German government. (Hitler was a fervent Christian - a fact too many have either forgotten or never knew, thanks to sanitized
school history books). But, the Fuhrer soon proved he had no intention of being a uniter. The Nazis' battle cry throughout their campaign had been "down with the liberals!" Once in office, Hitler made "liberals" (a mass group into which he lumped social democrats, gays, Jews, and any threat to Hitler's model of Christian society) his sworn enemies. more

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"Those of us who care for the direction of the American dream have one job now to do, and that is to begin working toward that election day in November of next year." - Doris Haddock, better known as Granny D., a 92-year-old grandmother who walked across America on behalf of campaign finance reform.

Read her article here

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Reader Can't Bear Pictures Of Dead Iraqi Children

I am a supporter of your site, and tell as many people as I can about it. I'm grateful for the information you provide, BUT, I must say that I can't bear the awful photographs of dead people, ESPECIALLY children. I DON'T want this war sanitized for my protection, believe me, but you are preaching to the choir with these potographs. My assumption is that you want the world to feel the impact of this tragic travesty, and I would agree with that. But I find myself scrolling gingerly, afraid of seeing the horror I already know is happening to the innocent. But the fact that these are the innocent makes the images horrific beyond words. I don't mean to censor. I would just ask you to believe that your audience is already horrified without the sensational images. Thank you for your time, and for the work you do. -- Karen

Karen - I understand your concerns. The pictures disturb me as well. But I don't feel I'm just preaching to the choir. No, I don't think I'm going to change the minds of many conservatives who are mostly concerned with keeping the current Washington regime in power. However, there are "fence sitters" stopping by this site who need an extra push to show them how vile this adminstration's actions are. I believe the pictures speak a thousand words towards bringing more on to our side. As you know, many Americans have the image in their minds that little Iraqi children are running gleefully towards the Americans, welcoming them in. We know that is not the case.

Thanks for your support, Karen. I hope my continued posting of pictures neither of us like to see doesn't deter you from visiting and sending others here, too.

"The President...knows not where he is. He is a bewildered, confounded, and miserably perplexed man. God grant he may be able to show there is not something about his conscience more painful than all his mental perplexity."

The quotation above comes from a speech a young Congressman made on the floor of the US House of Representatives. He was speaking about an ongoing war that was "unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun by the President of the United States."

His political rivals and the constituants that followed them howled in protest. Traitor! Un-American!

However, that Congressman was eventually elected president.

The war was our war with Mexico and that young congressman who spoke out against the president and his war was Abraham Lincoln.

"The Constitution was born in the bowels of war," says attorny Tim Newcomb. "The framers could have made a wartime exception if they had intended, but the founding generation made no such exception. Therefore, they obviously wanted and believed in spirited debate."

"I think Thomas Jefferson would have said, hang on to your civil liberties, fight off any force that would try to oppress you, that would try to silence you, that would consider dissent disloyalty. I think he would be very aware of the need that we have to have to continue to support people's rights to be different and to express and hold different convictions." - Joyce Appleby, Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles; Author, Inheriting the Revolution.

"While some people think that dissent is unpatriotic, I would argue that dissent is the highest form of patriotism. In fact, if patriotism means being true to the principles for which your country is supposed to stand, then certainly the right to dissent is one of those principles. And if we're exercising that right to dissent, it's a patriotic act.

One of the great mistakes made in discussing patriotism -- a very common mistake -- is to think that patriotism means support for your government. And that view of patriotism ignores the founding principles of the country expressed in the Declaration of Independence. That is: the Declaration of Independence makes it clear that governments are artificial creations set up to achieve certain ends -- equality, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness -- and when governments become destructive of those ends it is the right of the people in the words of the Declaration, to alter or abolish the government.

In other words, obedience to government certainly is not a form of patriotism. Governments are the instruments to achieve certain ends. And if the government goes against those ends, if the government is not defending our liberties, but is diminishing our liberties, if the government is sending young people into war or making war which is unjustified, well then the government is not following the principles of caring about life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. When the government is taking huge sums of money from education and health, and using that money for military purposes, that's a violation of the principles of the Declaration of Independence. And a government like that cannot be obeyed. To obey a government like that is not being patriotic. At that point, when a government behaves like that, it is the most patriotic thing to disobey the government." - Howard Zinn is an historian and author of A People's History of the United States.

out...

Sunday, March 30, 2003

War Blunders, Ethics Dog Bush Administration

Bush says aides didn't warnhim of stiff Iraq resistance. Same Lame Excuse Again! 'I Didn't Get The Message!'

Here we go again! Have you noticed how Bush always says "I didn't know?" This is really getting tedious.

Remember this from the Associated Press? A former NASA safety official wrote to pRresident Bush last year to warn of "another catastrophic space shuttle accident," but Bush did not see the letter and the writer's plea was rejected - this according to the White House.

Or how about this from the New York Times last May? Attorney General John Ashcroft and the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, were told a few days after the Sept. 11 attacks that the F.B.I. had received a memorandum from its Phoenix office the previous July warning that Osama bin Laden's followers could be training at American flight schools, government officials said today. But senior Bush administration officials said neither Mr. Ashcroft nor Mr. Mueller briefed President Bush.

Now comes this. President Bush's aides did not forcefully present him with dissenting views from CIA and State and Defense Department officials who warned that U.S.-led forces could face stiff resistance in Iraq, according to three senior administration officials.

Bush embraced the predictions of some top administration hawks, beginning with Vice President Dick Cheney, who predicted in the weeks before the war with Iraq that Saddam Hussein's regime was brittle and that Iraqis would joyously greet coalition troops as liberators, the officials said.

The dissenting views "were not fully or energetically communicated to the president," said one top official, who like the others requested anonymity. "As a result, almost every assumption the plan's based on looks to be wrong." more

I know it is the adminstration's job to protect the pResident. But this lame ass excuse of "We knew but didn't tell Bush" is getting comical. Is he a security risk? Is he on some "need to know " basis? Are the rest of the guys and gals in his inner circle afraid he'll shoot his mouth off if you tell him everything? The adminstration spends a lot of time trying to counter the belief that George W. Bush isn't real bright. But this strategy of saying "We knew but Bush didn't" is making the boy look real clueless.

Former CIA analyst: US ‘conned into war’
Career Intelligence Medal Winner says pResident was lied to

Middle East expert and former Central Intelligence Agency officer Robert Baer has charged that the American-led war in Iraq is a dire mistake based on false assumptions and faulty information, but that President George W. Bush cannot stop now and leave Saddam Hussein in power after the long emotional and political buildup to the war.

“The American people, Congress, government and president were conned into this war, in the full sense of the word, by neo-conservatives and hawks (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle, Wolfowitz) in Washington who sold a false bill of goods. The president was lied to and given erroneous information that was filtered through Iraqi exiles who had not lived in Iraq for 20 or 30 years and had no clear idea of realities inside Iraq. The exiles had no intention of fighting themselves, but wanted the US to fight for them,” he said in an interview.

The 21-year CIA veteran quit the agency in good standing about five years ago, and was given the Career Intelligence Medal for his service. more

Report: Rumsfeld Ignored Pentagon Advice on Iraq

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld repeatedly rejected advice from Pentagon planners that substantially more troops and armor would be needed to fight a war in Iraq, New Yorker Magazine reported.

In an article for its April 7 edition, which goes on sale on Monday, the weekly said Rumsfeld insisted at least six times in the run-up to the conflict that the proposed number of ground troops be sharply reduced and got his way.

"He thought he knew better. He was the decision-maker at every turn," the article quoted an unidentified senior Pentagon planner as saying. "This is the mess Rummy put himself in because he didn't want a heavy footprint on the ground."

It also said Rumsfeld had overruled advice from war commander Gen. Tommy Franks to delay the invasion until troops denied access through Turkey could be brought in by another route and miscalculated the level of Iraqi resistance. more

US war planners accuse Rumsfeld of "micromanaging" Iraq forces: report

"This is tragic. American lives are being lost," one senior planner told the magazine.

Another former intelligence official accused Syria and Turkey of working together "to screw us in the north -- to cause us problems... Syria and the Iranians agreed that they could not let an American occupation of Iraq stand." more

Richard Perle advised firm accused of giving China technology
Scandal could reach as far as the Bush Adminstration

While he headed an influential Pentagon advisory board, Richard Perle advised Loral Space and Communications as it faced government accusations it improperly transferred rocket technology to the Chinese, administration officials said Friday. more

U.S. Led Covert Searches Yield No Banned Weapons

Shortly before the first bombs fell on Baghdad earlier this month, special operations teams from the United States, Britain and Australia swept low over Iraq's western desert to seize four targets of highest priority to the U.S. Central Command. The teams set down at camouflaged structures believed to house chemical warheads, Scud missiles and eight-wheeled transporter-erector launchers, known as TELs.

After short firefights, the teams secured the sites, according to sources briefed on the after-action reports. But the mission turned up nothing. There were "no missiles, no TELs and no chemicals" where blueprints and scale-model terrain tables had directed the teams to look, one knowledgeable official said. more

Iraqi forces begin using suicide bombing as tactic

The suicide bomb that exploded Saturday at a military checkpoint and killed four soldiers fulfilled a promise by Saddam Hussein’s regime to take the deadly tool of terrorists to the battlefield.

"This is just the beginning," Iraq’s vice president, Taha Yasin Ramadan, said Saturday during a televised statement, echoing a statement he made a few weeks before the U.S. invasion began.

In an interview published Feb. 1 in the German newsmagazine Der Speigel, he said Iraq would defy the U.S. military.

"We do not have any long-distance missiles or bomber squadrons, but we will use thousands of suicide attackers, the istishhadiyun, the martyrs. These are our new weapons, and they will be used not only in Iraq," he said in a BBC translation of the interview. more

DISGUSTING! As They Prepare to Possibly Die Horrible Deaths, US soldiers In Iraq Are Asked To Pray For Bush!

They may be the ones facing danger on the battlefield, but US soldiers in Iraq are being asked to pray for President George W Bush.

Thousands of marines have been given a pamphlet called "A Christian's Duty," a mini prayer book which includes a tear-out section to be mailed to the White House pledging the soldier who sends it in has been praying for Bush.

"I have committed to pray for you, your family, your staff and our troops during this time of uncertainty and tumult. May God's peace be your guide," says the pledge, according to a journalist embedded with coalition forces. more

Let's see.. ummmmm... Dear God, please give George Bush a clue! Please save his political ass so I can die a glorious death for his corporate oil buddies...

out...

Saturday, March 29, 2003

Jump To New Stuff

Michael Moore Isn't Through With George W. Bush. Not By A Long Shot!

New Moore Film, 'Fahrenheit 911,' Will Expose Bush Administration's Complicity For 9/11!

Controversial and Oscar winning film director Michael Moore is no fan of republicans or democrats, but he thinks he has the goods on George W. Bush and will present them for the world to see in his new film "Fahrenheit 911." Adding insult to injury, the film is scheduled for release just as election 2004 kicks into high gear!

Variety online is reporting the filmmaker is working a deal with actor Mel Gibson's production company to finance the film, a documentary that will trace the roots of terrorism against the United States. Moore will also spell out dealings between two generations of the Bush and bin Laden families.

"The primary thrust of the new film is what has happened to the country since Sept. 11, and how the Bush administration used this tragic event to push its agenda," Moore said in the Variety report.

Moore said the film "certainly does deal with the Bush and bin Laden ties," and "asks a number of questions that I don't have the answers to yet, but which I intend to find out." The trade paper said Moore has done research for the film for a year.

Moore plans to release "Fahrenheit 911" in time for France's Cannes Film Festival in 2004 -- a release timed before the presidential election that fall.

Moore's latest book, Stupid White Men, currently sits atop The New York Time's best sellers list and is the best selling non-fiction book this year. However, the book was almost never released.

After 9/11, the book's publisher, HarperCollins, was pondering whether the book might be "too offensive" to those who supported George W. Bush. Moore was told that unless he re-wrote large sections of the book (sections mostly dealing with criticisms of Bush), change the title cover, and reimburse the publisher of up to $100,000 so the new version could be reprinted, the HarperCollins would destroy the ENTIRE run of 50,000 copies that had already been printed and he would have to wait over a year to shop the book to other publishers.

Fortunately a group of librarians organized a letter-writing campaign to HarperCollins and, after weighing all their options, decided to release the book unchanged and uncensored on Tuesday, February 19th, 2002.

Though Moore was met with little resistance in filming his Oscar winning documentary "Bowling For Columbine," which also took swipes at the American conservative agenda, the information that 'Fahrenheit 911' will potentially present could set off a political firestorm in Washington - touching both republicans and democrats - but perhaps causing irreparable harm to republicans in particular.

U.S. Missile Kills 58 in Baghdad Market

At least 58 people were killed Friday in a crowded market in northwest Baghdad by coalition bombing. The market was strewn with wreckage and there were bloodstains on a sidewalk. Crowds of mourners wailed and blood-soaked children's slippers sat on the street not far from a crater blasted into the ground. 58 people were killed in the market explosion, but the number is likely to rise because many others were wounded.

"Why do they makes mistakes like these if they have the technology?" asked Abdel-Hadi Adai, who said he lost his 27-year-old brother-in-law Najah Abdel-Rida in the blast. "There are no military installations anywhere near here."

"The women and children were screaming," he said. "We were overwhelmed. What will they hit next? This hospital?"

The Al-Nasr market is in the working-class district of al-Shoala. Witnesses said the bombing took place when the market was at its busiest, around 6 p.m. They said they saw an aircraft flying high overhead just before the blast.

This is exactly the way Bush plans to win over the Iraqi people. Right?

Who Is Protesting This War and This President? The Answer Scares The Hell Out Of Republicans!

The nazis of the conservative right love to paint the current anti-war movement as uneducated and naive. However, the reality is something far different! Two Nobel Peace Prize winners, two bishops and Vietnam War activist Daniel Ellsberg were among those arrested near the White House in antiwar protests Wednesday.

Those arrested included Nobel laureates Mairead Corrigan Maguire of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement and Jody Williams of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, as well as Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of the Detroit archdiocese; Bishop C. Joseph Sprague of the United Methodist Church in the Chicago area; and Dave Robinson, national coordinator of Pax Christi USA, the Catholic peace movement.

On Friday Police arrested monks, priests, rabbis and other clergy in San Francisco for speaking out publically against Bush and the war on Iraq.

"We are here as Jews, Christians, Muslims and Buddhists to proclaim that the world can be healed," Rabbi Michael Lerner said.

A federal official said 83 people were arrested. "This is an extremely broad movement against the war, a movement that transcends all religions," said attorney Kevin Lynema, who was offering legal assistance to the demonstrators. more and more

UNBELIEVABLE! War game was fixed to ensure American victory, claims general

The biggest war game in US military history, staged this month at a cost of £165m with 13,000 troops, was rigged to ensure that the Americans beat their "Middle Eastern" adversaries, according to one of the main participants. General Paul Van Riper, a retired marine lieutenant-general, told the Army Times that the sprawling three-week millennium challenge exercises, were "almost entirely scripted to ensure a [US] win". He protested by quitting his role as commander of enemy forces, and warning that the Pentagon might wrongly conclude that its experimental tactics were working. more

What kind of dumbasses are running this circus! War games rigged so we would win? As American casualties pile up, we'll point to THIS as giving our troops an inflated sense of invincibility and perhaps one reason why the war isn't going as smoothly as planned.

The arrogance and ignorance of this administration is astounding!

Bush Gets His Crusade! Plans Under Way for Christianizing Iraq!

For those who don't know what the Crusades were - they were military expeditions undertaken by European Christians in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims. The term and concept of "crusades" to a Muslim is very inflammatory. If you want to see this Iraqi war boil over into the whole middle east, start talking about "christianizing" them. Well...

Two leading evangelical Christian missionary organizations said Tuesday that they have teams of workers poised to enter Iraq to address the physical and spiritual needs of a large Muslim population.

The Southern Baptist Convention, the country's largest Protestant denomination, and the Rev. Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse said workers are near the Iraq border in Jordan and are ready to go in as soon as it is safe. The missionary work is certain to be closely watched because both Graham and the Southern Baptist Convention have been at the heart of controversial evangelical denunciations of Islam, the world's second largest religion. more

HOLY Dumbasses!

out!

Friday, March 28, 2003

Michael Moore Isn't Through With George W. Bush. Not By A Long Shot!

New Moore Film, 'Fahrenheit 911,' Will Expose Bush Administration's Complicity For 9/11!

General Wallace was stating aloud what many soldiers have been saying privately. more

Lawmakers charge White House with stifling anti-war dissent

An increasingly vocal contingent of Congressman are accusing the White House of stifling dissent by those who oppose the war.

"What we're beginning to see is a concerted attempt to attack anyone who dissents," Congressman Sam Farr said at a press conference called Thursday by a group of Senators who feel that the war against Iraq is misguided.

Even among legislators in the Republican party, "there are consequences to pay if you don't go all with the administration's leadership," Farr said, stating that Republicans who voted against the White House budget proposals have been threatened with the loss of coveted committee seats. more

Funny how Bush has to bully people into supporting a war he says is "popular."

"Our Luke Was NOT Executed!" Tony Blair Caught In Major Lie. Says Soldiers Were Executed. "...no conclusive proof!"

The heartbroken sister of ambushed soldier Luke Allsopp insisted last night: "My brother was not executed."

Nina Allsopp hit out at "lies" surrounding his death. Grieving Nina - 29 today - said: "We have been told by the Army that Luke died in action."

"The Colonel from his barracks came around to our house to tell us he was not executed. Luke's Land Rover was ambushed and he died instantly... the Colonel told us he was doing what he could to set the record straight. We are very angry... It makes a big difference to us knowing that he died quickly. We can't understand why people are lying about what happened."

That's an easy one, Nina! Blair is trying to gain support for this illegal war in England by lying about how your soldiers are being treated.

Nina was stunned when she heard Blair had gone on TV to denounce the "executions" of Sapper Luke, 24, and Staff Sgt Simon Cullingworth, 36. Mr Blair, speaking in America, condemned gruesome footage of the dead soldiers shown on Iraqi TV as an act of cruelty beyond comprehension. However, Mr Blair's official spokesman later admitted there was no conclusive proof that the soldiers had been executed.

Top Rumsfeld adviser Richard Perle resigns over ethics. A Republican with ethics problems? NO WAY!

A top adviser to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and one of the intellectual architects of the war with Iraq resigned his post Thursday amid an ethics controversy.

Richard Perle resigned his chairmanship of the Defense Policy Board but is remaining a member of the board, according to the Pentagon.

"With our nation at war and American troops risking their lives to protect our freedom and liberate Iraq, I am dismayed that your valuable time, and that of others in the Department of Defense and the administration might be burdened by the controversy surrounding my chairmanship of the Defense Policy Board," Perle wrote in a letter Wednesday to Rumsfeld.

Perle, one of George W. Bush's foreign policy advisers during the 2000 presidential campaign, was hired last week by the bankrupt Global Crossing telecommunications company to help it restructure a deal to sell a majority holding in the company to Hutchison Telecommunications and government-run Singapore Technologies Telemedia. The United States government -- particularly the Defense Department and the FBI -- has national security concerns about the deal, according to The New York Times. It would put Global Crossing's fiber optics network -- which the military uses -- under Chinese ownership. more

Is Dick Cheney Next?

While we're discussing ethics violations Bush's administration, I want to point out Vice pResident Dick Cheney. Cheney is receiving $100,000-$1,000,000 a year from Halliburton, the multi-billion dollar company which has won major "clean up" contracts in post-war Iraq.

Souces: Warren Vieth and Elizabeth Douglass, " Ousting Hussein could open the door for U.S. and British firms. French, Russian and Chinese rivals would lose their edge," Los Angeles Times, 3/12/03, p. I:1; Robert Bryce and Julian Borger, "Halliburton: Cheney is still paid by Pentagon contractor, Bush deputy gets Dollars 1m from firm with Iraq oil deal," Guardian (London), 3/12/03, p. 5 (which notes that Halliburton "would not say how much the payments are; the obligatory disclosure statement filled by all top government officials says only that they are in the range of" $100,000 and $1 million. )

This is what a "Pro War" rally looks like! It was sent to my e-mail uncredited. If it is YOUR pic, let me know and I'll gladly give you credit for a job well done!

India Prime Minister Refused To Help Bush

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Thursday told the media how George Bush thrice sought his help in the war on Iraq, and how he refused the American President.

"The US President George Bush has spoken to me three times saying that India must help the USA as Sadaam Hussein had left him with no option but to go for the attack," he told journalists after a dedication programme of the Chakara Nala Patni Watershed Management Plan prepared by the Deendayal Research Institute run by Nanaji Deshmukh here.

Vajpayee told Bush that India believed war was not a solution to any problem and so could not help. India is also trying to consolidate the support of many countries to prevent escalation of the battle between US and Iraq, Vajpayee said. more

Second worker dies of heart attack after smallpox vaccination

A few months back when it seemed the smallpox vaccination was all the rage I made it known that under no circumstances would I get one. Of course, this was just one more reason for the rightwingers I know to call me unpatriotic. Afterall, If it was good enough for Bush, it was good enough for me! But that nagging little 1 - in - some astronomical number will die statistic bothered me a wee bit! Boy, was I glad I wasn't a dumbass!

A second health care worker has died of a heart attack after receiving the smallpox vaccine, and officials are investigating whether vaccinations are to blame for cardiac problems seen in 17 people who have been inoculated. more

See, these two people died - and 17 more got sick - because the unelected smirking frat boy some call "president" scared them into believing Iraq or Al Queda was going to attack us with chemical weapons anyday now.

Just so you know The World Health Organization declared smallpox eradicated in 1979, and authorities have not detected a single natural case of the disease in the world.

Duct Tape Redux

Terrified republicans, who recently depleted hardware store shelves of duct tape to thwart would-be terrorists, may now be in a quandry over what to do with all those rolls of the sticky stuff. Never fear! Jim and Tim, the Duct Tape Guys (www.ducttapeguys.com), publishers of "Duct Tape Books" brings the gullible republicans of our great country the answers they seek!

"Because duct tape is gender neutral, may we suggest that gals can end that age-old argument by duct taping the toilet seat down," say the two. "Don't worry guys, you can go right in and duct tape it up."

In addition, always ensure you have a roll of duct tape when you travel, as "a roll of duct tape taped to the dashboard of your car makes a great beer can holder."

One guy "used duct to secure a board five feet outside of his third-story apartment so he could barbecue outdoors."

Hey! Since Jesus said women should be subject to their husbands, when the little woman gets outta hand, you can duct tape her mouth shut! But be careful! If your wife has been hanging out with liberal women you may need that duct tape to reattach your manhood after she shows you what she thinks of your conservative ideas. Now go get her a beer!

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Susan Sarandon Charity Event Canceled After "Three Dozen Complaints."

The United Way of Tampa Bay has canceled an upcoming event featuring actress Susan Sarandon after getting three dozen complaints about her opposition to the war in Iraq. The 56-year-old Academy Award winner was to be the keynote speaker at the April 11 event designed to inspire volunteerism in the community. Her brother, Terry Tomalin, outdoors writer at the St. Petersburg Times, asked her to participate in the event six months ago. But when invitations went out about two weeks ago, the United Way received (36) phone calls, e-mails and letters from donors and other criticizing Sarandon's selection as a speaker because of her anti-war views. Robin Carson, chairwoman of the United Way of Tampa Bay board of directors, said the event had the potential to become "divisive."

Ms. Carson, it's divisive now! You cancelled a major star over 36 complaints? What a dumbass! Why not just admit you don't approve of her politics and are doing this out of spite?

Contact the United Way of Tampa Bay and tell them what rightwing McCarthyists they are!

Main Office: 727-535-3545
Tampa Office: 813-274-0900

e-mail: info@uwtb.org

Reader Provides Clarifications of Iraqi Myths

I was reading one of my favorite none political bulletin boards and was bothered by the degree to which people had bought into the simplified sound bites about the reasons for the conflict. I therefore set off to the excellent search engine at Google.com, to make sure I had heard correctly. Here is what I turned up.

I will support the troops but oppose the war until someone presents me with a single, rational reason for invasion. In the meantime, I will continue to refer to the annexation of Iraq as "Operation Just Because."

Bush says we are at war with Iraq for these reasons:

1. Hussein gassed his own people.

Status: False

The Kurds were killed by Cyanide gas used by the Iranian forces against whom the Iraqis were using mustard gas during the Iran-Iraq war. Source: New York Times

2a. Iraq is pursuing a Nuclear Program as evidenced by their purchase of 81mm tubes.

Status: False

See: Joby Warrick (Washington Post) Friday, January 24, 2003 article on the subject.

Excerpt: "When President Bush traveled to the United Nations in September to make his case against Iraq, he brought along a rare piece of evidence for what he called Iraq's "continued appetite" for nuclear bombs. The finding: Iraq had tried to buy thousands of high-strength aluminum tubes, which Bush said were "used to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon."... Moreover, there were clues from the beginning that should have raised doubts about claims that the tubes were part of a secret Iraqi nuclear weapons program, according to U.S. and international experts on uranium enrichment. The quantity and specifications of the tubes -- narrow, silver cylinders measuring 81 millimeters in diameter and about a meter in length -- made them ill-suited to enrich uranium without extensive modification, the experts said.

But they are a perfect fit for a well-documented 81mm conventional rocket program in place for two decades. Iraq imported the same aluminum tubes for rockets in the 1980s. The new tubes it tried to purchase actually bear an inscription that includes the word "rocket," according to one official who examined them...

"If the U.S. government puts out bad information it runs a risk of undermining it's case," said David Albright, a former IAEA weapons inspector who has investigated Iraq's past nuclear programs extensively.

"In this case, I fear that the information was put out there for a short-term political goal: to convince people that Saddam Hussein is close to acquiring nuclear weapons."

2b. Iraq tried to buy Uranium for weapons.

Status: False

Excerpt: "March 10 2003 Evidence linking Iraq to a nuclear weapons program appears to have been fabricated, the United Nations'chief nuclear inspector said in a report that called into question United States and British claims about Iraq's secret nuclear ambitions.

Dr ElBaradei also reported finding no evidence of banned weapons or nuclear material in an extensive sweep of Iraq. Sources familiar with the forgery investigation described the faked evidence as a series of letters between Iraqi agents and officials in the central African nation of Niger. The documents had been given to the UN inspectors by Britain and reviewed extensively by US intelligence. The forgers had made relatively crude errors - including names and titles that did not match with the individuals who held office at the time the letters were purportedly written, the officials said." Source: Sydney Morning Herald

3. Iraq has weapons of mass destruction

Status: False

Excerpt: "The source of this news -- which disproves Bush's central assertion that Iraq has a "vast stockpile" of weapons from the Persian Gulf war "that has not been accounted for" -- was Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel. A son-in-law of Saddam Hussein, Kamel was killed in Iraq in 1996 after smuggling crates of secret information to the U.N. about Iraq's weapons programs.

What Kamel actually said, Barry reports, is "that after the Gulf War, Iraq destroyed all its chemical and biological weapons stocks and the missiles to deliver them."

Kamel's report was "hushed up by the U.N. inspectors," Newsweek says. For its part, the Bush team has conveniently been citing only the part of Kamel's testimony in which he stated that Iraq still had blueprints and equipment for future weapons production." Source: CCMEP

4. Saddam is starving his people.

Status: False

"Inspite of the sanctions, the Hussein government has a ration program which is regarded by the United Nations as the largest and most efficient food-distribution system of its kind in the world. It has also become a strategic tool to maintain popular support over the last decade." Source: Washington Post, Feb. 2, 2003

5. Iraq is likely to use WMD or provide them to terrorists.

Status: False

Source... The head of the CIA!

Excerpt: "Tenet went on to declassify formerly secret evidence given at a closed hearing of the Senate's intelligence committee in which democrat Carl Levin, was told by a 'senior intelligence witness' that the 'probability... would be low' of Saddam initiating a WMD attack. The agent also said the chances were 'pretty high' that Saddam would launch a WMD attack 'if we initiate an attack...'.

Kenneth M Pollack, who worked as a military analyst at the CIA before serving as a top aide on Persian Gulf affairs on President Clinton's National Security Council, said:

'The agency line is that it is basically unlikely that Iraq would give WMDs to terrorists under most circumstances. The Bush administration is trying to make the case that Iraq might try to give WMDs to al-Qaeda under certain circumstances. But what the agency is saying is that Saddam is likely to give such weapons to terrorists only under extreme circumstances when he believes he is likely to be toppled." Source: Sunday Herald

6. Hussein and Iraq were involved in the 9/11 attacks on the US.

Status: False

Excerpt: "On Oct. 7, 2001, Arab TV superstation Al Jazeera aired a video in which Osama Bin Laden suggested that he was fighting for Iraq and Palestine. "One million Iraqi children have thus far died in Iraq although they did not do anything wrong," Bin Laden protested.

"Israeli tanks and tracked vehicles also enter to wreak havoc in Palestine … and we hear no voices raised."

When Powell testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee later that month, he dismissed Bin Laden's claims.

"We cannot let Usama bin Laden pretend that he is doing it in the name of helping the Iraqi people or the Palestinian people," said Powell. "He doesn't care one whit about them. He has never given a dollar toward them. He has never spoken out for them."

That was then but 16 months later, Powell and Bush did a 180 degree turn to try to find an excuse to annex Iraq. Source: MSNBC

Need more? See: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/10/international/middleeast/10TERR.html

Given that the 'excuses' for war are not true, it seems likely that there are ulterior motives in the annexation of Iraq. --- Faun Otter

Thursday, March 27, 2003

Bush White House trying to slow the congresssional 9/11 investigations

Is the Bush White House trying to put the brakes on the congressional panel created last fall to investigate 9-11 attacks? Sources tell TIME that the White House brushed off a request quietly made last week by the 9-11 Commission Chairman Tom Kean, the Republican former governor of New Jersey, to boost his budget by $11 million. Kean had sought the funding as part of the $75 billion supplemental spending bill that the president just requested to pay for war with Iraq. Bush's recent move has miffed some members of the 9-11 panel.

On Tuesday night, the White House sidestepped the issue of why the request wasn't granted in the Iraq spending bill. "We've just recently received the letter and we're reviewing it and we look forward to talking about it with Gov. Kean," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

The latest effort to curtail funding has angered victims of the attacks. Stephen Push, a leader of the 9/11 victims' families, who are closely monitoring the commission, said the White House decision was another in a long line of efforts to water down or shrink the panel's role. "I think the fact that they didn't include it—didn't warn Gov. Kean that they weren't going to include it, didn't return my phone call—suggests to me that they see this as a convenient way for allowing the commission to fail," said Push. "They've never wanted the commission and I feel the White House has always been looking for a way to kill it without having their finger on the murder weapon." Push said the White House has ignored his phone calls and emails for weeks. more

WAIT! According to Bush, Iraq had a hand in the 9/11 attacks ALTHOUGH there is NO evidence to support that position. You would think that if Bush is so sure he is right despite evidence to the contrary he would be happy to fold additional funding for the 9/11 investigation into the Iraq war allocation. Right? I mean... really... right?

FLASHBACK Bush Administration Attempts To Block 9/11 Investigations

"Dick Cheney was on the line, and it wasn’t to chitchat. The vice president rarely calls the Senate leader—a Democrat he dismisses as an 'obstructionist'—so Tom Daschle knew the topic was important when he hurried into his Capitol office. What he heard was a plea, and a warning. The Senate will soon launch hearings on why we weren’t prepared for, and warned about, September 11. The intelligence committee will study the matter, but mostly behind closed doors. Cheney was calling to pre-emptively protest public hearings by other committees. If the Democrats insisted, Bush administration officials might say they’re too busy running the war on terrorism to show up. Press the issue, Cheney implied, and you risk being accused of interfering with the mission. Daschle was noncommittal and, after the call, unmoved. 'Intelligence is just a piece of it,' he said. 'People need to know what happened......" Newsweek magazine, 4 February 2002

"Angry lawmakers accused the White House yesterday of secretly trying to derail creation of an independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks while professing to support the idea." Washington Post

"For a year, Bush rejected a Blue Ribbon Commission on 9-11. But last week, Bush did a triple back flip. "The change came, NEWSWEEK has learned, after three secret and at times contentious White House meetings between family members and top presidential aides... [where family members fumed] that top government officials had yet to be held 'accountable' ... With family members threatening to go public, the White House had virtually no choice. 'There was a freight train coming down the tracks,' said one White House official. 'They realized how powerful the voices of the families were,' added Democrat Rep. Jane Harman... 'I never want to hear the phrase 'lessons learned' again,' said Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son was killed in the World Trade Center. 'I want people brought up on charges of malfeasance." Newsweek magazine, 23-Sep-02

Jessica is lost... In Iraq!

A 19-year-old woman who joined the US Army to escape the ravages of the Bush economy was feared to be the first woman soldier to die yesterday. Blonde Jessica Lynch was among 12 soldiers in a US supply convoy ambushed by Iraqi troops. Her parents were left weeping like others in America and Britain as more Coalition victims of the war were identified.

Private Jessica — known as Jessie — only joined up because she could not find a job in her hometown in West Virginia. Lack of jobs and the military service of her older brother Gregory Lynch Jr., led Jessica into the Army, her father said.

The Bush Economy

Iraqi Guerrilla Tactics Were Predicted, Ignored By Bush Administration!

Intelligence analysts at the CIA and Pentagon warned the Bush administration that U.S. troops would face significant resistance from Iraqi irregular forces employing guerrilla tactics, but those views have not been adequately reflected in the administration's public predictions about how difficult a war might go, according to current and former intelligence officials. more

Typical Bush arrogance! Those Iraqis want to be free! They won't oppose us!

Bush Lets Another One Get Way! Al-Qaeda suspect has fled U.S.!

Federal agents hunting for suspected al-Qaeda operative Adnan El Shukrijumah now fear that he has slipped out of the United States.

El Shukrijumah, 27, who once lived in suburban Miami, has been the focus of an intense manhunt since last week when he was identified by the FBI as a possible terrorist organizer who could be plotting strikes against U.S. targets.

But federal law enforcement sources say an extensive search, primarily centered in South Florida, has yielded little information. The lack of evidence leads many senior officials to believe that the Saudi-born man, who holds at least four passports and travels under a half-dozen aliases, is no longer in the United States. more

Reading Assignments:

Bracing for Bush's War at Home click here

GOP hypocrisy in attacks upon Daschle cick here

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More On Michael Moore and the Oscars

It seems that once it was determined Michael Moore would win the Oscar for Best Documentary for Bowling For Columbine, the producers of the awards show prepared themselves for anti-war and anti-bush speeches by supplying stagehands with live microphones. The LA Times and Entertainment Weekly reports that the loud boos heard during Moore's speech did not come from the audience but rather from the sound system speakers. Further, as revealed in an Entertainment Weekly article on the event, most of the audience were all either sitting there nodding, smiling, applauding, or just listening.

Isn't it amazing the lengths being taken to protect this unelected adminstration and those that support it from the true feelings of the country? Michael Moore wrote a wonderful piece for the LA Times. Here is an excerpt:

"We have a fictitious president who was elected with fictitious election results. (If you still believe that 3,000 elderly Jewish Americans -- many of them Holocaust survivors -- voted for Pat Buchanan in West Palm Beach in 2000, then you are a true devotee to the beauty of fiction!) He is now conducting a war for a fictitious reason (the claim that Saddam Hussein has stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction when in fact we are there to get the world's second-largest supply of oil).

Whether it is a tax cut that is passed off as a gift to the middle class or a desire to drill holes in the wilds of Alaska, we are continually bombarded with one fictitious story after another from the Bush White House. And that is why it is important that filmmakers make nonfiction, so that all the little lies can be exposed and the public informed. An uninformed public in a democracy is a sure-fire way to end up with little or no democracy at all.

That is what I have been saying for some time. Millions of Americans seem to agree. My book "Stupid White Men" still sits at No. 1 on the bestseller list (it's been on that list now for 53 weeks and is the largest-selling nonfiction book of the year). "Bowling for Columbine" has broken all box-office records for a documentary. My Web site is now getting up to 20 million hits a day (more than the White House's site). My opinions about the state of the nation are neither unknown nor on the fringe, but rather they exist with mainstream majority opinion. The majority of Americans, according to polls, want stronger environmental laws, support Roe vs. Wade and did not want to go into this war without the backing of the United Nations and all of our allies.

That is where the country is at. It's liberal, it's for peace and it is only tacitly in support of its leader because that is what you are supposed to do when you are at war and you want your kids to come back from Iraq alive." more Michael Moore here

Dreamworks Entertainment Warns Chris Rock Against Bush Bashing!

Here is yet another example of how the corporate media has to protect Bush from critics! Comedian Chris Rock has been strongly advised not to engage in any Bush-bashing during the promotion of his new film Head Of State.

In the movie, Rock 's character is the Democratic party's 2004 presidential contender.

"We are confident Chris knows this is not the appropriate time to make jokes about war and the president," said one top studio source. "We don't want to get Dixie-Chicked, or anything like that, out of the gate. We've invested tens of millions of dollars in the making of the movie and its marketing."

Rock once said of Bush: "He's not stupid, he's just drunk," adding, "All the black people who voted for Bush are both on his cabinet."

Recently on Oprah, Rock cautiously said: "Ah, the war, ah, well, maybe if we Americans really knew what a war meant, ah, then maybe we wouldn't be so eager in waging or supporting it."

Think you know this Iraq War? Take The Quiz!!!!

1. The anti-war movement supports our troops by urging that they be brought home immediately so they neither kill nor get killed in a unjust war. How has the Bush administration shown its support for our troops?

a. The Republican-controlled House Budget Committee voted to cut $25 billion in veterans benefits over the next 10 years.

b. The Bush administration proposed cutting $172 million from impact aid programs which provide school funding for children of military personnel.

c. The administration ordered the Dept. of Veterans Affairs to stop publicizing health benefits available to veterans.

d. All of the above.

2. The anti-war movement believes that patriotism means urging our country to do what is right. How do Bush administration officials define patriotism?

a. Patriotism means emulating Dick Cheney, who serves as Vice-President while receiving $100,000-$1,000,000 a year from Halliburton, the multi-billion dollar company which is already lining up for major contracts in post-war Iraq.

b. Patriotism means emulating Richard Perle, the warhawk who serves as head of the Defense Intelligence Board while at the same time meeting with Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi on behalf of Trireme, a company of which he is a managing partner, involved in security and military technologies, and while agreeing to work as a paid lobbyist for Global Crossing, a telecommunications giant seeking a major Pentagon contract.

c. Patriotism means emulating George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, John Bolton, Tom DeLay, John Ashcroft, Lewis Libby, and others who enthusiastically supported the Vietnam War while avoiding serving in it and who now are sending others to kill and be killed in Iraq.

d. All of the above.

3. The Bush administration has accused Saddam Hussein of lying regarding his weapons of mass destruction. Which of the following might be considered less than truthful?

a. Constant claims by the Bush administration that there was documentary evidence linking Iraq to attempted uranium purchases in Niger, despite the fact that the documents were forgeries and CIA analysts doubted their authenticity.

b. A British intelligence report on Iraq's security services that was in fact plagiarized, with selected modifications, from a student article.

c. The frequent citation of the incriminating testimony of Iraqi defector Hussein Kamel, while suppressing that part of the testimony in which Kamel stated that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction had been destroyed following the 1991 Gulf War.

d. All of the above.

More of this quiz is here

Nazi Rightwinger Takes Offense At Being Called A Nazi! If it quacks like a duck...

Given your almost obsessive use of the term "Nazi" to describe any and every conservative, I am forced to ask - do you really, sincerely believe that conservative ideals and National Socialist ideology are compatable, or can you see that the differences go right to the very core, but hurl the cheap insult in any case, hoping some will be gullible enough to believe it?

I love it when a conservative tries to sound intellectual. This republican reader, like so many that write me, gave a fake e-mail address because he didn't really want a reply to this. Now, many conservatives take a "head in the sand" approach when dealing with history and facts but I believe this guy already thinks he knows the answers to the questions he asked me.

So the question: Do I really believe that conservative ideals and National Socialist ideology are compatable?

Trick question! The reader is referring to the nazis of Germany as the National Socialist party - their official title. The message the reader is trying to convey is because they had the word "socialist" in their name they must have really been left leaning and not conservatives. And since conservatives often try to pin the label of "socialist" on liberals, he's also trying to make an association between nazis and liberals. The truth is history is filled with political movements that give themselves titles that don't accurately portray their philosophy. For example, the German Democratic Republic (which was neither), Vladimir Zhirinovsky's "Liberal Democrat" party (which was neither)
and The Union of Soviet Socialists Republic (the Soviet Union was communist, not socialist.)

So his attempt to tie nazis with liberals is weak and his reasoning doesn't hold water. "Socialism requires worker ownership and control of the means of production. In Nazi Germany, private capitalist individuals owned the means of production, and they in turn were controlled by the Nazi party and state. True socialism does not advocate such economic dictatorship -- it can only be democratic. Hitler's other political beliefs place him almost always on the far right. He advocated racism over racial tolerance, eugenics over freedom of reproduction, merit over equality, competition over cooperation, power politics and militarism over pacifism, dictatorship over democracy, capitalism over Marxism, realism over idealism, nationalism over internationalism, exclusiveness over inclusiveness, common sense over theory or science, pragmatism over principle, and religion over secularism." Definitely NOT socialism. But it does accurately describe the conservative movement in America.

A quick examination of examples of nazi and conservative rhetoric further makes the case for the Nazi and conservative connection:

"I think 'one man, one vote,' just unrestricted democracy, would not be wise. There needs to be some kind of protection for the minority which the white people represent now, and they need and have a right to demand a protection of their rights."
--Pat Robertson, "The 700 Club," 3/18/92

"Die Deutschen Leute verlangen Schutz!" (The German people demand protection!) --Adolph Hitler

"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."-- George Bush

Hitler often said Jews should not be considered citizens of Germany. Ein Volk-Ein Reich-Ein Fuhrer!-Gott Mitt Eins!

Perhaps the most damning comparison of American conservatives and nazis came from the book Blowback: America's recruitment of Nazis, and its disastrous effect on our domestic and foreign policy by Christopher Simpson (Collier / Macmillan, 1988), in which the author says that "after World War II, Nazi émigrés were given CIA subsidies to build a far-right-wing power base in the U. S. These Nazis assumed prominent positions in the Republican Party's "ethnic outreach committees." Simpson documents the fact that these Nazis did not come to America as individuals but as part of organized groups with fascist political agendas. The Nazi agenda did not die along with Adolf Hitler. It moved to America (or a part of it did) and joined the far right of the Republican Party." more

Also see:

http://home.attbi.com/~slimyslugs/reichstag_fire_and_september_11.htm

So, to answer the reader's last question - I'm not concerned with anyone being "gullible" enough to believe that nazis and republicans are cut from the same cloth. They only have to compare the two to see.

One rightwinger thinks I can't handle the truth!

This is your wake up call, get with the program. You can poke fun at those who feel that you are unpatriotic as a bunch of yokels. Guess again. Alot of educated people, people who are motre ducated than you are serving in the forces today and stationed in Iraq, doing a job that you are too much of a coward to do. Instead of hiding behing the flag, and ranking a decision that scares you half to death, because you didin't have the balls to make it. People like you and Mike Moore are the worst thing for this country, you con people with your tripe and tell them it's for real. I have numerous friend there in Iraq and yes it is for real, yes we are kicking ass, yes we are outside of Bagdad. Why don't you fly there and find out for yourself. See, those of us who had the balls to serve our country instead of abuse it's freedoms know the deal, we know what's real, Too bad non you know the slightest thing about real. This "I know someone who had a friend that was related to a high ranking journalist for Al-Jazeer said........" is the biggest truckload of load of Crap. Get with the PROGRAM, let go of your tree and travel to the southeast, live on a military base, meet the real people of this country.

Only a conservative would put "the truth" in the subject of an e-mail then proceed to only spew his opinion.

You presume so much in your message. And I'm sure Americans in the other regions of this country would take great offense at you implying only those in the southeast are the "real people of this country."

This is what you need to do. First, you need A LOT of money because you can't bribe elected officials without it. Then, you need to contact your congressmen, donate a large some of the money I mentioned to him/her/them and then suggest they introduce legislation that bans speech you disagree with and outlaws political dissent when Republicans are in power. (You're probably ok with dissent if Democrats are running things.)

Finally, organize a grassroots fascist group and lobby to have the First Amendment repealed.

This "if you don't like things go to Iraq" line of thought from your kinds was ignorant to begin with and the more it is repeated, the more you reinforce the public's perception of just how narrow your thinking is.

(note to representatives of Conservative groups reading this: Is this your best and brightest?)

out...

Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Bodies of 500 US, UK soldiers lying in Jacobabad

Do you think the 2001 military operation in Afghanistan went well for the United States? If you support the war on Iraq, do you point to the Afghanistan operation as an example of how successful a republican-led military can be?

Then get this: Around 500 dead bodies of American and British soldiers killed during military operation in Afghanistan after September 11 blitz have been lying in a morgue at Shebhaz Airbase in Jacobabad.

American and British authorities because of fear of strong reaction from their masses had kept the dead bodies of as many as 500 soldiers in a morgue established at Jacobabad Airbase instead of shifting them to their own countries, credible sources informed Online here Tuesday.

The bodies of these soldiers, who were killed during last five months in Afghanistan, were brought from Baghram Airbase and other areas of war-ravaged country, sources disclosed. more

British MP: Motive for the war on Iraq is the eventual partition of the Mideast

In an exclusive interview with Arab News yesterday, British Member of Parliament George Galloway said he had evidence that one motive for the war on Iraq is the eventual partition of the Mideast.

“Here in the Houses of Parliament there are people who have never set foot in an Arab country openly discussing the partition of Gulf states,” he said in a telephone interview from London.

“They talk about whether it should be one country, two countries, three countries, even four countries. They openly discuss changing the boundaries of old countries, creating new countries — removing this and that leader,” he added.

Speaking about George W. Bush, Galloway said that he was unimpressive. However, “the US has stirred up a vast amount of hatred against itself by this swaggering arrogance of the intellectually limited President, roaring like a bull in a bomber jacket in aircraft hangars to young men and women of the American armed forces who, although they know very little of the world, are ready to get out there and kill.” more

Already starting...?

Armageddon Watch: Marines mass on Iranian border

Royal Marines were deployed to Iraq's border with Iran yesterday in a move that will unnerve Teheran's regime, which fears encirclement by American-led forces in Iraq and Afghanistan...

Tensions were illustrated by a succession of border incidents. A rocket struck an Iranian oil refinery depot in Abadan, just across from Basra, on Friday injuring two people while there were reports on Monday that Iranian forces had fired on British troops on the Faw peninsula.

Iran, part of America's "axis of evil", is formally neutral but fears it could be the next target for attack. more

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Michael Moore and The Mysterious Microphone Ploy!

Are the corporate owned television networks altering the sound of entertainment events that turn political? You have to wonder. One instance - reported across the internet but specifically on MSNBC was the American Music Awards from January in which the former president Bush appeared - only to be subjected to mass boos from the audience. MSNBC reported Randy Owen, the lead singer for the band "Alabama", was “pretty shaken” by the crowd’s reaction. The boos from the crowd, however, were not audible in the broadcast, leading some to believe that they were deleted by censors.

When Michael Moore delivered his blast of the Bush Reich at the Oscars, he was, in reality, given a standing ovation and hearty applause. But, to hear the soundbyte presented on the network news, you'd never know it. All you can hear are boos...which, in fact, came from about five people, from eyewitness accounts.

Conversely, when Bush so much as smirks at a public affair, to hear the "mysterious microphones" tell it, every person in the place thunderously cheers and applauds. So when you combine the mysterious microphone effect with skillful editng you can, quite effectively, lie through your teeth.

Example: The network coverage of Moore (all 3 seconds of it) shows Moore briefly, then, while cutting to a handful of stony-faced people, cranks up the volumne on the five booers. The result: a totally false statement. more

Rightwingers using hi-tech means to control the information you and I can see and hear; Al-Jazeera English website experiences hack attack!

Conservatives have always used any means possible to control the flow of information to Americans. They know that if Americans hear both sides of a story, we'll see just how off the conservative agenda is. Lately they've been buying up media outlets to achieve this. But what happens to a free flow of information they cannot buy or control?

Hackers attacked the Web site of Arab satellite television network Al-Jazeera on Tuesday, rendering it intermittently unavailable, the site's host said. The newly launched English-language page, which went live Monday, was hardest hit in a bombardment of data packets known as a denial-of-service attack.

Al-Jazeera, based in the American allie country of Qatar, is an unusually independent and powerful voice in the Arab world. Apparently, they aren't reporting events the way the American right wants them to. more

Hollywood being attacked by dumbass rightwingers with a dumbass agenda. I don't think Hollywood will notice...

Wingers love to whine about actors and musicians speaking out against Bush and the reactionary rightwing agenda. It used to be easier to shut them up. All you had to say was that Hollywood actors were Americans and they qualify for first amendment protection of whatever they want to say.

Then, the nazi scumbags on the right developed a new tactic: Saying "them damn hollywood liberals think they're opinions matter more than anyone elses" became the new rallying cry. The wingers howled that "the common man who disagreed with Hollywood didn't have the same chance to make their voices heard - and they repeated this over and over again on conservative radio talk shows that reach millions of people everyday! THEN someone pointed out to them that their opinions actually reach MORE people than the opinions of those in show business because of the before mentioned conservative talk shows. This STILL didn't sit well with this nazi bunch because, after all, their true agenda is to SILENCE the opposition.

So, now, an organization has a website in which they preach that the hollywood crowd doesn't speak for them. NEWSFLASH! Hollywood has never claimed to speak for you nor do they want to. As Americans, they're speaking for themselves. So, Boycott-Hollywood.us?/ GROW UP! GET A LIFE! Either accept the constitution guarantees every American freedom of speech regardless of his/her influence or (to borrow one of the right's favorite lines) MOVE TO IRAQ!
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I was flooded with e-mail from people asking me to keep this picture up a few more days. OK! Gladly!

Tuesday, March 25, 2003

Update: Senate Slashes Bush's Tax Package to $350B

The Senate unexpectedly reversed itself Tuesday, voting to slash more than half of President Bush's proposed $726 billion tax cut and dealing a blow to the keystone of his economic recovery plan. more

CNN Analysis Says American Casualties in Iraq Could Go As High As 17,000
Retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey: Allies Risk 3000 Casualties in Baghdad link
London Islammemo: thousands of Arab Mujahedeen from Afghanistan enter Iraq to fight for Saddam...
More than 5,000 Iraqis have crossed from Jordan into Iraq over the last week to fight coalition forces... link
"entire Arab world [will] turn against us" - George H.W. Bush link
New York Times Poll: 75% of Americans approve of Armageddon! link

Al Jazeera News: British offices bombed in Lebanon and Ecuador

Explosions damaged parts of British buildings in Lebanon and Ecuador this morning. Tuesday morning’s attack was the first on British assets in Lebanon since the country began invaded Iraq.

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This little Iraqi girl will never have her first crush or first kiss. She'll never have a "sweet 16" party, hang out late with her friends, or have the wedding she has fantasized about since she was six years old... This little girl died so we can have enough gas to put in our cars... You should thank her everyday when you pray for our "christian" president George W. Bush.

Allies Risk 3000 Casualties in Baghdad - Ex-General

The U.S.-led force in Iraq risks as many as 3,000 casualties in the battle for Baghdad and Washington has underestimated the number of troops needed, a top former commander from the 1991 Gulf War said on Monday.

Retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey, commander of the 24th Infantry Division 12 years ago, said the U.S.-led force faced "a very dicey two to three day battle" as it pushes north toward the Iraqi capital.

"In the process if they (the Iraqis) actually fight, and that's one of the assumptions, clearly it's going to be brutal, dangerous work and we could take, bluntly, a couple to 3,000 casualties," said McCaffrey who became one of the most senior ranking members of the U.S. military following the 1991 war. more

George H.W. Bush: "War on Iraq Would Turn Entire Arab World Against Us"

Former President George Bush predicted in 1996 that if the United States were to engage in another war with Iraq, one aimed at overthrowing Saddam Hussein, the "entire Arab world would turn against us" and the U.S. would alienate its allies in the international community.

"To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us, and make a broken tyrant into a latter-day Arab hero," Bush said in an interview with the BBC marking the five-year anniversary of the Gulf War.

Moreover, Vice President Dick Cheney said at an energy conference six years ago that hundreds of thousands of United States soldiers and Iraqi civilians would die if a war in Iraq were ever fought on the streets of Baghdad. more

No Chemical Weapons Found At Site In Najaf

Remember that "chemical weapons factory" "found" last week that FOX NEWS had an orgasm over? U.S. officials said Monday that no chemical weapons were found at a suspected site at Najaf in central Iraq, U.S. television networks reported.

NBC News reported from the Pentagon that no chemicals at all were found at the site. CNN, also reporting from the Pentagon, said officials now believe the plant there was abandoned long ago by the Iraqis. more

Of course, we KNEW this! We KNEW that the U.S. discovered that abandoned factory in 1991! According to GulfLINK, "Suspect BW Sites in Iraq," DIA, October 1991: "Several sites in Iraq with the capability to produce and store BW weapons. Although the capability exists, no evidence of current production or storage was found. Enclosures. Text 1. Background [deleted] suspected biological warfare sites. Among the sites were the Al-Kindi company, An-Najaf, Taji, the Serum and Vaccine institute, the Agriculture Research and Water Resources Center, and the Ibn Haithan institute...."

So where are all the chemical weapons Bush and company scared us into this war with?

Evidence of Iraq Weapons Remains Elusive

In months of allegation and investigation on the way to war, no firm evidence emerged that Iraq (news - web sites) held weapons of mass destruction. Now it is up to the U.S. invasion force to find such weapons — if they exist.

Coalition commander Gen. Tommy Franks said Monday nothing conclusive has been uncovered thus far, but the U.S. military said it was investigating a chemical plant seized in southern Iraq's Najaf area as a "site of interest."

"It could be difficult to find ... this stuff," Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said a day earlier.

The U.S. and British accusations that Baghdad was hiding chemical, biological or nuclear weapons programs were the reason most commonly cited by Washington for attacking Iraq. The credibility of those claims was undercut, however, by disclosures of forgery and misrepresentation underlying some of them, and by the failure of U.S. intelligence reports to lead U.N. inspectors to any important finds. more

Americans stunned by U.S. casualties, POWs in Iraq

"It doesn't appear to be as easy as the prewar rhetoric had led us to believe."

Crystal Kent was jolted over the weekend by news of U.S. casualties and captured soldiers, signs that the armor of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq might be cracking.

"Now that you see POWs, it feels more real," Kent, 29, of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, said on Monday. "I didn't think we'd lose this many people -- it seems like we're not as strong as I thought we were."

The news of deaths and injuries sustained by U.S. and British troops, images of Marines hunkered down in firefights, accounts of Iraqi guerrilla-style attacks and televised
snippets of frightened American prisoners drove home the horrors of war for many.

"It doesn't appear to be as easy as the prewar rhetoric had led us to believe." said Diane Gilleland, 56, a Chicago education executive. more

C'mon, Ms. Gilleland! Go ahead and say it: WE WERE LIED TO!

Who has been organizing recent pro-war rallies? key players in the radio industry — with close links to the Bush administration. DAMN THAT "LIBERAL" MEDIA!

By and large, recent pro-war rallies haven't drawn nearly as many people as antiwar rallies, but they have certainly been vehement. One of the most striking took place after Natalie Maines, lead singer for the Dixie Chicks, criticized President Bush: a crowd gathered in Louisiana to watch a 33,000-pound tractor smash a collection of Dixie Chicks CD's, tapes and other paraphernalia. To those familiar with 20th-century European history it seemed eerily reminiscent of. . . . But as Sinclair Lewis said, it can't happen here.

Who has been organizing those pro-war rallies? The answer, it turns out, is that they are being promoted by key players in the radio industry — with close links to the Bush administration.

The CD-smashing rally was organized by KRMD, part of Cumulus Media, a radio chain that has banned the Dixie Chicks from its playlists. Most of the pro-war demonstrations around the country have, however, been organized by stations owned by Clear Channel Communications, a behemoth based in San Antonio that controls more than 1,200 stations and increasingly dominates the airwaves.

The company claims that the demonstrations, which go under the name Rally for America, reflect the initiative of individual stations. But this is unlikely: according to Eric Boehlert, who has written revelatory articles about Clear Channel in Salon, the company is notorious — and widely hated — for its iron-fisted centralized control.

Until now, complaints about Clear Channel have focused on its business practices. Critics say it uses its power to squeeze recording companies and artists and contributes to the growing blandness of broadcast music. But now the company appears to be using its clout to help one side in a political dispute that deeply divides the nation. more

Democrats with a backbone?

Democratic presidential candidates who tone down their opposition to President Bush's policy in Iraq while the United States is at war "don't deserve to run for president," the Rev. Al Sharpton said yesterday.

"Don't be too cowardly to speak now," said Mr. Sharpton, a candidate himself, before an audience of activists from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, at their legislative conference blocks away from the Capitol.

The war in Iraq has become the major dividing line for Democratic presidential candidates, with about half of them having expressed support to some degree, and the rest strenuously opposing the president's policy.

Mr. Sharpton said he will follow the tradition of Robert F. Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy and Martin Luther King in continuing to attack the policy that sent the troops to fight.

"We cannot allow the precious blood of Americans to be used in an unwise, unnecessary battle," Mr. Sharpton said.

Meanwhile, The Democratic National Committee is not overly concerned about Sharpton's or Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle's criticism of pResident Bush for leading the United States into war against Iraq.

Reacting to mostly republican criticism leveled against Mr. Daschle after his recent remarks, DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe has issued a memo saying that as "Democrats stand up to President Bush, we must stand up for Democrats."

"Democrats speak out on the war," it states. "As Democratic leaders led by Tom Daschle have fulfilled their constitutional duties by holding President Bush accountable for his actions, Republicans have responded with personal attacks that question the patriotism of Democrats."

The DNC stresses that regardless of what comes out of Republican mouths, Democrats continue to stand behind America's troops.

Rightwing Slayer

Monday, March 31, 2003

Famed Journalist Peter Arnett FIRED For Daring To Criticize Bush; Says: Bush's War Plan Has Failed

Sunday, March 30, 2003

War Blunders, Ethics Dog Bush Administration

Saturday, March 29, 2003

Michael Moore Isn't Through With George W. Bush. Not By A Long Shot!

U.S. Missile Kills 58 in Baghdad Market

Bush Gets His Crusade! Plans Under Way for Christianizing Iraq!

Friday, March 28, 2003

Michael Moore Isn't Through With George W. Bush. Not By A Long Shot!

"Our Luke Was NOT Executed!" Tony Blair Caught In Major Lie. Says Soldiers Were Executed. "...no conclusive proof!"

Top Rumsfeld adviser Richard Perle resigns over ethics. A Republican with ethics problems? NO WAY!

Thursday, March 27, 2003

Bush White House trying to slow the congresssional 9/11 investigations

Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Bodies of 500 US, UK soldiers lying in Jacobabad

Tuesday, March 25, 2003

Al Jazeera News: British offices bombed in Lebanon and Ecuador

Americans stunned by U.S. casualties, POWs in Iraq

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