This Girl's Voice
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Thursday, April 22, 2004 Ignore at Your Own PerilWhile choking on some alcohol...... Chance tries to say "Chance the gardener". Eve mistakenly interprets this as "Chauncy Gardener". Suddenly, Chance has a full name.During what would become only his 3rd live televised press conference of his presidency, and coming at the end of the worst 2 weeks of American military casualties from the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq since it began -- with almost 100 Americans dead -- President Bush offered this insight: The last few weeks have been “tough”. Deep. Actually, it’s both pathetic and disturbing. Chauncy Gardener is alive and well, and he’s living in your White House. posted by Ldb | 4/22/2004 Monday, April 19, 2004 NeoConned*Heads up: this is gonna be a long post, so those who prefer Page Six snippets and Inside Edition soundbites, feel free to move on. I watched the 60 Minutes exclusive interview with author and Washington Post writer Bob Woodward last night here in Toronto east coast time, and then re-watched it on the west coast feed. Woodward spoke with CBS correspondent and 60 Minutes co-editor Mike Wallace about the contents of his new book Plan of Attack about Bush's plans for war on Iraq, and much, much more. Where to begin? I suppose i'm in shock. In shock, not primarily because any of the acts Woodward revealed didn't seem possible for this White House to have committed (which is shocking enough all by its little old self), but instead, shocked because the news about Bush and his administration's treasonous actions have actually -- and finally -- made it into the mainstream, and on one of television's most well-known and still credible investigative reporting programs, 60 Minutes, for all of the American public to view and hear, plain as day. It certainly doesn't hurt that Bob Woodward is one of the most reputable journalists in America, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and one half of the Washington Post's investigative team who, back in the 70's, together with Carl Bernstein, broke the Watergate scandal which led to Nixon's ruin, the indictment and imprisonment of many of his cabinet members, and subsequently resulted in the ensuing devastation experienced by the American people. The man who wrote All The Presidents' Men back in the 70's is still writing about all the Presidents' men, only this time, it's 30 years later, and this President's name is Bush -- G Dubya to be precise. But it sure as hell must be hurting the President and his men that they allowed Woodward to get Bush and his crew on tape, preserved forever for history: Woodward permitted 60 Minutes to listen to tapes he recorded of his most important interviews, to read the transcripts, and to verify that the quotes he uses are based on recollections from participants in the key meetings. Setting aside how the Bush White House will handle this, meaning the damaging information in Woodward's book and the potential public backlash, and setting aside for a moment, indeed how the American public will respond to these revelations of betrayal to the American people, what the hell will Congress have to say about the Presidents' violation of the Constitution? Woodward recounts: "Gets to a point where in July...they need $700 million, a large amount of money for all these tasks. And the president approves it. But Congress doesn't know and it is done...Some people are gonna look at a document called the Constitution which says that no money will be drawn from the treasury unless appropriated by Congress. Congress was totally in the dark on this." And what could be more treasonous an act, than to collude with Prince Bandar, a prominent member of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? And what of the rightwing chorus of condemnation and castigation of those anti-war protesters who stood in the cold with hundreds of thousands of other citizens around the world in the lead up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq shouting "Blood for Oil"? Woodward told 60 Minutes that Saudi Prince Bandar has promised the president that Saudi Arabia will lower oil prices in the months before the election - to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day.[SNIP] Woodward says that Bandar understood that economic conditions were key before a presidential election: “They’re [oil prices] high. And they could go down very quickly. That's the Saudi pledge. Certainly over the summer, or as we get closer to the election, they could increase production several million barrels a day and the price would drop significantly.” So, in point of fact, as "Monkey" points out in the comments section of this post from Washington Monthly's blog Political Animal: "They are in collusion to keep gas prices HIGH, artificially high, so they can be lowered quickly. That's a Quid Pro Quo with a foreign power to manipulate the price at the pump for political ends." Blood for oil? You ask, where's the blood? Well if all of the above weren't bad enough, Woodward disclosed that 2 days prior to Rummy and Cheney informing the U.S. Secretary of State that they were going to invade Iraq, they told the very same Prince Bandar the news of their plans. Prince Bandar. You know, that dude from that country of origin where 15 out of the 19 terrorists who smashed 747's into the WTC and the Pentagon on 9/11 were from. Saturday, Jan. 11, with the president's permission, Cheney and Rumsfeld call Bandar to Cheney's West Wing office, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Myers, is there with a top-secret map of the war plan. And it says, ‘Top secret. No foreign.’ No foreign means no foreigners are supposed to see this,” says Woodward. That's right. Members of the Bush Administrations' executive branch who fought tooth and nail to prevent little ole Condi Rice, the goddamn National Security Advisor, to testify under oath in public to the 9/11 Commission because they have this real big thing about "executive priviledge" and all and who , up to this day, have fought outright against revealing the documents to Cheney's 2001 secret Energy meetings all the way up to the Supreme Court, invited some Saudi into the West Wing of the Vice President's Office to show him Top Secret maps and war plans off-limits to "foreigners" about their war plans for invading Iraq-- a foreigner who for quite some time "enjoys easy access to the Oval Office...." because "...his family and the Bush family are close" before they told their own freaking Secretary of State, General Colin Powell. And when did Bush first start asking the Pentagon chief Rummy to start making plans to "make war possible" on Iraq? And there's this low boil on Iraq until the day before Thanksgiving, Nov. 21, 2001. This is 72 days after 9/11. A secret from members of his own administration and executive branch. A secret from Congress. A secret from the American people. As devastating as all of these revelations are, and i'm certain, much to the chagrin of those rightwingers' who have always been a tad too gleeful and willing to brand people who have been critical of the Bush administrations' policies as "un-American" and "un-patriotic", i find myself experiencing not one iota of schadenfreude. It's simply too sickening and too serious a situation and time in America, with almost 700 American troops dead fighting an elective war in a country that -- albeit was under the thumb of a despotic ruler -- yet played no part in 9/11. Add to that the thousands more innocent Iraqis dead and maimed during the war and now in it's aftermath and guerilla concrete war, the upsurge in violence and the aligning of Sunnis, Shiites and other insurgents rising up against American troops. And what of Afghanistan? Well, the Taliban has begun to return to areas of Afghanistan, tribal warlords are in full swing trafficking heroin all over again, their power regained in all the countries' regions, thereby reducing President Hamid Karzai to nothing more than the mayor Kabul, Al Qaeda's and all their new splinter groups are making plans, and Bin Laden's alive and well, making video and audio tapes fanning the flames of Jihad -- and we have yet to hear the results from the 9/11 Commission, it's impact on the American psyche in context to all of these continuing revelations from Bush insiders and President Bush himself. Add to this, the knowledge that the 9/11 Hearings have already revealed to us that America's police force, hazmat units and firefighters are still ill-equipped and underfinanced, it's seaports, nuclear plants and transportation systems not much more secure from future and inevitable terrorist attacks than it was back in the fall of 2001. And I can't help but have this queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach that, if they ever get access to Cheney's energy task force documents, it's gonna hold the magic key to all of this. This map alone from the 2001 Cheney energy task force docs, attained by none other than Larry Clayman's Judicial Watch via the Freedom of Information Act gives you the chills. Get to the bottom of the rest of those pile of docs that Cheney so covets, and gain complete access to the names of all those who sat at the table with Cheney, and you have to wonder if everything else wouldn't just fall neatly and depressingly into place. *Hat Tip to Yolanda Dalbello for this posts' title posted by Ldb | 4/19/2004 Wednesday, April 07, 2004 U.S. Networks to Air Rice Testimony Live ThursdayIn addition to CNN and MSNBC's live coverage this coming Thursday, this Reuters article confirms that "the three major U.S. broadcast networks" will broadcast live Condoleezza Rice's testimony before the 9/11 Commission investigating the Sept.11 attacks. Those three major networks -- ABC, NBC and CBS, said they'd "go live at 9am ET" this Thursday for the full 2 & 1/2 hours of Rice's testimony and confirmed that their networks' coverage would be anchored by their respective "heavies" Peter Jennings, Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw/Tim Russert. Of course, you'll notice that the uh, Fox network and Fox News cable channel is missing from that list of notables, their spokesman siting that they would "offer" their coverage to "affiliates to air at their discretion". That's mighty considerate of Fox, dontcha think? Yep. Ya gotta love that fair and balanced "no news is good news" reporting-by-omission standard for which Fox News is so widely loved and loathed. Their propensity to be anything but fair and balanced is only outdone by their contempt and audacity to claim otherwise. posted by Ldb | 4/7/2004 Show Us The JobsCheck out the new and very effective tv ad [RealVideo] launched by the AFL-CIO as part of an 18-city "Show Us The Jobs" Tour that's taking place across the U.S. starting today. The ad is made up of a series of back and forth cuts between Bush's "jobs" rhetoric from his State of the Union address against three real life laid off people giving actual testimonials which show that Bush's policies have certainly not helped them. I just saw it on CBS during Letterman a moment ago, right after the segment Letterman does every night called "The George W. Bush Inexplicable Laugh". Watching that clip of Bush's shoulders jerking up and down as he cackle-laughs for no good goddamn reason, back to back with the AFL-CIO ad of those blue collar and middle class laid off workers telling their gut-wrenching stories really sends home what a freaking loser the U.S. has for a "President". posted by Ldb | 4/7/2004 Thursday, March 25, 2004 "So Help Me God"“I welcome these Hearings because of the opportunity they provide to the American people to better understand why the tragedy of 9/11 happened and what we must do to prevent a re-occurence.And with that, former White House Counter Terrorism Chief Richard Clarke who served under three Republican presidents, one Democratic president and voted for George W. Bush in 2000, became the first and only government official ever, Democratic or Republican, to apologize to the families of those who lost their loved ones on that tragic morning on Sept. 11, 2001. [Real Video] CSPAN link titled "Sept. 11 Commission Hearing - Day 2, Afternoon Session" 9/11 families gathering around Richard Clarke to thank him after completing his testimony at the 9/11 Commission Public Hearings    posted by Ldb | 3/25/2004 Wednesday, March 24, 2004 Reclaiming the "L" wordOnly in America -- the U.S. in particular -- has the word Liberal been so slammed and denigrated that it somehow connotes something shameful and subversive. Bullshit. It's time to take it back and wear it with pride, folks. Hell, up here in Canada, it's the name of the party in power. And speaking of liberal, only 1 week left until the new liberal talk radio network Air America Radio comes to the U.S. airwaves;  Among the six 3 hours programs airing each day, Al Franken's noon program will be running opposite former big fat but still idiot, Rush Limbaugh's show. In a tongue-in-cheek effort both "annoy and bait'' Bill O'Reilly and hopefully propel his program onto the centre stage by getting sued by that weasel, Franken is naming his show -- "The O'Franken Factor". You gotta love it. Here's Air America's summary of Franken's show: The O’ Franken Factor: 12:00-3:00pm Janeane Garofolo's going to be handling the evening shift with a show title that's aptly named "The Majority Report", reminding democratic listeners that it's high time they remember their rightful place in the political landscape. Rapper Chuck D's show "Unfiltered" will proceed The O'Franken Factor, or "The Factor" as Al likes to refer to it, ahem, and well know liberal radio personality Randi Rhodes follows Franken from 3-7pm. Although there's no news on their site about streaming audio and satellite radio broadcast, i read an article a week ago noting that there will some be access to streaming audio broadcasts online. For more info about shows and start times, go here and subscribe to their newsletter to stay in the loop and make sure to spread the word to all your friends. As Franken recently said in this New York Times article, "This territory has been ceded to the right way too long,'' he said. "We're going to take it to them.'' Mark a big bold X on your calendars for March 31. Viva les Liberals! posted by Ldb | 3/24/2004 Friday, February 20, 2004 Has He No Shame?Ralph Nader is jumping into the Presidential race, according to this Fox News article. He's to make the formal announcement on this Sunday's MTP. Unlike the 2000 presidential race when he ran under the Green Party mantle, this time he'll be running as an independent. Shame on Ralph Nader. Judging from the results so far in the last 18 Democratic primaries and caucus contests, Democratic voters appear to be united in their desire to get rid of Bush and have made "electability" their prime objective. However, it's the Deaniacs, those Democrats who have either felt disenfranchised or new voters who have never before participated in the process and were inspired to do so because of Howard Dean who are potentially up for grabs and currently "electorally homeless" if not already feeling displaced after Dean's withdrawal from the presidential race. Assuming that Dean was true to his word when he said that "the most important goal remains defeating George W. Bush in November, and I hope that you will join me in doing everything we can to support the Democrats this fall", alot of the heavy lifting will be up to Dean to undertake the task of hammering home the message to his "followers" that there is more to lose by not sublimating their emotional connection and ideological purity and subsequently migrating on over to Nader, rather than aggregate their collective energies to instead focus on the greater imperative and common good: uniting. President Clinton recently said that when it comes to casting their vote, the difference between Democrats and Republicans is that: "Democrats always want to fall in love with a candidate, and Republicans just want to fall in line. We've got to fall in line with whoever our nominee is."There has never been a more compelling reason and consequential time as right here and now for progressives and Democrats to fall in line. Somehow, i have a strong gut feeling that this time around, America's Democrats are keenly aware of this. posted by Ldb | 2/20/2004 |
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