Pan Am 103 Victims' Families Experience Mixed Feelings of Betrayal, Skepticism, Disappointment in Libyan Developments

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I feel betrayed by President Bush.
This is all about money and oil, it is disgusting.
It's a disgraceful act on the part of George Bush, it's a sickening business deal, it will do a lot of harm because Gaddafi will be more powerful, more dangerous than he is now. It is not a wonderful transformation of Gaddafi, there is no change. If Hitler had changed after all he did, would he have been allowed to stay in power?"

Susan Cohen, mother of Pan Am 103-bombing victim Theodora Cohen, who was her only child

~~~~~~~~~~~~


This quilt hangs at Hendricks Chapel at Syracuse University.
It holds the names of 35 S.U. students
who were taken from us by a heinous act of terror involving Moammar Khadafy's Libyan agents on December 21, 1988.
Imagine giving busines, respect and trust to Osama Bin Laden in another 15 years.
Dear God.


"...U.S. officials did not publicly discuss the lifting of sanctions against Libya, which have prevented U.S. oil companies from reclaiming their interest in the country's lucrative but antiquated oil industry. The U.S. companies have long been eager to return to the North African nation, but have been stopped by the Pan Am Flight 103 case and the ongoing punishment of Libya for its weapons program and terrorist past.

"Libya can regain a secure and respected place among the nations, and over time, achieve far better relations with the United States," Bush said.

Bush made no mention the crash of Pan Am Flight 103 or the families of those who died.

Susan Cohen, whose daughter was killed when a bomb exploded as the jetliner flew above Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988, said she was disturbed by Bush's omission and by the agreement announced yesterday.

"It was a total betrayal," Cohen said. Gaddafi "blew up a plane. God knows, if this can happen, Osama bin Laden can come back."

Bob Monetti, who lost his 20-year-old son aboard the flight, said he remains suspicious of Libya's motives but is willing to give Gaddafi a chance.

"Most of us are in a 'Let's-see-what-goes-on attitude.' If, in fact, they have changed their stripes, maybe we should just get on with it," said Monetti, president of Families of Pan Am 103. "I still don't believe it, but it could actually be happening. It's in our financial interest that some of this happen, and we're still really skeptical about it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Must-read: Whiskey Bar- Coddling Dictators--"..Saddam baaaad. Ghadafi goooood."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why are we letting this scummy dictator who killed our citizens in a burning act of terror in 1988 and recently got caught developing WMDs stay in power..sanction-free?

Oh..I..reaLize...bet you do, too!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

William Safire has not forgotten the Syracuse University 35........yet looks cautiously/optimistically forward to doing dirty business with this damned forefather of Osama Bin-Laden. So this is the American way? Frankly, I'm sickened at the realization of our blatant hypocrisy.

"....I remember Colonel Qaddafi's underground poison-gas factory — "Auschwitz in the Sand" — and wonder where he bought Libya's present stock of centrifuges. As a Syracuse University dropout and trustee, I visit the memorial on campus to the 35 college students aboard Pan Am 103 whose blood can never be washed from his hands.

It may be, "for reasons of state" — like Musa Kussa's help in penetrating terrorist-protecting parts of Syrian and Saudi intelligence services — we should ultimately permit our investors to revive Libya's oil industry. But we should verify and never trust, and neither forget nor forgive Muammar Qaddafi."

Cheney to be prosecuted?
20/12/2003
Paris - "A French prosecutor is examining whether to prosecute US Vice President Dick Cheney over alleged complicity in the abuse of corporate assets dating from the time he was head of the services company Halliburton, the French newspaper Le Figaro said on Saturday.
The case stems from a contract by a consortium including the American company Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), a Halliburton subsidiary, and a French company, Technip, to supply a gas complex to Nigeria, the newspaper reported. (SEE OCTOBER, 2003 STORY)
A Paris investigating magistrate has been conducting investigations since October into allegations that $180m were paid in secret commissions during the late 1990s up to 2002 from funds established by the consortium in Madeira, the report said.
Cheney was Halliburton's chief executive between 1995 and 2000.
In a letter to the attorney-general's department, magistrate Reynaud van Ruymbeke ruled out directly prosecuting Cheney on a charge of bribing foreign officials, Le Figaro said.
But the official did not exclude the possibility of prosecution on the grounds of complicity in misuse of corporate assets, it added...."


Well, well...what do you know?
Newsflash: Halliburton has filed for KBR bankruptcy!

And...

Pentagon says Halliburton won't turn in papers-WSJ
December 19, 2003

"The Pentagon has accused Vice President Dick Cheney's former firm Halliburton Co of refusing to turn over internal documents that show the company knowingly overcharged taxpayers $61 million for work in Iraq, the Wall Street Journal said on Friday. The newspaper said the dispute over the documents is outlined in a Dec. 10 letter from the Defense Contract Audit Agency to a top official at Kellogg Brown & Root[KBR], the Halliburton unit handling more than $5 billion of work in Iraq.
"It has come to my attention that DCAA has been denied access to and/or copies of internal audit documents and reports performed on KBR operations," the newspaper quotes the letter as saying."


KBR Bankruptcy News/Information

BBC: Asbestos Is The Reason Halliburton Bankrupts KBR

".....The bankruptcy proceedings will not effect KBR's government services division, which is currently accused of overcharging the US military for some of its services..."

**They can go on stealing from all of us**

SEE OTHER RELATED STORIES HERE

~~~~~~~~~

Helen Thomas: Cheney Hypocritical In Telling Media To Check Facts

"....Vice President Dick Cheney is accusing the press of "cheap shot journalism" in covering the Bush administration, claiming "people don't check the facts."

Cheney is miffed over a raft of stories about his ties to Halliburton Co., a Houston-based energy conglomerate, which is a major recipient of U.S. contracts to rebuild Iraq.

While he's lecturing about accuracy, Cheney should do some fact-checking of his own statements about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction weapons. The vice president's prewar chant about such weapons helped lead the nation into war."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Molly Ivins: Dick Cheney and the Axis of Avarice

"......Halliburton, the oilfield equipment company, merely kept Saddam Hussein's oil fields pumping, the only thing that allowed the s.o.b. to stay in power. Halliburton cleverly ran its business with Saddam through two of its subsidiaries, Dresser Rand and Ingersoll-Dresser, in order to avoid the sanctions.

Unlike the Germans, the French and the Russians, Halliburton was not punished by the Bush administration for dealing with the dictator. Instead, it got the largest reconstruction contract given by this administration, with an estimated value between $5 billion and $15 billion. And the company got the contract without competitive bidding.

Halliburton has amply repaid the administration's faith. The Pentagon is now investigating the company for at least $120 million in overcharges, including $60 million for importing gasoline into Iraq and $67 million on a food services contract. Among the allegations are that Halliburton had blood in its food service refrigerators and is serving our soldiers rotten meat.

I think the French will particularly enjoy being lectured on their hypocrisy, preferably by Cheney himself. It's the kind of thing sophisticated people especially appreciate."

Robert Muller: Good Morning, World-
Earth Peace Plan 2010

"....Since so many of my dreams have been fulfilled during my life, I believe that dreams are the surest ways to new realities.

My ultimate dream is to see this Earth preserved and improved as the most beautiful paradise in the universe with a humanity living in peace, well-being and utmost happiness in it.

Is that dream too big? I do not believe so. All we have to do is to dream it, to want it, to work for it and it will happen."

Paul Krugman on Iraq: We Should Be Deeply Disturbed About the History of This War


"...as long as you wave the flag convincingly enough, it doesn't matter whether you tell the truth.."

__________________

Excerpt:

"......Now maybe, just maybe, Saddam's capture will start a virtuous circle in Iraq. Maybe the insurgency will evaporate; maybe the cost to America, in blood, dollars and national security, will start to decline.

But even if all that happens, we should be deeply disturbed by the history of this war. For its message seems to be that as long as you wave the flag convincingly enough, it doesn't matter whether you tell the truth.

By now, we've become accustomed to the fact that the absence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction — the principal public rationale for the war — hasn't become a big political liability for the administration. That's bad enough. Even more startling is the news from one of this week's polls: despite the complete absence of evidence, 53 percent of Americans believe that Saddam had something to do with 9/11, up from 43 percent before his capture. The administration's long campaign of guilt by innuendo, it seems, is still working.

The war's more idealistic supporters do, I think, feel queasy about all this. That's why they lay so much stress on their hopes for democracy in Iraq. They're not just looking for a happy ending; they're looking for moral redemption for a war fought on false pretenses."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harold Myerson's Statement on the topic is here:

American Prospect: Muted Joy
Why Saddam Hussein's capture is a terrific result of a terrible policy.

"....The ousting of the Baathists is not just good in itself; it's great in itself. But it was never simply "in itself," of course. Ousting Hussein as Bush undertook the task also required a rewriting of the norms of international conduct in favor of wars of choice, and the norms of domestic discourse in favor of systematic presidential deception, of waging a war on false pretenses. From the vantage point of any street corner in Baghdad, these changes, I acknowledge, may seem damned inconsequential. But we are not in Baghdad, and what were imperatives there were always choices here.

We do not know what will ultimately follow Saddam Hussein, whether in five years' time we will be opposing some militant, theocratic regime that has risen in its place. What's before us now, though, with all the irony of which history is capable, is a terrific consequence of a terrible policy...."

Americans Are Not Only Angry With the Bush Administration, They Are Fed Up With
Politics-as-Usual Democrats

Democrats like Joe Lieberman are accusing Howard Dean of dividing the party, but I beg to differ.
A mirror is available just about anywhere one goes..and really, attacking the front-running candidate with the most bluntly-honest and original ideas when Saddam Hussein gets captured only makes one look petty and opportunist.
Today's Washington-Democrats seem afraid of facing our future and our common destiny..relying upon old and tired (and filthy) political tactics.

In 2000, after having a Presidential election hijacked by a partisan, Republican-coddling Judiciary, millions of intelligent Americans had a major awakening of consciousness to the fact that we needed to change the very face of politics or see our democracy die.

We have become utterly and painfully aware of many of our own cowering Democratic representatives.
In October, 2002, being faced with the Iraq Resolution, they let Bush run roughshod over them..abandoning their own courage and intuition. If they'd gone with their guts, wisdom, and instincts, their handling of the challenging situation might have had the conclusion of revealing them as brilliant leaders. Alas, in fear of how they'd be politicaly perceived if they had dared to stand up to Bush, they dismally failed us.

After 9-11, we find that the American PEOPLE are far braver, intuitive, and consciously aware than our Representatives have been.

Howard Dean matches our courage, shares our intuition, welcomes our participation, respects our awareness.
This is what makes him a winner..not his "anger".

In the poem "The Song of a Man Who Has Come Through", D.H. Lawrence wrote:

"Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me!
A fine wind is blowing the new direction of Time.
If only I let it bear me, carry me, if only it carry me!"

The winds of the hijacked election; the winds of 9-11; the winds of great job losses in America; and the winds of the lies we were fed day after day during the lead-up to the PNAC-planned Iraq war have blown through Americans and we are more than aware that there is a new direction we must take for our future.

Yesterday's 'Washington-insider' Democrats cannot convince us that they are looking forward.

The more you tell Americans they can go about business as usual as their job-foundations are sucked away under their needy feet, the more Americans will resent you when they find their jobs are gone.

The more you tell Americans their opinions aren't worth anything and proceed to give an untrustworthy President a blank check to attack another nation... even when you see hundreds of thousands of those good Americans protesting BEFORE that war is begun, the more Americans will resent and disrespect you for your ignorance and blind compliance.

The Democratic party must show itself as clear, strong, steadfast, innovative, hopeful, respectful of its diverse constituency (without becoming mired down in the any-varied issues), respectful of each and every person who feels they can make a difference and wishes to participate in the great gift the Founders of this nation created for them, and gutsy and honest enough to tell Americans they are living falsely-materialistic lives. We will have to pay the piper somewhere along the line....or it's damn certain our children will pay for our hypocrisy, greed, lies and ignorance.

My parents had more opportunity than their parents.
I had more opportunity than my own parents.
My son may not even see an opportunity-level close to my own.

We have to ask ourselves....what the hell is happening?

Wake up, Democrats.

We, the People, are awakened; aware.
The winds have come through and we are carried by them.
You've only been fighting them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Song of a Man Who Has Come Through

Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me!
A fine wind is blowing the new direction of Time.
If only I let it bear me, carry me, if only it carry me!

If only I am sensitive, subtle, oh, delicate, a winged gift!



If only, most lovely of all, I yield myself and am borrowed
By the fine, fine wind that takes its course through the chaos of the world
Like a fine, an exquisite chisel, a wedge-blade inserted;

If only I am keen and hard like the sheer tip of a wedge
Driven by invisible blows,
The rock will split, we shall come at the wonder, we shall find the Hesperides.



Oh, for the wonder that bubbles into my soul,
I would be a good fountain, a good well-head,
Would blur no whisper, spoil no expression.

What is the knocking?
What is the knocking at the door in the night?
It is somebody wants to do us harm.

No, no, it is the three strange angels.
Admit them, admit them...

D.H. Lawrence

Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2002-2003

AP: A Roll Call of the Greats Who Died in 2003

These are only a few.






~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another Roll Call Representing the Loss of Greatness Among Us

The American Soldier is the Time Magazine "Person of the Year".

This is just one of those great souls...Spc. Brandon Tobler of Portland, Oregon.
He died in a Humvee accident during a blinding sandstorm early last Spring in Iraq.
He was 19 years old.

In a last, hurried e-mail to his aunt from somewhere in the deserts of the Middle East, Tobler wrote that if he could help make one family safe during this war in Iraq, he would've made a difference. He would've done his duty. link



If you click on his photo, you will see just one of the small acts done in his honor..it is an act of love and
respect in memory of his service to our country.
There are hundreds like this brave young person....and hundreds upon hundreds more who knew and loved them.

Please remember them all in your prayers this holiday season.

Dean Announces Foreign Policy & National Security Advisors

I read this news on Veterans for Dean blog:

Press release from the Dean campaign on Blogformerica.com:

Governor Dean today announced the team of distinguished experts who will advise his campaign on national security and foreign policy. Dean will deliver a major address on national security today in Los Angeles at 1:30 pm ET (10:30 am PT). We will post a transcript as soon as it is available. The advisors are:

Benjamin R. Barber is Kekst Professor of Civil Society at the University of Maryland and is the author "Strong Democracy," "Jihad Vs. McWorld," and "Fear's Empire: War, Terrorism And Democracy." He has been an informal advisor to former President Bill Clinton.

Ashton B. Carter is Co-Director (with former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry) of the Harvard-Stanford Preventive Defense Project and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy in the Clinton administration.

Ivo H. Daalder is a Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution and served as Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council during the Clinton administration.

Morton H. Halperin served as Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State.

Elisa D. Harris is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland and former Director for Nonproliferation and Export Controls on the National Security Council staff during the Clinton administration.

General Joseph Hoar (USMC, Ret.) served as Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Central Command.

Major General Randy Jayne (USAF, Ret.) is currently a Senior Partner with Heidrick & Struggles in McLean, VA. Prior to retiring from the Air Force and the Air National Guard, he served on the National Security Council staff, in the Office of Management and Budget. He was also the President of a major aerospace and defense operating company.

Franklin D. Kramer is Of Counsel to the law firm of Shea & Gardner and served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs for President Clinton.

Anthony Lake is Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He served as National Security Advisor to President Clinton.

General Merrill McPeak (USAF, Ret.) served as U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff during the first Persian Gulf War.

Clyde Prestowitz is President of the Economic Strategy Institute and served as Counsel to the Secretary of Commerce during the Reagan Administration. He is the author of "Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions."

Susan E. Rice is Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy and Governance Studies at The Bookings Institution and served as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.

Jeffrey Sachs is Professor of Economics and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and has served as an advisor to many developing nations.

Admiral Stansfield Turner (USN, Ret.) formerly served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

William Woodward is former Deputy Director Policy Planning for the U.S. Department of State.

The new team of advisors adds to the group that has been informally advising the governor. For over a year and a half, Danny E. Sebright, Associate Vice President of the Cohen Group, has been Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to Governor Dean. In addition to helping the campaign develop national security and foreign policy, he has spearheaded the process of recruiting the team of advisors.

Colonel Richard L. Klass (USAF, Ret.), a Washington area international security and business consultant, has conducted outreach to the military community for the campaign for nearly a year. A Rhodes Scholar and former White House Fellow, Colonel Klass was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart for combat in Vietnam during his Air Force career. Lionel Johnson, Vice President and Director of International Government Relations of Citigroup Inc., is also assisting with the campaign's outreach efforts to the foreign policy community. Prior to joining Citigroup, Mr. Johnson served in the Departments of State and Treasury, and was formerly a foreign service officer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

See Rodger A. Payne's blog for information and opinion about some of the people on this list.

Jim Wallis: Dangerous Religion - Bush's Theology of Empire



Is George W. Bush a blasphemer?

".....It's not a surprise to note that the global church does not generally support the foreign policy goals of the Bush administration—whether in Iraq, the Middle East, or the wider "war on terrorism." Only from inside some of our U.S. churches does one find religious voices consonant with the visions of American empire..."

"....In Christian theology, it is not nations that rid the world of evil—they are too often caught up in complicated webs of political power, economic interests, cultural clashes, and nationalist dreams. The confrontation with evil is a role reserved for God, and for the people of God when they faithfully exercise moral conscience. But God has not given the responsibility for overcoming evil to a nation-state, much less to a superpower with enormous wealth and particular national interests. To confuse the role of God with that of the American nation, as George Bush seems to do, is a serious theological error that some might say borders on idolatry or blasphemy..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duane Shank: The Project for a New American Empire
Who are these guys? And why do they think they can rule the world?


"We will crush you....mwuhaha!"

"....The plan of the Project for the New American Century must be countered with a vision that insists militarization and pre-emptive war is not the path to real security. We must advance the vision of a world where international institutions are strengthened rather than destroyed, where global poverty is seriously addressed, where all countries, including the United States, are disarming their weapons of mass destruction, and where human rights are taken seriously. People of faith and goodwill in this country and around the world stood up by the millions to oppose the war against Iraq. We must now continue that opposition—through doing justice, loving compassion, and walking with God in the struggle."

Rutland Herald-
Dean warns: 'Blather' is bad for Democrats

I love that word....blather.
I used it (and provided the Merriam Webster definition) just recently in this blog-entry.

Gov. Dean makes some great points:

"..This is not good for the Democratic Party to have this blather going on in Washington..."

"....While chastising his opponents for causing internal party strife, he joined in, saying congressional Democrats who supported the war "backed away from what was right." ...I think it's very clear that Democrats in Washington have said anything they can to change the course of what's happening here," Dean said in a state where the polls have him 25 to 29 percentage points ahead...."

"...I think the Democratic Party has to offer a clear alternative to the American people," he said. "The capture of one bad man doesn't mean the president and Washington Democrats can declare victory in the war on terrorism. The question is what is right, not what is popular."Real dangers ranging from stateless terrorists to the nuclear threat from North Korea must be confronted, he said.

"The truth is, Americans are no safer from these serious threats than they were the day before Saddam Hussein was captured," he said. "We are no safer today than the day the planes struck the World Trade Center."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This goes along with what Gov. Dean is saying:
NY Times: Terrorism Drills Showed Lack of Preparedness, Report Says

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And this...
Newhouse News:
WASHINGTON -- The capture of a powerless and virtually helpless Saddam Hussein, alleged mastermind of Iraq's bloody resistance, has exposed a major flaw in American strategy in the war on terrorism, analysts say.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Washington Times: According to the National Intelligence Council, new report says the near-future for Iraq looks mighty bleak.

See National Intelligence Council Report here: The Middle East to 2020

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ashcroft's terror-cases are mostly fizzling...
Boston Globe: Few jailed in terror cases, study says

"..About 6,400 people were referred by investigators for criminal charges involving terrorism in the two years after the attacks, but fewer than one-third were charged and only 879 were convicted, according to government records reviewed by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
The median prison sentence was 14 days, according to a study by clearinghouse codirectors David Burnham and Susan P. Long. Only five people were sentenced to 20 years or more.
Critics seized on the numbers to question whether Attorney General John Ashcroft and other top law enforcement officials have been overstating the success of their antiterrorism efforts..."

My vote for TTLB's Showcase this week:
What's so wrong about peace, love and higher taxes?

Open Democracy: The UN in 2003- a year of living dangerously

The crisis over Iraq has brought the United Nations to a crossroads. At the end of a year when diplomacy was felled by force, the institution can regain its influence only by rethinking its core security mandate.

U.S. Army News/Soldier Stories:
Soldier improves Humvee protection

An improvising reservist has been using his engineering skills to help provide better protection to Soldiers riding around Iraq in unarmored High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles.

Capt. Darryl M. Butler, a facility engineer for Task Force 1st Armored Division’s 354th Civil Affairs Brigade, an Army Reserve unit from Riverdale, Md., is the type of Soldier who is never satisfied with equipment that is simply “adequate.”
Currently, Butler is working with a growing team of Iraqi engineers, including metal workers, sprayers and welders, piecing together his new brainchild: the Modified Protection for un-Armored Humvees.
More than 900 pounds of steel in a 25-piece kit make up what has been dubbed “The Butler Mobile,” a custom, modular armor plating system designed to be an addition to soft-top Humvees.
The kit includes door pieces, floor plates and a bolt-on fortress for the rear and roof, all of which put a layer of heavy steel between Soldiers and whatever the enemy throws at them, Butler said.

Online Journalism Review: A Look Back at 2003,
and What's on the Horizon for the Online News Universe

".....This is the year when citizens' media exploded. In the U.S., the population of Webloggers grew, their audiences grew, and their influence grew..."

"....."Watch Weblogs and citizens' media bring freedom of expression and democracy to other lands next year. Whether in a small town in Iran or Iraq or America, citizens' media means that anyone can now own a printing press and has the power that goes with it. That will revolutionize news, media, politics, government, and marketing."
-- Jeff Jarvis, blogger and president of Advance.net

Ivo Daalder: Whatever We Do, We Can't Cut and Run
December 15, 2003

".....what does the capture of the Butcher of Baghdad mean for America's continued involvement in Iraq? Many people both within and outside the Bush administration are touting yesterday's news as sealing America's strategic victory. We went into Iraq to get Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction, they say. We never found the weapons, but we have found Hussein. We should now be able to start reducing our involvement in Iraq."

"....U.S. military commanders in Iraq have been saying for months that Hussein was not leading the insurgency. Although his capture may deal the insurgents a temporary psychological blow, it does nothing to weaken their ability to attack U.S and foreign forces as well as Iraqis cooperating in the rebuilding of Iraq.The insurgents' goal, moreover, remains unchanged. Iraq has long been a winner-take-all society, and insurgents aim to be the winner in post-Saddam Iraq. The only way they can achieve that goal is by making the occupation so painful that the Bush administration abandons the Iraqi people and orders a precipitous departure of American troops."

"...while yesterday's good news does not represent an opportunity for the United States to withdraw, it does represent an opportunity to get Iraq right."

My Favorite New Blog Discovery: TomDispatch

I discovered Tom Engelhardt's weblog via this Mother Jones "Daily Mojo" feature. It's a great read.
I especially appreciated the section about the Pentagon's urge to put the military, which occupies much of the world via its 700-plus bases, into the private "hands" of small numbers of corporate entities. Tom mentions the recent Georgian 'Velvet Revolution' and Rumsfeld's quick arrival on the scene. These lines appeared in a NY Times article's "fourth paragraph in a Thom Shankar report tucked away inside the paper, but at least you can count three countries and a pipeline in it":
".....The United States views Georgia as a strategic partner, in part for its location, along an arc of instability in a region thought to be a crossroads for terrorists. A pipeline set to open in 2005 linking Azerbaijan, which Mr. Rumsfeld visited Thursday, and Turkey, NATO's only Islamic member, runs across Georgia, as well."



Tom's weblog is a project of the Nation Institute.
It appears that the weblog's been around since May, 2003. If you haven't seen it yet, pay a visit.

From the site:

Tomdispatch.com is researched, written and edited by Tom Engelhardt, a fellow at the Nation Institute, for anyone in despair over post-September 11th US mainstream media coverage of our world and ourselves. The service is intended to introduce you to voices from elsewhere (even when the elsewhere is here) who might offer a clearer sense of how this imperial globe of ours actually works.
An editor in publishing for the last 25 years, Tom is the author of The End of Victory Culture, a history of American triumphalism in the Cold War era. He is at present consulting editor for Metropolitan Books, a fellow of the Nation Institute, and a teaching fellow at the journalism school of the University of California, Berkeley.

Diane Sawyer/Bush Interview:
No WMDs in Iraq--"So what's the difference?" says Bush

".....In the debate over the necessity for the war in Iraq, few issues have been more contentious than whether Saddam Hussein possessed arsenals of banned weapons, as the Bush administration repeatedly said, or instead was pursuing weapons programs that might one day constitute a threat..."

Bush's response to Diane Sawyer about the topic:
"So what's the difference?"

Could the difference be that the Bush Administration lied to the American public nearly every day?

Look at the lies...many of those lies are right HERE.


The NY Times did their own unique part in spreading propaganda through this woman..Judith Miller--a disgrace to the world of journalism

What's the difference that over 400 soldiers have died in order to find a tin-pot dictator hiding in a hole in his own piss with nothing more than a can of Happy Tuna, some broken eggs, and a broken spirit?

Look at all those vibrant, on-the-move, hate-empowered terrorists who are NOT hiding, but running amok in the once tightly-yet-brutally controlled land of Iraq.

Think about how that tin-pot dictator known as Saddam was once contained like a bug in a jar by the UN before all the frenzied fundies from the varied Islamic sects inciting civil war were unleashed by Bush's pre-emptive dream-come-real!

So what's the difference?

Here's the difference.

Bush lied. Nobody likes a liar. Especially when the liar comes back later and tells you he doesn't even care that he lied to you.
His pre-emptive war caused death upon many. It was based on the premise that those he sentenced to his brand of war-death posed an IMMINENT threat to America.
It turned out not to be IMMINENT at all.
Bush doesn't think that's important.
His liar's war caused more danger than was present before..not only for innocent people throughout the Middle East, but for America. It's a natural consequence of universal law: an increase in hate will cause an increase in danger..unless we keep murdering those we've caused to hate us. What a ridiculous cycle! When will we learn?

When will an unexpected nuke appear upon our shores? Where is Homeland Security when a young man like Nathaniel Heatwole can stash box-cutters on airplanes and have to BEG the FBI by e-mail to pay him some attention and find the items? While we're shooting at Iraqi protestors at their rallies and playing into Osama Bin Laden's dream of a religious war (without the physical or moral support of most of our former allies), is there a danger we are not anticipating brewing from the most unexpected source?


art credit: A Taplet

Let's face it, intelligence was God-awful before all of this. Richard Perle and Douglas Feith picked what sounded really convincing from a pile of utter garbage-intelligence and fed it to the public through their Bushpuppet and Cheneymannequin every day as we led up to hitting Iraq last Spring.

What's the difference?

The difference is this: We aren't going to vote for a liar who is bold enough to tell us he doesn't care, in the end, whether we've swallowed the lies or not.


**See Paul Krugman's "Telling It Right" which was published in the NY Times a couple days after I wrote this entry....***

Now maybe, just maybe, Saddam's capture will start a virtuous circle in Iraq. Maybe the insurgency will evaporate; maybe the cost to America, in blood, dollars and national security, will start to decline.
But even if all that happens, we should be deeply disturbed by the history of this war. For its message seems to be that as long as you wave the flag convincingly enough, it doesn't matter whether you tell the truth.

Bill O'Reilly, unable to graciously take the news that his book sales lagged behind Al Franken's, goes off on the messenger.
"....O'Reilly called the DRUDGE REPORT a "threat to democracy."


Threat to wha..??? Who..me..???

Did O'Reilly say Matt's a "threat to democracy"?!?

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
The poor, loud, splotchy egotist!


More on the news at Al Franken Web

St Petersburg Times Editorial:
Cheney's contempt for the democratic process is on open-ended recipe for unaccountable government
".....The Supreme Court has agreed to answer this question: Does the Bush administration work for the American people or exist to front for the oil and gas industry?"

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Unions rip attacks on Dean- Feighan's group pulls TV ads

"..."I think they're pulling the ad because they've done more damage to Dick Gephardt than any of his opponents could ever have hoped to have done."

Rick Sloane-
Communications Director of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers

A Burning Lust For Armageddon-
JNW News: CBN chief [Pat Robertson]: "It's a religious war"

So he couldn't convince any of his 700-Club followers to nuke Foggy Bottom.
Maybe he can encourage some more bloodshed over in the Holy Land.


"If God's chosen people turn over to Allah control of their most sacred sites....if they believe their claim to the Holy Land comes only from Lord Balfour of England and the ever fickle United Nations rather than the promises of Almighty God -then in that event, Islam will have won the battle...Throughout the Muslim world the message will go forth, "Nah-Nah! Allah is greater than Jehovah."

".....Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) Director Pat Robertson said Wednesday the world is convulsed in a religious struggle in which the central issue is whether Islam's Allah or the LORD God of the Jews and Christians is supreme..."

After the Capture of Saddam Hussein...

Robert Scheer: We Got Him...Now What?

"....The capture of Hussein, while providing the President with fantastic propaganda footage, does nothing to make us safer from international terrorism. It could, however, shine a harsh light on Washington's decade-long military and economic support of the barbaric Hussein in his war against Iran's religious fanatics, who were making inroads with their brethren in Iraq..."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Wait Until Saddam Begins To Sing- -
Republicans Not Only Tolerated Chemical Warfare in late 80s, but SOLD Chem/Bio Weapons to Iraq

".....Publicly, the United States maintained neutrality during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, which began in 1980.

Privately, however, the administrations of Reagan and George H.W. Bush sold military goods to Iraq, including poisonous chemicals and deadly biological agents, worked to stop the flow of weapons to Iran, and undertook discreet diplomatic initiatives, such as the two Rumsfeld trips to Baghdad, to improve relations with Hussein...."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


BBC News: Vatican slams handling of Saddam

"....A top Roman Catholic official has attacked the way Saddam Hussein was treated by his US captors, saying he had been dealt with like an animal..."

**What are these constant televised images telling our children about our own society's basic morality,
regardless of the sins this man has committed?
What do our children think when they hear our President pushing the
hopes for the penalty of death for this man when he has never even looked into the face of Saddam Hussein and had refused to speak with him when he had the chance..before this stubborn and one-sided war plan was propelled into reality, causing the deaths of so many? When Bush responded to Saddam Hussein's proposal for a debate, his
then-White House spokesman Ari Fleischer wontonly dismissed it as "not serious". Not serious? According to whom, I wonder?
Even in Kindergarten, we were made to understand that communication meant everything when it came to
heading off a recess brawl.***

~~~~~~~~~~~

Derrick Z. Jackson: Still no mass weapons, no ties to 9/11, no truth


"...Bush told the world we were going to secure America and liberate Iraqis at the same time. With no weapons of mass destruction, with no nuclear weapons, and with no tie to 9/11, Saddam's capture could not possibly have been worth the lives of 455 US and 80 European soldiers. With no weapons of mass destruction, no nuclear weapons, and no tie to 9/11, it could not possibly been worth the lives of 7,600 to 45,000 Iraqi soldiers. With no rationale for the invasion, you could consider this a massacre..."

~~~~~~~~~~

Boston Globe: War crimes trial ahead for Saddam but how, when, by whom?

"...Any decision to seek the death penalty, in particular, could risk key international support for the process and leave Washington [US Taxpayers] with a bill for hundreds of millions of dollars.."

~~~~~~~~~

Jane's Intelligence Digest: Saddam - the can of worms

"....Few are naïve enough to believe that international politics is anything but a dirty business that may require co-operation with repressive and sordid regimes. However, putting Saddam on trial for crimes committed throughout his long term of office is likely to invite the defence to raise a whole raft of awkward questions about the West's role - and particularly that of the USA - in bringing Saddam to power in the Iraqi coup d'etat of 1968 and in sustaining him, often covertly, during the Iran-Iraq war of 1981-1988..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

James Carroll: Amid the cheers, sobering facts

"....The United States did not attack Iraq because of Hussein's wickedness (The world is rife with wicked tyrants). It did so because Hussein posed an imminent threat to his neighbors and America, and there was no other way to stop that threat. Additionally, Washington tied Hussein to 9/11 (an Al Qaeda-Iraq meeting in Prague), making the war against Iraq necessary to the war on terrorism.
It is already clear that these justifications were false. Even if Hussein now revealed a stock of chemical or biological agents, the question of "imminence" would remain, because post-invasion investigations have established that no weaponized agents were ready to use. And as for the Hussein connection with 9/11 (What meeting in Prague?), that has been exposed as fantasy.
The war in Iraq is more the result of America's agenda than Hussein's. The violence in Iraq (multiple bombings since Hussein's capture) is a result of Washington's terrible miscalculations. The threat from terrorism (Pakistan's leader nearly assassinated) has been made worse by Bush policies. The structure of American alliances has been needlessly undermined (hence James Baker's mission). America's extreme belligerence is imitated elsewhere (Sharon's faith in "overwhelming force"), making the world far more dangerous. These issues must not be blotted out in the glare of the media celebration of Saddam Hussein's capture.... "

~~~~~~~~~

Wesley Clark Voices His Plan to Bring Hussein to Justice

".....He believes that Saddam's trial should be held in Iraq.
He believes it's necessary to work with the international community in laying out procedures and charges against Saddam.
Thirdly, he wants to compile evidence and conduct hearings in Iraq on issues of concern to the international community. Finally, he believes the death penalty should be on the table as a possible punishment."

9/11 Chair: Attack Was Preventable




"This was not something that had to happen."

"There are people that, if I was doing the job, would certainly not be in the position they were in at that time because they failed. They simply failed."

Former N.J. Governor Thomas Keane
_________

Do you think Condoleeza Rice is on the list of "The People That Would Not Still be in Their Position" if it was up to Governor Keane?


"I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile."

REALLY, Dr. Rice?
The historical facts illustrate differently:

* In 1993, a $150,000 study was commissioned by the Pentagon to investigate the possibility of an airplane being used to bomb national landmarks. A draft document of this was circulated throughout the Pentagon, the Justice Department and to FEMA.

* In 1994 a disgruntled FEDEX employee invaded the cockpit of a DC- 10 with plans to crash it into a company building in Memphis.

* In 1994, a lone pilot crashed a small plane into a tree on the White House grounds.

*In 1994, an Air France flight was hijacked by members of the Armed Islamic Group with the intent to crash the plane into the Eiffel Tower.

* In January 1995, Philippine authorities investigating Abdul Murad, an Islamic terrorist, unearthed “Project Bojinka.” Project Bojinka’s primary objective was to blow up 11 airliners over the Pacific, and in the alternative, several planes were to be hijacked and flown into civilian targets in the US. Among the targets mentioned were CIA headquarters, The World Trade Center, the Sears Tower, and the White House. Murad told US intelligence officials that he would board any American commercial aircraft pretending to be an ordinary passenger. And he would then hijack the aircraft, control its cockpit and dive it at the CIA. headquarters.

* In 1997, this plot re-surfaced during the trial of Ramsi Yousef—the mastermind behind the 1993 bombings of The World Trade Center. During the trial, FBI agents testified that “the plan targeted not only the CIA but other US government buildings in Washington, including the Pentagon.”

* In September 1999, a report, The Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism, was prepared for U.S. intelligence by the Federal Research Division, an arm of the Library of Congress. It stated, “Suicide bombers belonging to Al Qaeda’s Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives(c-4 and semtex) into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the CIA, or the White House.”

This laundry list of historical indicators—in no way exhaustive--illustrates that long before September 11th the American intelligence community had a significant amount of information about specific terrorist threats to commercial airline travel in America, including the possibility that a plane would be used as a weapon.

__________

"If you were to tell me that two years after the murder of my husband [live on televison] that we wouldn't have one question answered, I wouldn't believe it."



Kristen Breitweiser, 9-11 widow of Ronald Breitweiser

Please take a few moments to read Kristen's testimony to Congress/Joint Intelligence Committee

Ralph Nader-Please See the Green Forest for the Trees


CNN: Nader eyeing another White House run


"Vote for me and I'll give you....."

".....some Democrats blamed Nader, 69, for siphoning off votes that might have gone to Democratic candidate Al Gore, especially in the hard-fought state of Florida, where Nader took 97,000 votes.

"Gore beat Gore," Nader says to those charges..."

Ralph is a good man and I don't begrudge any Green who decided to support him in 2000.

But, let's not detach ourselves from reality here.

Ralph Nader, by his determination to further the interests of the Green Party, caused the scales to reach the tipping
point in Florida in 2000, which was the proving ground..ground zero... for the injustice that resulted in the end.

Nader's means were honorable, but the end result was a disaster for anyone with Green beliefs.
They got the last President they'd ever have wanted, even in their worst nightmares.

If the belief that "Gore beat Gore" helps Ralph get to sleep at night, he should count off that silly mantra to himself as he counts his sheep.

But let's not be intellectually dishonest. We see that this nation is nearly split down the middle in the ideology department.

If Nader decides to rock the boat this time and insist on a vanity run in 2004, he may still get voters who detach themselves from the reality that a vote for him will be nothing more than a vote for Bush.
I just hope this time he (and his supporters) can admit what he may cause the end result to be.

To everything there is a season.

In the most pragmatic sense, this is simply not a season for extreme left ideology.


See DAILY KOS' opinion of a possible Nader run.

MUSIC--BEST OF
2003-
A Collection of The Lists

Aleksander Lazaveric's Desperado Politika List

1. VIRGIL SHAW - Still falling (Munich)
2. P.W. LONG - Remembered (Touch & go)
3. HOWE GELB - The Listener (Thrill jockey)
4. THE DIRTBOMBS - Dangerous Magical Noise (In the red)
5. THE LEGENDARY SHACK SHAKERS - Cockadoodledon't (Bloodshot)
6. CENTRO-MATIC - Love you just the same (Munich)
7. SONGS:OHIA - Magnolia electric co. (Secretly Canadian)
8. THE BE GOOD TANYAS - Chinatown (Network)
9. CALIFONE - Quicksand/Cradlesnakes (Perishable)
10. TIMESBOLD - same (Glitterhouse)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NASHVILLE SKYLINE: Some Orphaned CDs of 2003

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Altercation: Best of 2003

2003’s Best, (reserve the right to modify):

Cds:

1) Warren Zevon, The Wind

2) Joe Strummer, Streetcore, (tied for first)

3) Rosanne Cash, Rules of Travel

4) Lucinda Williams, World Without Tears

5) Stan Getz, Captain Marvel

6) Fountains of Wayne, Welcome Interstate Managers

7) The Allman Brothers, Live at the Atlanta Pop Festival, 1970

8) Disc 3 of The Essential Bruce Springsteen

9) June Carter Cash, Wildwood Flower

10) Television, Live at the Old Waldorf

11) Emmylou Harris, Stumble into Grace

12) Thelonious Monk—Underground

13) Jim Lauderdale and Donna the Buffalo, Wait ‘Till Spring

14) Al Green, I Can’t Stop

DVDs:

1) Concert for George (available on cd)

2) The Complete Honeymooners

3) The Old Way Whistle Test

4) Led Zeppelin,

5) Grateful Dead—The Closing of Winterland (available on cd)

6) Lennon, Legend

Box Sets:

1) The Count Basie Box

2) Miles Davis, the Live at the Blackhawk Box

3) The Nat King Cole Box

4) The Modern Jazz Quartet Box

5) The Talking Heads Box

6) The Rhino Punk box

(I don’t have the Johnny Cash box yet.)

Cultural Signifiers:

1) “Caroline or Change” by Tony Kushner at the Public Theater, NYC

2) “Angels in America” on HBO, by Tony Kushner

3) “Curb Your Enthusiasm” by Larry David on HBO

4) “Bruce, Elvis, et al singing “London Calling” at the Grammys

Biggest Disappointments:

1) Let it Be… Naked

2) Liz Phair

3) That crappy version of “Highway 61”

4) Martin Scorcese for the past decade and a half

5) The war.

6) Phil Spector (fill in the blank)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is my friend Sean's list (I think he has exquisite taste!)

clem snide_soft spot ... apparently 2003 was the yr to grow up ... blink 182 and bnl did it ... maybe its bc of the fact that i despise both of those bands that i consider clem snide to be the only one able to pull it off ... lots and lots and lots of sweet and thoughtful love songs ... aside from a few bouncy moments in Action, overall mellow and in the vein of yer favorite musics slow stuff

copeland_beneath medicine tree ... is it emo? is it richard marx minus the keyboards? i dunno - but its got lyrics that remind of when counting crows were good and melodies that are as fresh in my head as the first day i heard em

fruit bats_mouthfuls ... my gut is to say that they are the shins gone bluegrass ... isnt there a song like that on shutes too narrow? well this is that, and its damned good ... fave lyric: when you love somebody and bite yer tongue - all you get is a mouthful of blood

holopaw_holopaw ... so that guy from modest mouse did an album under the name ugly casanova and then one of the guys that was in u.c. w him did this and this is just about my favorite album in yrs ... i cant descibe it bc id never come close and i think i still owe andy a copy of this - so ill send it to him along with some fruit roll ups to make up for the delay

the jealous sound_kill them with kindness ... lyrically its pretty sad stuff - not sad being awful lame what is he thinking - but sad as in someone hand me my shotgun ... vocals are somewhere between loud david bazan and quiet dave grohl

the postal service_give up ... ben from dcfc along w jenny from rilo kiley ... i dont care if he's playing spoons while she sings the phonebook, its a winner

long winters_when i pretend to fall ... comparisons to rem/michael stipe-esque vocals are lost on me ... personally john roderick(vocalist-guitarist) reminds me more of robert pollard at times ... lyrics are somewhere between goofy clem snide and cracker ... poppy as hell - tons of hooks and im about to get a cavity from the sweet vocal harmonies courtesy of sean nelson (formerly of harvey danger R.I.P)

the stills_logic will break yer heart ... to my ears there are elements of Ours, 80s music from john hughes films, and bits of stuff from a certain oxford band that used to actually write and perform "songs"

matthew ryan_regret over the wires ... a perfect record - more along the lines of east autumn grin ... not as all out rocking as mayday ... not nearly crawling along like a snail slow as concussion ... oh. and hes using all those bleeps and blips that mark eitzel had leftover from "the Invisible Man"

the fire theft_the fire theft ... not so sunny day real estate, as just 3 guys who used to be in sdre and are now playing church music ... maybe its the chinese food i had the first night i heard it, but ill be damned if it aint pretty pretty stuff

***right up there with the others***-----------------------------------------

11. deathcab for cutie-transatlanticism...-somewhere after the title track i lose interest... tiny vessels makes me feel better about my ex-gf ... weird

12. eels-shootenanny!-rock rock rock - lots of rockin and a fun song about girls that curse like sailors

13. the hidden cameras_the smell of our own-just like beautiful south, i can only listen in small doses ... but what fun when i do

14. okkervil river_down the river of golden dreams-im probably missing out - but nothings gonna top don't fall in love ...

15. grandaddy_sumday-probly one of the best break up records released this yr

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SF Gate: Derk's Dozen
Favorite antipop CDs of 2003

Includes Richard Thompson, Chris Smither, Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell, Tim Sparks, Masada Guitars (Tzadik), Lou Harrison,
Roswell Rudd, Vasen, The Be Good Tanyas, Carla Bozulich, Danny Barnes, Tord Gustavsen, David Ware, Josh Abrams,
Bettye LaVette, The Magic Band, Noe Venable, and more....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Oregonian: Top 10 CDs of 2003

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Star Telegram: Best & Worst 2003 Music

~~~~~~~~~~~~

NY TIMES: Best Classical CDs of 2003


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Edmondton (Canada) Journal: 2003: The Year in Music

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well...after all the times we've been misled, it does make you wonder...
doesn't it?

"...."Once again [Rep. Jim] McDermott has embarrassed this state with his irresponsible ranting," GOP state Chairman Chris Vance said in a news release. "Calling on him to apologize is useless, but I call on other Democrats to let the public know if they agree with McDermott -- and Howard Dean, who recently said he thought it was possible that President Bush had advance knowledge about 9/11. The voters deserve to know if the entire Democratic Party believes in these sorts of bitter, paranoid conspiracy theories."

*One must ask why this perceived paranoia has become the norm when it comes to the Bush Administration. There is a direct connection between material mistrust and what is perceived as public paranoia.
Lord Acton said: 'I cannot accept, your canon that we are to judge pope and king unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power...Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.'
When I consider the Bush Administration, I realize I have not, in my lifetime, ever seen such deliberate attempt to usurp the People's power and slip that stolen power into the reserve of the Executive.
I count the many times we've been misled.
This is not anything close to clinical paranoia.

The Bush Administration will be infamously remembered for the cloak of darkness under which they operated.
See an extensive article from U.S. News and World Report about the history and timeline of the Bush Administration's active efforts to operate in secrecy.
It begins with the quote:
"Democracies die behind closed doors."
--U.S. APPEALS COURT JUDGE DAMON J. KEITH"

Executive Intelligence Review: Cheney Faction Lashes Out
Against LaRouche Exposés
_____________________

To What Extent Was Cheney Behind the Rockefeller Office Memo Theft/Leak or the Attempted Shutdown of the Senate Intelligence Commitee's probe into the Pentagon Office of Special Plans?

Ol' LaRouche must really be getting to the friends of King NeoCon, Dweller of the Cave.

"...with the publication, on Nov. 24, of a scurrilous attack on LaRouche by neo-con scribbler Kenneth R. Timmerman, in the Moonie-owned Insight magazine, it is clear that Cheney and company have launched a dirty tricks effort against the Democratic Presidential candidate..."

"....The stench of Watergate is in the air, and this time, the prime target is not the President, but Vice President Dick Cheney."

"....The leaking of the Feith annex to the neo-con media occurred simultaneously with the theft of Democratic Party staff memos from the Senate intelligence panel and the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sources say that both the thefts and the leaking of the pilfered staff memos to the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times, and right-wing radio gadfly Sean Hannity, were all aimed at bullying Democrats into a defensive posture—allowing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) to shut down the work of the Senate Intelligence Committee altogether, on the grounds that the Democrats were playing "partisan politics" with the national security of the United States in the midst of the "war on terror."
Several Senate sources have confirmed that Frist's unprecedented Nov. 14 shutdown of the SSCI's probe came under direct orders from the Vice President.
However, the whole scheme backfired, as Rockefeller refused to be cowed, and, instead, forced a criminal probe into the leaks and the thefts."


This companion story has been kept under the wire.

~~~~~~~~~~

Once again, in this fiasco, we see Frank Gaffney's direct involvement.
He's been actively witch-hunting Grover Norquist....and now Lyndon LaRouche.
What a litle witch-hunter Frank's been lately.
What is he trying to cover up? I mean, give me a break..and stop insulting me by thinking I'm a conspiracy theorist...
you have to wonder...

"....The Nov. 24 Insight piece, accompanied by a photograph of Undersecretary of Defense Doug Feith and Pentagon Office of Special Plans (OSP) head William Luti, accused Lyndon LaRouche of being the architect of a campaign to expose the OSP as a "rogue intelligence cabal," behind the unjustified and unwarranted Iraq war. Timmerman, whose attack on LaRouche is also being promoted by neo-con propagandist Frank Gaffney, through his Center for Security Policy website, lamented, "All this silliness could become deadly serious if Senate Democrats get their way, led by Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, the vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI)."

~~~~~~~~~



Since we're talking about Frank Gaffney, go look at Gaffney comparing the pulling of Saddam from
a rat-hole by the matted smelly fuzz on his flea-bitten head to the BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG!

~~~~~~~~~

THIS INFURIATES ME.
I AM AN AMERICAN.


Sun Myung sticks in his thumb and pulls out anti-American dung.

Take a look at the anti-liberty/anti-American garbage INSIGHT Magazine is spewing. They are insinuating that even a two-party system is becoming "dangerous". BEWARE! By categorizing Democrats' attempts to loyally oppose a suffocating majority as "all-out assault to destroy a wartime president by manipulating rules of the Senate Intelligence Committee", they insult (and assault) the heart our very American system of checks and balances.
They are throwing out threats that you and your Representatives may be called "traitor" should you or they speak out against perceived corruption within our own free nation.
I notice many recent examples being pulled from the Civil War when comparing Bush to Lincoln and 2003 Iraq to 1860 American soil.
The War in Iraq is not the American Civil War...yet, it seems to be causing American civil fracture.
We need not call one another traitors.
We need to reflect upon why there is a threatening civil division within our own nation because of the actions of the Bush administration.
Insight Magazine just can't spin away the fact that 50% of the people in this nation are skeptical about the status of our nation in respect to the war in Iraq and what it's done to our domestic and international standing.
They cannot call us traitors and expect it to be either believed or tolerated.

Howard Dean Is On A Roll!

NY Times' Adam Nagourney "outs" a cheap and
sneaky Kerry-campaign attack
on Howard Dean

______

"If someone wants to go off the record, call me up, and I'll be glad to negotiate. But you cannot do it preemptively. I will not let someone attack someone else anonymously, which is what the Kerry campaign is trying to do."

Adam Nagourney
_____

I'm not sure who the Kerry campaign thinks they're fooling,
but now they're playing around with one of this nations'
most highly respected political journalists. Sheesh.

"...Cutter, who sent Nagourney angry e-mail messages, says her staff is trying to provide a "truth squad" about Dean. "This campaign has no problem going on the record about the facts in this race," Cutter said. "We've never had a problem with ground rules before." Meanwhile, the Kerry camp has sent another "background" e-mail titled "An Illustrated Guide to Howard Dean's Foreign Policy."
Nagourney didn't get one."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attempts to smear Howard Dean grow uglier

"It is hard to overstate the enthusiasm and renewed sense of possibility that Mr Dean's campaign has provoked in a deeply demoralised Democratic Party..."

".. Even Terry McAuliffe, the DNC chairman who is officially backing nobody at this stage, found it hard to contain his enthusiasm as he talked about the party's new electronic databases listing supporters, swing voters, the issues each of them cares about, their phone numbers and email addresses.
Despite speculation about the DNC's reluctance to embrace Mr Dean's unorthodox, decentralised, internet-driven campaign, it sounded very much as though Mr McAuliffe had already factored it into his calculations."

~~~~~~~~

Recent Ad Attack on Dean, which was uglier than Republicans could have imagined creating,
was facilitated, in part, by these ugly "Democratic" folks, who have gravely misled Union contributors:

"... Americans for Jobs, Health Care & Progressive Values, was formed a month ago by veteran Democratic campaign staffers who refuse to identify their financial backers until Jan. 31. That's the deadline for the group to file federal tax forms. The group's treasurer is a longtime fundraiser for Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, one of Dean's rivals in the Democratic presidential race, and its spokesman recently quit as press secretary for Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign
Both Gephardt and Kerry have denied any involvement with the group..."

"...Robert Gleason, treasurer for the International Longshoremen's Assn., said his union also donated about $50,000 for what it thought would be general issue ads on jobs and health care, as in the group's name. When the first anti-Dean ads were aired, the union decided not to send more money..."

"...."I tell you, these ads are despicable," said Rick Sloan, communications director for the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which donated $50,000 to the effort.
"If I have my way, we'll ask for a refund."

"....[David] Jones declined to discuss how the group operates. He also declined to comment on union accusations that the group had misrepresented its campaign..."

NY Times story here

SEE THE ADVERTISEMENT BY GOING HERE.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

NY Times Editorial: The Face of Scare Politics
December 17, 2003

"....The Osama ad was concocted with labor figures and politicians who have supported Senator John Kerry of
Massachusetts and Representative Richard Gephardt of Missouri, Dr. Dean's primary rivals, who disown any
connection. It's always risky to ask how dumb the ad makers think voters are. But Grand Guignol attack ads underwritten
by generic-sounding committees unconnected to any particular candidate are bad politics at any season."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

HOPE-NOT FEAR-
See Dean Campaign Mgr. Joe Trippi's Open Letter to All Democrats' Presidential Campaigns

"..We Democrats should be committing ourselves to bringing more people into the process instead of resorting to tactics that cause more people to lose faith in politics altogether..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Baltimore mayor MARTIN O'MALLEY endorses HOWARD DEAN!

~~~~~~~~~~~

Dean Surges To New Lead In Latest Poll-
Primary Win By Dean Seen As Inevitable By Most

~~~~~~~~~~~

Congressman Elijah Cummings endorses Howard Dean!

~~~~~~~~~~

Bruce Babbit Endorses Howard Dean

"...Yesterday, he picked up the endorsement of former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt, who served as Interior secretary during the Clinton administration. Babbitt hailed Dean as the candidate who is talking "common sense" and "facts."

~~~~~~~~~~

N.J. Governor McGreevey is planning to endorse Howard Dean and tells N.J. Democrats to start campaigning

~~~~~~~~~~

Wisconsin State Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager endorses Dean and will serve as state chairwoman
for his presidential campaign

~~~~~~~~~~~

Dean Gaining Support Among Latino Leaders

~~~~~~~~~~~
Boston Globe: Robert Kuttner, co-editor of The American Prospect, thinks
A Dean-Clark ticket would help..would combine Dean's excitement and nerve with the military credibility of Wesley Clark.

"...maybe Dean isn't another McGovern. Dean generates excitement not just because he empowered volunteers or because he was a consistent critic of the Iraq war but because he is tough. Consider: Recent losing Democratic nominees were all over the map ideologically. They ranged from center-right (Carter '80) to moderate liberal (Gore '00) to liberal (Mondale '84; Dukakis '88) to left-liberal (McGovern '72.)
But all these losers had one thing in common: gentleness. Despite intermittently brave rhetoric, not one of them came across as a fighter. Dean, of course, does, as Harry Truman and John Kennedy did. Much of this year's Democratic field comes across as wimpy in their cautious criticisms of Republican radicalism.
There are two huge reasons why the Democratic nominee in 2004 needs to be tough. First, George Bush is a tough guy, and the nominee needs to be tough against Bush. Second, the world is a tougher place since Sept. 11, and the president of the United States had better be tough enough to protect us."


**Bush's new re-election "campaign manager" Joe Lieberman never struck me as being
as tough as he is droopy. Most non-creatively, with the capture of Saddam Hussein, it seems he's trying to
re-reinvent the politics of the Democratic primary already reinvented by Howard Dean.
In reality, Joe's way late and many dollars short.**

~~~~~~~~

Howard Kurtz 12-17: Dean On the Griddle

( Howie exposes the folly of 'Democratic Wafflism' at its most hypocritical: )

"....along comes the capture of the mother of all Iraqi dictators and Gephardt and Kerry are in the if-we'd-listened-to-Howard-Dean-we'd-be-nowhere mode. Suddenly, they seem to feel, having been for the war is again the cool position."

~~~~~~~~

See the pathetic Dean hate-machine gearing up over at World Net Daily and NY Post. Weasels on parade.

Look at what Rush Limbaugh is saying about the Dean attack-ad:
"...This is said to be a "Republican-like" ad, even though it's been made, run and paid for by a bunch of Democrats. Folks, they are so discombobulated, they are on the run, they are just out of their minds. What could be worse than accusing someone of "Republican-like" tactics? It's just going to destroy these Democrats to be called "Republican-like" by the New York Times."

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
Eric Alterman/ALTERCATION
12-16-03

"..In any case, all I want to say this morning is that HOWARD DEAN IS ABSOLUTELY, UNARGUABLY CORRECT when he notes that the capture of Saddam makes America no safer. America was never threatened by Iraq. Every single one of the scare tactics employed by the administration in their game of bait and switch designed to exploit the trauma of 9/11 to deploy the neocons’ longtime plan to invade Iraq has proven an exaggeration, a chimera or a lie. There were no WMDs; no nukes, and no connections to Al Qaida. Saddam was being effectively contained at the moment George Bush chose to plunge the world into war. Meanwhile, the men who attacked us REMAIN FREE TO DO SO AGAIN—in part due to the fact that we have wasted our resources—and the world’s good will--on Bush’s Iraqi obsession. And we are hardly much better prepared than we were last time. Our nuclear and chemical plants remain all but unprotected; so too our ports and infrastructure. Our first responders are untrained and our cities starved for resources to defend themselves. The mass media might not remember that a “war on terrorism” is supposed to address actual terrorists, but we at Altercation do. Capturing Saddam Hussein is a blow for justice; and it will be a good thing for Iraqis, no doubt. But if all this war was about was making Iraqis safer, well, then, Bush should have said so. But then, of course, it would never have happened. And we would all be better off.

In the meantime, if Cheney’s ticker prevents another run, Bush should replace him with JOE LIEBERMAN. Nobody right now is doing more for the president’s first honest election victory than the Wall Street Journal’s favorite Democrat. And oh yeah, TWO CAR BOMBS went off yesterday killing six Iraqi policemen and wounding twenty more, and an American soldier was killed on Sunday by a roadside bomb near Baghdad; the same day a car bomb exploded in Khaldiya, killing 17 police officers. Didn’t anyone tell these guys we won the war?"

Grover Norquist--A Fall Guy?

Geez, and they talk about in-fighting with the Democrats!
The Right has some real house-cleaning problems, folks.
The Bushies are about to take incoming damages if this one starts circulating in the mainstream.

Frank Gaffney's making Grover Norquist, gatekeeper to Karl Rove and the White House, out to be a bloomin' traitor.

This is a follow-up to yesterday's blog about the Norquist fiasco.

Eric Alterman's tongue-in-cheek observations about the witch-hunt:
"...Speaking of witch hunts, an intramural GOP one has broken out, pitting neocon Frank Gaffney, who’s hunting anti-tax guru Grover Norquist for his side outreach project to win over Muslims voters for Republicans. Read the piece and a play a drinking game; take a shot for every time Gaffney constructs a guilt-by-association charge, where so-and-so is tainted because he’s on the board of such-and-such a school that once invited a lecturer who’s suspected, but never charged, with having terrorist ties. You know, a troubling alliance.
Let’s just put it this way, if Gaffney’s as good at uprooting dangerous Islamists inside America as he was at pinpointing Saddam’s WMD (and boy, pre-invasion, Gaffney was mighty confident), than Norquist doesn’t have much to worry about."

I know Alterman is taking the "ooomph" out of many of Gaffney's arguments, yet I'll wager Karl Rove's worried about taking heat on this one.
I predict, when this is said and done, he'll need luck in skating clean away from it all.
Why?
The Investigatory-Waxmans of this world aren't going to let this die.
I believe that, sooner or later, if we dig deeply enough, we may find that Saudi money may have been be slithering its way into Bushie- conservatives' pockets.

While today's media spins webs and webs of concocted twistings of Howard Dean's words about his position on the Middle East, we can look back and see how the Rove/Bush/Norquist GOP-machine kissed up close and flirty to extremist Islam to snare the vote in 2000. (A decided anti-Israel direction). It's no wonder Bush took virtually no action on behalf of peace in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict when he was selected into power by five on the Supreme Court. It's no wonder Bush held General Zinni back from doing all he could in the Middle East the first year of the Bush presidency. (By 2002, we realized it was no more than a cease-fire mission--in no small part to run interference for Cheney's efforts to recruit Arab support against Saddam.)
There was a great conflict of interest. And Bush is supposed to be a FRIEND to Israel?
Excuse the expression.. Bullshit.

From New Republic (in 2001): "Grover Norquist's Strange Alliance With Radical Islam"
"....When I recently spoke to the Muslim Public Affairs Council's Salam Al-Marayati, the man who fingered Israel as a potential sponsor of the World Trade Center attacks, he recited Norquist's phone number from memory. When University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian e-mailed The Wall Street Journal in response to an op-ed that tied him to Islamic Jihad, he CC'd Norquist. Last year at its annual dinner, the AMC presented Norquist with an award for his service..."

From March, 2003, National Review-Byron York: Fight on the Right
"..the argument between Norquist and Gaffney is about much more than two men, or even the conservative movement. At its heart, it is about the Bush White House and whether its contacts with some Muslim groups might someday make the administration vulnerable to charges that it cultivated close relations with groups tied to radical Islam — even as it conducted a war on terror around the world. The Norquist-Gaffney feud, some conservatives fear, might be just the first act of a very long play...."

"....The Institute's mission is to "build relationships between American Muslims and policy makers in the United States," and it has in the past promoted conservative positions on such issues as free trade, school choice, and tort reform.
While those matters are important, Norquist reserved his highest praise for Saffuri's work in having "brought to the GOP's attention the most important issue for the Muslim community — the misuse of 'secret evidence' in immigration cases." Urged on by Norquist, Saffuri, and others, Candidate Bush denounced secret evidence during the 2000 campaign. In his second debate with Gore, he brought the subject up when asked a question about racial profiling: "There's other forms of racial profiling that goes on in America. Arab-Americans are racially profiled in what's called secret evidence. People are stopped, and we got to do something about that."

".....What particularly worries some observers is the possibility that White House contacts with some of the Muslim groups and leaders might be more extensive than is publicly known — and that the president's political opponents will try to exploit them. Indeed, on February 27, California Democratic congressman Henry Waxman wrote a letter to the Secret Service requesting all electronic records of visits by Sami al-Arian to the White House complex. Waxman also asked for "all requests, whether granted or denied, by White House employees that Sami al-Arian be admitted to the White House complex." And he asked whether the Secret Service had identified al-Arian's alleged terrorist connections and objected to his visit, only to be overruled by White House officials.
Administration officials say they will try to "accommodate" Waxman's request. Perhaps nothing will come of it, but they cannot simply dismiss his concerns..."