THE full New York Times story about Bush freeing suspected terrorists to appease the Saudis

This is bad, really bad.

As part of the arrangement, the United States initially authorized the outright release of one of the Saudi detainees. But a senior American official said the man was kept in custody by the Saudis after a terrorist attack in the kingdom raised concerns about militants' activities.

Saudi officials gave contradictory accounts of the current whereabouts of the five men, saying at first that one or two of them had been released, then denying that any had been freed. The officials also gave contradictory accounts of the suspects' legal status, first saying they had been tried and convicted of seeking to join Taliban forces in Afghanistan, but later saying prosecutions were still pending.

The administration had NO intent to let these people go as part of the regular practice of moving detainess out of Gitmo:

But several current and former Defense Department officials challenged that assertion, saying no Saudis had even been under consideration for release prior to the arrangement's being struck.

Oh, and check this out - it was because of Bush's stupid war in Iraq that we had to set the suspected terrorists free:

The Saudi government was eager to bring home even a few detainees from Guantánamo. Although Saudi leaders opposed a war with Iraq, they allowed the United States to use several military bases to launch air attacks into Iraq and as a staging ground for American troops.

Funny, but I thought having "Al Qaeda connection" was a causus belli for the US?

In an interview, a Saudi official described many of the men as "low-level foot soldiers or even groupies, who were working for charities and who posed no threat." But American officials characterized the Saudis as more dangerous, saying that some had clear Al Qaeda connections and that nearly all of them had been uncooperative with interrogators.

Read the rest of this post...

U.S. in Deal to Return Saudi Terror Suspects

More on Bush's secret deal to free suspected terrorists. Read the rest of this post...

Cheney promotes conservative family values, hmmm

AP:

Firing back in the debate over American values, Vice President Dick Cheney used his first campaign bus tour Saturday to label Democrat John Kerry 'on the left, out of the mainstream and out of touch with the conservative values of the heartland.'

Would Kerry's "out of touch" values, that "conservative" folks in the heartland wouldn't understand, include being nice to gay and lesbians, like Mary Cheney? Worse yet, how could Mary Cheney go with VP Cheney and help promote this drivel that implicitly bashes her, her girlfriend and her community? Read the rest of this post...

READ THIS: Bush released five suspected terrorists to suck up to Saudis

This is absolutely outrageous. I saw the story of one of these Brits on 60 Minutes the other day - he was basically framed by the Saudis for committing a terrorist act (framed is too kind a word - they simply arrested him with no evidence). So Bush let 5 suspected terrorists go to get the evil Saudis to let 5 innocent Brits go. Two problems here, at least:

1) Either the Brits were terrorists or they weren't. If they were terrorists, we don't try to get them out of jail. And if they weren't, we do a hell of a lot more than simply "trade" for them - we tell the evil Saudis to let them go now, or else.

2) Why exactly is Saudi Arabia lobbying for suspected terrorists to be set free from US prisons? What possible justification can a "friendly" government have for demanding we set terrorists free? Where are these 5 people now?

3) What the hell were Bush and Blair doing letting suspected terrorist go free FOR ANY REASON? To get 5 Brits out of prison? For that, we risk another 3,000 people dying in the next 9.11 - to save 5 people now?

4) I didn't realize we negotiated with terrorists?

This stinks. This really stinks. Read the rest of this post...

Cheney using lesbian daughter to campaign

Funny, I thought Mary was a private child who had nothing to do with public politics? Read the rest of this post...

Militants Say They Beheaded U.S. Soldier in Iraq

Mission fucking accomplished. Read the rest of this post...

US networks agree to let military censor Saddam trial coverage

Absolutely ridiculous. Have they learned nothing? They should have agreed to let them censor it WITH A NEW PERSON IN THE ROOM WHO COULD OBJECT TO ANY OF THE CENSORING IF THEY WISHED. That way we could ensure that the DOD wasn't censoring, oh, say, something newsworthy? How in God's name can they trust these liars? Read the rest of this post...

Next 9.11 is Bush's fault

When you put homophobia ahead of national security, then you take the fall the next time a terrorist attack happens and we failed to catch the evil-doers because we were understaffed.

Around 1,000 service members with special skills that are now sorely needed in Iraq have been expelled from the military in the last five years because they are gay, according to a United Press International analysis.

Read the rest of this post...

Nader Accuses Democrats of 'Dirty Tricks'

How very Republican of Nader to accuse the Dems of "dirty tricks" simply because they caught Nader's folks cheating:

Nader's campaign had submitted more than 22,000 signatures to Arizona election officials June 9 - far more than the 14,694 valid signatures required by state law to compete against President Bush and Kerry.

Two Democratic voters had filed a lawsuit last week, backed by the Arizona Democratic Party, questioning the validity of Nader's nominating petitions and other documents. The Democrats argued that more than 70 percent of the signatures were invalid.

As a Maricopa County Superior Court judge prepared to hear arguments in the case, Nader campaign attorney Richard Mahrle conceded there were 'technical errors' in the ballot petition and said Nader would not contest the lawsuit.

Read the rest of this post...

Florida Must Release List of Ineligible Voters

Damn activist judges :-):

In May, the state Department of Elections identified 47,763 people who may not be eligible to vote because of felony convictions and urged county election supervisors to verify the lists and purge the voter registration rolls accordingly.

News organizations wanted to review the new list to check for errors and sued when the state refused to release copies.

Election officials cited a 2001 law that made copies of the list available only to candidates, political parties and government officials. The law allowed others to view it but prohibited them from receiving copies or even copying down notes from the list.

Read the rest of this post...

Bush international legacy: UN to replace US peacekeepers

Because the US is not part of the International Criminal Court, the UN is taking action to remove the US from peacekeeping missions. Bush is probably happy about it though because that frees up more troops for Iraq. Read the rest of this post...

Bush should watch "more Al Jazeera television"

"The Bush administration's central intelligence failure was not that it failed to tap enough telephones. Rather, it didn't bother to understand the mind-set in Iraq or the larger Arab world — and it still doesn't.

The transfer of sovereignty is a useful moment to look back at what went so wrong in Iraq. As I see it, the root problem was hubris born in a Washington echo chamber, and a resulting conviction that Iraqis would welcome us with flowers.

They even mangled the country's name — Mr. Bush called it Eye-rack — yet they bet American lives that all would go well. That's "the arrogance of power," as Senator William Fulbright termed it when Democrats made similar blunders in Vietnam.

"We know that Al Jazeera has a pattern of playing propaganda over and over and over again," Don Rumsfeld complained during the war. "What they do is, when there's a bomb that goes down, they grab some children and some women and pretend that the bomb hit the women and the children. . . . We are dealing with people that are perfectly willing to lie to the world to attempt to further their case — and to the extent people lie, ultimately they are caught lying and they lose their credibility."

Good point." - NY Times

Read the rest of this post...

Who not to invite for your July 4th BBQ

If she does show up, don't be fooled by her size and stock up. She would be seriously disappointed with food portions here in France but something tells me she would like it here.

"A wisp of a woman who weighs anywhere from 100 to 110 pounds depending on the contents of her stomach, she is ranked No. 2 in the world by the International Federation of Competitive Eating.

The records Thomas holds are astounding. Eleven pounds of cheesecake in nine minutes. Nine pounds of crawfish jambalaya in 10 minutes. Eight pounds of turducken (chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey) in 12 minutes. Forty-three soft tacos in 11 minutes. 167 chicken wings in 32 minutes."

Read the rest of this post...

Forgotten US foreign policy, new wave of Hmong immigrants, same old hatreds

For those of you (like me until a few years ago) who were too young to know who the Hmong are and what their relevance is to US foreign policy, the Hmong and other hill tribes (aka montagnards) fought with the US against the communists across SE Asia. Today, many of the tribes are still persecuted by the communist governments and in parts of Laos, there is still sporadic fighting. After the war, the US took in some of these people though many were left behind to fend for themselves. Almost thirty years after the US left Vietnam, we have another wave of Hmong coming and some ignorant asses, probably the ones who were and still are in favor of warring US foreign policy, are telling them they are not wanted. To quote their favorite war monger, "go fuck yourself." Why are anti-immigration people against others trying for the American dream, like most of our families did not so long ago?

"A new wave of 15,000 from a refugee camp in Thailand is expected to arrive over the next six months. The State Department predicts 5,000 of those will end up in Minnesota; the first few arrived last month.

"I have a concern about all the Hmong coming to Minnesota," Jeanette Super of suburban Plymouth wrote in a letter to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "Will jobs be given them that should be given to Minnesota residents? How much money will they be given from our coffers?"

I'm sure those new immigrants are going to be snatching up all of the primo jobs, right? What job did Ms. Super's family "take" when they arrived?

P.S. For those who are interested in experiencing other hill tribe cultures, try this for your next holiday. Not Hmong, but Akha.

Read the rest of this post...