|
Best of the Blog
Bloggers
Regular Guests
|
|
Saturday, March 20, 2004
Perspective
If Richard Clarke's inside account of the Bush's administration's failure to heed the warning signs of an al Qaeda attack in the months leading up to 9/11 aren't grounds for impeachment, it's hard to imagine what might be. Maybe, a half-assed blow job and an Arkansas dirt road land deal?
posted by Jerry Bowles
7:42 PM
It’s spelled J-I-H-A-D… not t-e-r-r-o-r-i-s-m
Like they say in Herzliya… you can’t tell the players without a pogrom…
The radio chatter in the Pakistan “kill zone” is mostly Uzbek and Chechen… not Arabic. But just like the WMD and the rest of the pathological lies under the intellectual authorship of Shrubby and his protectors Lord Cheney and Lord Rummy, we know the “high value“ #2 Al Qaeda is there and we’ll get ‘em. The “ethnic” conflict in Kosovo has ratcheted up again. But it’s not really “ethnic” conflict, it’s holy war. Muslims fighting Eastern Orthodox Serbs over turf and tradition. In Indonesia, the Phillipines, Somalia and Turkey, the terror meter is in the red zone. Each of these nations features a language developed and written in the alphabet you are now reading. The Islamic fundamentalists have made the official languages strictly verboten in the madras schools, which are the breeding ground for the next wave of Jihadsters. But there isn’t much difference between the Arabic madras and the Hebrew counterpart midrash. It's all about education. Maybe Lee Greenwood ought to laugh to the bank with “What part of Jihad don’t we understand." Will that help stop the denial. We're up against Jihad... not terrorism. Neither John Kerry nor Shrubby will tell us like it is.
posted by Groom
5:45 PM
No substitute for sharing
The Associated Press reports that US officials are miffed at Spain’s reluctance to let FBI “experts” assist in the Madrid bombings investigations. “Even if Spain has all the competencies that we do, there are things we know that they don't know about al-Qaida…there‘s no substitute for sharing,” Heritage Foundation shill Paul Rosenzweig told the AP. Why would Madrid want to get in bed with the FBI, which has a history of major problems when it comes to information sharing. They don’t like sharing with the CIA. They don't like sharing with Congress. And they don't like sharing with the American people. Funny that Bush family retainer and current FBI top banana Robert "Dial M" Mueller took over the bureau just one week before 9/11. His shop might know things about al-Qaida but they didn’t share them on the eve of the attack…whistle blower Colleen Rowley says that they had problems sharing internally information about the Saudi citizens who made up the 911 terror team as well as other warning signs. This considered, one can understand why Madrid doesn’t want to mess with the G-men. One can understand that it would be difficult for the new Zapatero government to rule out that the FBI is for the most part a political tool of the Bush White House.
posted by Groom
4:13 AM
Friday, March 19, 2004
Why is the Bush campaign hiring paramilitaries?
I have always taken with a grain of salt those stories in which the Bush administration is presented as the leading edge of a new American Facism. But then I read the following on DailyKos.
========
Bush Campaign Paying Firm That Specializes In Paramilitaries
by DHinMI
Fri Mar 19th, 2004 at 22:13:05 GMT
There are plenty of things a campaign must pay for, but the Bush campaign may be the first presidential campaign to employ a company that specializes in paramilitary protection.
In reports filed today with the Federal Election Commission, the Bush campaign showed February receipts of $13.7 million, and cash on hand of $110 million. Obviously much of that money will be spent on television advertising. But a quick look at Bush's FEC filing shows something curious--they paid almost $200,000 to Vance International for "personnel services/equipment."
Vance International may not be familiar to a lot of people, but they should be, because they are the Pinkertons of our era. Vance was founded and until recently run by Chuck Vance, a former Secret Service agent who at one time was married to Gerald Ford's daughter. Vance used his Secret Service background in security and investigation to specialize in providing security during labor disputes. From the strikes at Pittston Coal, to Caterpillar, to Detroit Newspapers, if there was violence on the picket line of a high-profile strike, it was most likely provoked by the maladjusted ex-soldiers, angry cop wanna-be's, and CIA rejects who wear the jack-boots of Vance's Asset Protection Team:
Professional and responsive asset protection services has made our Asset Protection Team (APT) the undisputed leader in the field of labor unrest and major event security since 1985. APT provides security personnel who are trained to protect people and property during potentially disruptive situations, such as strikes, union organizing drives, and plant closings. In addition, APT supplies seasoned professionals during special events and emergency situations, including traveling exhibits, conferences, demonstrations, fund-raising events, and man-made and natural disasters. Discipline and restraint characterize APT, whose operations pioneered the use of photo and video documentation. Our capabilities include business interruption contingency planning and consulting, security personnel and services (e.g., access control, critical area monitoring, crowd control and observation, photo documentation, and emergency response), logistics support, and pre- and post-crisis counseling.
Here are just a few capabilities that Vance believes set it apart from their competition:
·Client choice of uniform style ranging from discreet, non-threatening attire to full riot gear
·Full-time executive protection agents and investigators
·Evidence technicians and coordinators to cross-index photos and videotape
·35mm and video equipment; long-range and night vision lenses available
·Pre- and post-incident counseling by forensic psychologist
Provoking picket line violence/asset protection isn't Vance's only business. They provide executive protection, investigate current and prospective employees, and consult on security matters for corporations, governments and wealthy individuals around the world. (They've just opened an office in--you guessed it--Iraq.) But George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and their families and top aides already received protection from a pretty good outfit known as the Secret Service.
So, here's the question to the Bush campaign: What possible legitimate use do you have for a firm that specializes in high-tech surveillance, personal investigations, and paramilitary protection?
=======
If this is for real, it's a story that needs to be spread far and wide.
posted by John
10:37 PM
Absolute Bush
Don't miss James Pinkerton's take on the shifty boundaries of George W. Bush's black-and-white world and the likelihood (zero) that Dubya will ever learn to listen to what other people have to say.
posted by John
9:21 PM
Another Army Suicide
Officers returning from the war also make the ultimate philosophical choice.
posted by Groom
3:35 PM
Pictures of Spain
I had two brothers, Andrew and Chris, who were in Spain at the time the atrocities took place. Both are safe and weren't in Madirid until the day after. Here are pictures of rallies in Madrid, taken the day after the bombings, and here are some pictures of rallies in Cordoba and Sevilla, taken the day of the bombings.
posted by FPN
10:39 AM
Howard Dean, The Ralph Reed of the Democratic Party?
So Dean for America is becoming Democracy for America and Dean’s model is the Christian Coalition launched by the irreverent Pat Robertson in 1989, but built and managed by Ralph Reed, now head of the Republican Gestapo in Georgia and Southeast Chairman of BushCo’s reelection bid.
After listening to the good doctor on several interviews over the past few days and reviewing his newest website, this new venture looks like another one of his famous Book of Job undertakings. For starters it looks and sounds like every other liberal group inside the Beltway, though less funded and not staffed with seasoned professionals. The mission seems to be to create a farm-team system for the Democratic Party, but it doesn’t exactly say so. It has none of the emotional energy that the Christian Coalition has—hastening the second coming of Christ. And it lacks the national platform that Pat Robertson has with his weekly evangelical TV and radio broadcasts.
The name, Democracy for America, says nothing. In a word-association game the name "Vanilla" comes to mind. And, unless you get the pronoun “for” correct, a Google search takes you to Alexis de Tocqueville and back to 1831. That’s probably further back than Dean wants to go with “Take America Back,” and, incidentally or not, that slogan is awfully close to the title of a major petition drive by the Christian Coalition called “Let’s Take America Back.”
And his timing is atrocious. He says he will help raise money for Kerry and he says he will encourage his 600,000 supporters (I thought the number was in the millions), but his heart doesn't seem in it. Unlike Sharpton who has illusions that he can influence Kerry and the Platform, Dean has no such illusions and this move does nothing to endear him to Kerry.
I’m disappointed, but not surprised.
posted by Josh
9:48 AM
Iraq - The One Year Scorecard
Benefits
Saddam Hussein gone
Puppet Governing Council appointed
Interim Constitution written
Costs
574 American/coalition troops dead
3,000+ young Americans wounded, many lives ruined
10,000 Iraqi soldiers and civilians killed
10,000-15,000 imprisoned under sub-Geneva conditions
More than $150 billion U.S. taxpayer money spent so far with no end in sight
Deeper polarization in Middle East
UN and NATO weakened
Military stretched to limit
American credibility destroyed by WMD exaggerations
Relationships/influence with rest of world at all-time lows
American public deeply and dangerously divided.
Terrorism strengthened by focus on Iraq
posted by Jerry Bowles
9:32 AM
A clear voice from the heartland
Check out Jimmy Jenkins at the Indiana Statesman.
posted by John
8:20 AM
The Selling of the Presidency
There are basically two marketing approaches to getting elected president in this country. The first is to focus on “branding” yourself in a more positive way than your opponent--you’re a “uniter, not a divider,” a “compassionate Conservative,” a “reformer with results.” For obvious reasons, this generally works only once and it helps to not have much of a record that your opponent can challenge.
The second approach is to define your opponent in a way that makes him or her appear to be deficient in some of the essential attributes that you so obviously possess. He or she “flip-flops,” is “weak on defense,” “is all over the map” on the issues, is “out of touch” with common people. The idea is to convince people in Toledo and Omaha that should they elect the other person, they will wake up the day after the election to find swarthy brown people with boxcutters and homemade bombs hiding under their beds. (It used to be “big Red nuclear missiles” raining down from the sky.)
Shrub played the first approach to the hilt in 2000, greatly abetted by Al Gore’s “Clinton” problem, which essentially put character issues off-limits. Since America and the world now know that he is a divider, not a uniter; a compassionless Conservative, and a radical, not a reformer, Bush can’t go that route again. Rather than move toward the center and try to re-brand Shrub, the Bush-Cheney re-election team have clearly decided to try to define Kerry as someone who can’t be trusted to be tough on terrorists and protect Americans. It doesn’t matter how many times voters say in polls that they care more about the economy, BushCo is going with its one and only advantage—a lot of Americans have mistaken Shrub’s arrogance, belligerence, inarticulateness and reckless stubbornness for toughness.
My greatest fear is that Kerry, having grown a spine under the prodding of Howard Dean, will now go mushy on us on the advice of the appeasers at the DNC and DLC or decide there is something to that smarmy John Edwards “nice guy” routine. This election is going to be a down and dirty, base against base death match, no holds barred. The only correct answer to Cheney’s “weak on defense” charges yesterday is “I don’t think the American people are going to take too seriously a lecture on national security from a man who managed to get eight deferments while he was of draft age and his country was at war.” Then, shut up. This is a country that gets its (mostly consumer) information in 15 and 30 second bits. Too much nuance confuses Americans.
So, here’s a question: Which marketing approach will work best for Kerry—defining himself positively or branding Shrub negatively? What’s the best strategy to overcome the “weak on defense” argument. I have some ideas but let’s see what you folks say first.
posted by Jerry Bowles
12:12 AM
Thursday, March 18, 2004
A Change of Subject?
Hopefully this story is true and we can rid the world of this scumbag, but it's interesting timing. First, Spain announces it will remove its troops from Iraq, car bombs destroy a Iraqi hotel, then Poland admits frustration about WMD's. This story suddenly becomes Page 1 news and everything else is pushed out of the spotlight.
Since it's Pakistani troops who made the announcement and not ours, (I assume we have Special Forces assisting the Pakistani Army), it may be just a coincidence, but you never know, I trust the Pakistanis even less then Bush. How many times have we heard that Bin Laden may have been caught?
posted by FPN
4:53 PM
Algonquin J. Scalia
Sorry, yo honor, but it is time to recuse yourself.
posted by Jerry Bowles
4:14 PM
Another "Foreign Leader" Weighs In
The President of Poland would like to keep his job, thank you very much. How do you say "appeasement" in Polish? Limp-ski kielbasa?
posted by Evelyn
1:17 PM
The Hidden Costs of Shrub's War
For me, the army's suicide data and the tragic homecoming narratives of some Iraq war soldiers are beginning to impugn the administration's apparent cost-benefit ratio. Postponing the release of the Army's long awaited suicide report because it conflicts with the administration's anniversary "take" on the war may alter perception but it doesn't change the indicators that suggest thousands of OIF soldiers could be suffering from the burden of that war. Wayne F. Smith, former combat medic in Vietnam and a special assistant to the president of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation.
posted by Jerry Bowles
12:25 PM
China shuts down another blog
Jenny Liu at Reuters is reporting that the Chinese government has shut down the nation's most popular blog, www.blogbus.com for "objectionable content." They were talking about stuff like democracy and Tienanmen Square. It's another lead glove move in Beijing's effort to silence dissent. Other blogs have been shut down or have pulled pro-democracy posts in order to get back on line.
posted by Groom
12:04 PM
Anatomy of A(nother) Scandal
One of the best sources on the Internet for anatomizing the daily load of bull coming from the White House is the Center for American Progress, a think tank founded by ex-Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta. The Center's daily Progress Report is on the case today as Bush pursues another military photo op at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, home of the 101st Airborne, in which he will yammer about how important the troops are to America. The report details the administration's shoddy treatment of the troops--the lack of armor for soldiers and their Humvees, the lack of decent mental health care despite the rising suicide rate among soldiers, and the slashing of benefits the soldiers can expect once they get home. The catalog of abuses in the report gives the lie to what Bush is going to say today about his administration's "commitment" to our soldiers. The truth is that as far as Bush is concerned, these men and women are the hired help, and if something bad happens to them either overseas or after they get home, well, they should have thought of that before they hired on for the job, so don't come cryin' to me.
posted by jabartlett
12:01 PM
Mixed messages from the Dems
Are we citizens, or are we consumers? Mantras, key messages, whatever you want to call them, Josh raises a good point. The absence of these mantras is a reminder that the Democratic party is still organized in wings and factions. Something Howard Dean reminded us about a while back.
Kerry’s response to a wimpy Bush attack ad offers some insight into the problem. The Kerry response talks about helping the American economy, not about helping the American people. While helping the economy helps the people, albeit indirectly, it smarts of “trickle down” Reganomics and the machinations of Bush voodoo economist Mao-tse Mankiw who never saw a factory in China he didn‘t like. We are becoming consumers first and citizens second, with “of the people, by the people, for the people” taking a back seat to “one nation under god.” When I grew up it was still “one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
One of Kerry’s mantras is to stop jobs from leaving the United States. Won’t happen. Too many congressional Dems and Dem fatcats (Soros) are committed to globalization. Kerry’s plan to make business give workers 90-day notice before “outsourcing” their jobs won’t get them a cup of coffee. This is a phony, bait-and-switch issue. Ditto messing with NAFTA. Too many Dem bought-and-paid-for's. Meat for Obersturmbannfuehrer Rove.
The irony here is that the AFL-CIO is demanding that the Bush administration impose economic sanctions on China. But it was United Auto Workers (UAW) president Leonard Woodcock who was our first ambassador to China and the man who laid the cornerstone for the altar of American job exportation.
Putting the economy before people suggests that Kerry is amenable to seeking a “bi-partisan solution” to shave (some would say save) Social Security and Medicare benefits. Another bait-and-switch issue. More AARP magazine covers featuring Randy Newman and Billy Crystal might tone down the rage factor at Century Village. Peopulism is now a dirty word. And "social net"... do we mean a "no consumer left behind" act?
And by asking Spain’s new leader Jose Luis Zapatero to keep his troops in Iraq, Kerry is sending a message that he plans to prosecute a war based on lies that Kerry himself has called Bush out on. More and more we are sinking into denial about how "Vietnamized" this war has become. Kerry should know this.
Why no mantra? From where I sit, it is apparent that the Dems and candidate Kerry are working on getting the money in line and the voters will follow. It’s a strategy not unlike the one spelled out by Jerry’s little photo and quote from Hermann Goering posted below. And there are some historians who say Goering was ¼ Jewish… If I was John Kerry, I’d be saying “get me rewrite just about now.”
posted by Groom
10:52 AM
What did You do in the War Daddy?
Since the right wing is floating as hard as it can the notion that the Clinton Administration weakened the country by not doing enough about Al Qaeda, it might be instructive to look at what those gallant patriots were themselves up to during the same time period.
A Parital Timeline:
Jan. 19, 1998: Drudge Report breaks the story of Clinton’s affair with Lewinsky
February 5 1998: Ken Starr says his inquiry is "moving very quickly and we've made very significant progress."
August 7, 1998: Bombing of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania
September 24, 1998: The House Judiciary Committee announces the committee will consider a resolution to begin an impeachment inquiry against President Clinton in an open session on October 5 or October 6.
November 5, 1998: Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde sends a list of questions to President Clinton, asking him to "admit or deny" the major facts outlined in Independent Counsel Ken Starr's report to Congress.
June 30, 2000: An Arkansas Supreme Court panel files suit to strip Bill Clinton of his license to practice law. The Arkansas State Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct recommended in May that Clinton's Arkansas law license be withdrawn, in the wake of accusations he gave misleading testimony under oath in the Paula Jones case. Clinton has 30 days to respond.
October 12, 2000: Bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen
posted by Evelyn
10:38 AM
al Qaeda Endores Bush
Here's some foreign leaders who are rooting for the Shrubster.
posted by Jerry Bowles
9:20 AM
Wanted: Democratic Mantras
Why is it that Democrats can’t stay on message, find a few phrases that work, and then turn them into a mantra? The Republicans sure can, and it’s effective. See how quickly they have used the words "flip-flop" to paint Kerry as indecisive? "War president" is another one they're peddling, which is handy since Bush has no domestic achievments to run on.
One of my favorite, underutilized Democrat lines is “Why are Republicans who didn’t fight in a war so upset with Democrats who did?” I don’t know why this isn’t a daily mantra or part of Kerry’s stump speech. Among other things, it keeps the Bush AWOL charge alive without saying as much and puts trash-talking (and draft-dodging) Cheney on the defensive.
I suggest we add others. Here is a possibility, especially now with Spain in the news. I’m sure your your suggestions will improve it, but it’s along these lines: “Why is a Republican president, elected by only one vote in the Supreme Court, so disdainful of the will of voters in countries where the majority has clearly spoken?” Other examples are Venezuela and Haiti, two neighbors where Bush has or is pulling the rug out from under the feet of voters, and in these cases, Bush is in violation of Western Hemisphere treaties.
How can we get some 2004 Democrat mantras going?
posted by Josh
8:56 AM
Hombres al borde de un ataque de nervios
The New York Times reports that Spain's defeated conservative party is threatening to sue Pedro Almodóvar, the country's most famous movie director, because he accused the government of trying to hatch a "coup d'état" the day before the election. The Popular Party said in a news release that Almodóvar had committed "slander and libel."
posted by Jerry Bowles
7:45 AM
Night of the long knives
“The night I got to Baghdad, Rumsfeld called me and told me he was appointing Paul Bremer…” that’s what former US top banana in Iraq Gen. (ret) Jay Garner told the Guardian happened after he called for early elections. “We as Americans like to put our template on things,” Garner says. “And our template is good, but it’s not good for everybody else…”
posted by Groom
4:16 AM
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
More Bush Billions for Afghan Drug Lords
Colin Powell calls it "nation building." But the $2.2 billion in aid money the Shrub Club will announce they are giving to Karzai later this month will be a supermarket sweepstakes for the drug mullahs. NPR recently did a special saying that "heroin is back." I don't think it ever went away. Now it will just be cheaper for the 12 and 13 year olds to buy on the street. Thanks Shrub, for making sure no child is left behind... without a glass heroin pipe.
posted by Groom
5:44 PM
That's one, Mr. President
Incoming Spanish "foreign leader" Zapatero was quoted in the International Herald Tribune recently as saying that he hoped Kerry would win in November.
He also today called the Iraq adventure a "fiasco." Is that the same word in Spanish? Will that be carried on Univision?
posted by Evelyn
1:59 PM
Birdbrains
Shrub’s nomination of top Pentagon lawyer William Haynes II for a seat on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals -- a lifetime appointment -- could come up for a floor vote in the Senate any day now. BushGreenwatch reminds us that this is the same William Haynes who argued in federal court that the Pentagon should be able to use an important migratory bird nesting island in the Pacific for live-fire training exercises. Under Haynes' reasoning, he wrote in a legal brief, killing birds makes them more scarce, and "bird watchers get more enjoyment spotting a rare bird than they do spotting a common one." Haynes added that bombing was good for the birds too, since it protected them from "human intrusion." I kid you not.
posted by Jerry Bowles
1:40 PM
Phony investigations, true lies
In the wake of the GAO study that outs them for fact jacking, Obersturmbannfuehrer Rove and his Kompassionate Kristian Krusaders are in such a hate mode it’s surprising they haven’t hired some of Marc Racicot’s Cuban thug buddies to do a break in at the Kerry campaign headquarters. Their preferred mode for avoiding a full-blown Watergate-style investigation into their pathological lies and misdeeds is the “in-house investigation.” HHS Top Banana Tommy Thompson today announced the latest politischeserziehungsprogramm designed to reeducate America on the lies and fact jacking that went down to pass the Medicare “prescription drug benefit.” You know, the one that used your tax dollars to pay for fake crowds and fake news reporters in ads to pimp the heist. When Tatalech Greenspan does his “debt is good” midrash what’s another quarter trillion bucks missing from the till anyway.
posted by Groom
12:08 PM
Kerry-Clark 04
The value of the vice presidential nominee to the presidential candidate is overestimated. As long as the VP choice has some personal appeal, little or no baggage that would embarrass the Presidential candidate, and perhaps, comes from a state that can be put into play, he/she is a good choice. There are a lot of great people for Kerry to pick, Sen. John Edwards, Gov. Bill Richardson, Gov. Ed Rendell, Tom Brokaw, Sen. Evan Byah, etc., but nobody would be as good a fit as General Wesley Clark. This is not the time to pick a VP surprise, like Mondale and Gore did. Yes, Clark ran for President and failed. However, he won a State (Oklahoma), he built a National organization in little time, and has a personal appeal that connected with people (more specifically vets). With Clark on the ticket, Arkansas, which is a conservative Democratic State, should be attainable as a Democratic pickup. He also should help a little in the more military friendly South.
Bush has been hammering Kerry on Kerry’s Defense and Intelligence voting record. Those of us who follow politics know that for the most part, Bush’s claims are a fraud However, many “average” Americans do not, and b/c of Kerry being a “Massachusetts Liberal”, they might believe them. With General Clark on the ticket, he adds the national security factor that cannot be argued. This ticket would be national security experience to the max and would make it nearly impossible for Republicans to say Democrats are weak on defense. Clark has more then his share of diplomacy experience, he knows foreign leaders, foreign policy, foreign cultures and our culture. He is a very intelligent man, with a Masters in politics, economics, and philosophy while he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford.
During the Vice Presidential debate, while Cheney rambles on about the WMD’s that he thinks will still be found in Iraq, Clark can say, “You’ve had your try, now it’s time to let the professionals take over.” The ability of Clark to be the bulldog on national security issues frees Kerry up to keep hitting Bush on jobs, education, etc.
Some may argue that General Clark wouldn’t be able to handle being the VP and in Kerry’s shadow. Yes, he was a high ranking General who’s used to giving the orders; however, he was also brought up through the military ranks, where he was taught to take the orders, as well. A good soldier knows his role.
We’re still 8 months away from election night, but Kerry already has Bush worried and on the ropes. Will he deliver the knockout blow?
posted by FPN
11:59 AM
Thank You, Rep. Waxman
Here's something to bookmark and keep forever. The Iraq on the Record Report, prepared at the request of Rep. Henry A. Waxman, is a comprehensive examination of the statements made by the five Administration officials most responsible for providing public information and shaping public opinion on Iraq: President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.
The database identifies 237 specific misleading statements about the threat posed by Iraq made by these five officials in 125 public appearances in the time leading up to and after the commencement of hostilities in Iraq.
posted by Jerry Bowles
11:18 AM
Karl's Notebook
posted by Jerry Bowles
10:05 AM
| |
