Saturday, August 09, 2003
Niger, Tubes, TRAILERS!
8/9
WHAT'S HAPPENING- IRAQ:
Which Lie to Focus On? How about the Trailers!
The "trailers" were one of the few pieces of "evidence" that the Administration desperately cited as proof of a weapons program. The weight of opinion and "evidence" has thus far been against their claims. Today's NY Times front page story (Douglas Jehl) is the latest, noting that the Defense Intelligence Agency found that the "most likely use" for the trailers was producing hydrogen for weather balloons, not to make biological weapons.
Let's recall those presidential claims that the trailers are the wmd we've been looking for. Bush, in Poland, on May 29:
President Bush, citing two trailers that U.S. intelligence agencies have said were probably used as mobile biological weapons labs, said U.S. forces in Iraq have "found the weapons of mass destruction" that were the United States' primary justification for going to war.
In remarks to Polish television at a time of mounting criticism at home and abroad that the more than two-month-old weapons hunt is turning up nothing, Bush said that claims of failure were "wrong." "...And we'll find more weapons as time goes on," Bush said. "But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong. We found them." (AP)
Korea: (vs Syria and Iran)
Seems like a tasteless endeavor would be to take odds on which of the above three will be selected for the next rally-around-the-flag "Crisis", i.e War. The latter two are laughably not actual crises, but through Administration paralysis, Korea is an existing crisis. China has tried to be of help...may they get us through this! The latest wake-up call comes from Toronto, via the Globe & Mail (Geoffrey York):
A senior Pentagon adviser has given details of a war strategy for invading North Korea and toppling its regime within 30 to 60 days, adding muscle to a lobbying campaign by U.S. hawks urging a pre-emptive military strike against Pyongyang's nuclear facilities.
Less than four months after the end of the Iraq war, the war drums in Washington have begun pounding again. A growing number of influential U.S. leaders are talking openly of military action against North Korea to destroy its nuclear-weapons program, and even those who prefer negotiations are warning of the mounting danger of war.
Some analysts predict that North Korea could test a nuclear warhead by the end of this year — an event that could cross the "red line" that would provoke a U.S. attack.
The tensions were heightened by a recent exchange of gunfire across the border between North Korean and South Korean soldiers. Talks between U.S. and North Korean officials are expected to be held in Beijing soon, but nobody is predicting an imminent diplomatic agreement, especially after North Korea denounced a U.S. negotiator as a "bloodsucker" and "human scum."
Patriot Act: Momentum Builds Against It: The Christian Science Monitor (Tom Regan) describes the "second thoughts" that the public and lawmakers are having about the USA Patriot Act, which gave the Justice Department all but a blank check to seek terrorists without restraints. The Center for Constitutional Rights filed suit in federal court in NY against the section that makes it illegal to provide "expert advice and assistance" to groups with alleged links to terrorists. Previously, the American Civil Liberties Union and several Muslim and Arab groups had filed a suit re Section 215, which stipulates that the federal government does not need a search warrant or probable cause or even suspicion of a crime to search private records and search homes... all in the name of fighting terrorism!
California: Successful Organizing by the Right Energy companies, including Ken Lay's contribution, manipulated the energy markets resulting in California's energy "crisis"; hard Right money funded the recall effort, Cheney and Rove gave their overt blessing, and Recall organizing began soon after Davis' election. Arnold seems to have no competition and the Democrats (and Arianna Huffington) would split the vote. So, as of now, Arnold could walk in, though it's early, and there's been no focus on his lack of positions or the apparently well-known humiliation he's visited on his wife via chronic, blatant "womanizing."
BTW: Maybe someone could build on Arnold's theme: 'Davis should be recalled since he turned the state's deficit into a monumental deficit.' Well, if Davis is recalled, then I guess Bush should be 'recalled' as well, no?
Military Families Campaign: "Bring Them Home Now"
A coalition of Military Families Speak Out, Veterans for Peace and other organizations in the military community have banded together to begin this "campaign". Its goal is to end the Occupation of Iraq and bring the troops home. The Campaign will be officially launched at a press conference on Wednesday.
Bush Popularity Fades, $ to Oppose Him Grows
The Pew Center found only a 53% approval rating in its latest survey, and that Bush beats "Democrat" by only 5 percentage points. So, he's just about where he was on 9/10/01. Another sign of change is that a coalition of labor, environmental and women's organizations is raising $75 million to reduce the financial edge of the Republicans. The groups are Emily's List, the labor-backed Partnership for America's Families, the Service Employees International Union, the Sierra Club, and America Votes.
Iran Contra Redeux:
Does one chuckle when reading the AP report that "The Pentagon has had renewed contacts with a discredited Iranian exile who was a central figure in the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s. Two officials from the Defense Department's policy office met over a three-day period in late 2001 with Manucher Ghorbanifar, and one of them had another meeting with Ghorbanifar this year, a senior defense official said Friday."
Ghorbanifar, a shady arms dealer identified in the nutty and unconstitutional 'arms for hostages' trade orchestrated by Ollie North and John Poindexter, is only the latest familiar figure from those scandals to be back in government. Poindexter, as noted previously, has been running schemes as as Total Information Awareness and last month's idea of a betting pool on terrorism. They are only two of a cadre of ex-Iran Contra figures in governmental positions. The Guardian captures it more graphically with the headline Convicted felons responsible for thousands of deaths are calling the shots at the White House The Isabel Hilton piece recapitulates the Central American escapes and concludes: "In Washington, under this administration, the crimes of the past have been the passport to power; the methods, far from being discarded, have merely been refined." The article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1013696,00.html
Pieces:
(1) 9/11: The desirable narrative of the Pennsylvania plane passengers rallying and storming the cockpit, and crashing the plane to prevent it from reaching Washington was altered in a quiet, buried article in Friday's papers. The report to Congress on 9/11 had included the conclusion that the hijackers had deliberately crashed the plane prior to the passengers reaching the cockpit. The clarifying doesn't diminish the horror and heroism, but is just corrects the (factual) record
(2) Chris Lydon: Those wondering where Christopher Lydon of WBUR's The Connection is: In part, he blogs! His site is http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/lydon/
(3) Buy Early! Elite Force Aviator: George W. Bush - U.S. President and Naval Aviator - 12" Action Figure Pre-order: Available 09/15/03
http://www.kbtoys.com/genProduct.html/PID/2431939/ctid/17/place/aguc?_ts=n&ls=collect&_e=3f33e&_v=3F33E7088a4FaD1987109A13&_ts=y
-R
WHAT'S HAPPENING- IRAQ:
Which Lie to Focus On? How about the Trailers!
The "trailers" were one of the few pieces of "evidence" that the Administration desperately cited as proof of a weapons program. The weight of opinion and "evidence" has thus far been against their claims. Today's NY Times front page story (Douglas Jehl) is the latest, noting that the Defense Intelligence Agency found that the "most likely use" for the trailers was producing hydrogen for weather balloons, not to make biological weapons.
Let's recall those presidential claims that the trailers are the wmd we've been looking for. Bush, in Poland, on May 29:
President Bush, citing two trailers that U.S. intelligence agencies have said were probably used as mobile biological weapons labs, said U.S. forces in Iraq have "found the weapons of mass destruction" that were the United States' primary justification for going to war.
In remarks to Polish television at a time of mounting criticism at home and abroad that the more than two-month-old weapons hunt is turning up nothing, Bush said that claims of failure were "wrong." "...And we'll find more weapons as time goes on," Bush said. "But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong. We found them." (AP)
Korea: (vs Syria and Iran)
Seems like a tasteless endeavor would be to take odds on which of the above three will be selected for the next rally-around-the-flag "Crisis", i.e War. The latter two are laughably not actual crises, but through Administration paralysis, Korea is an existing crisis. China has tried to be of help...may they get us through this! The latest wake-up call comes from Toronto, via the Globe & Mail (Geoffrey York):
A senior Pentagon adviser has given details of a war strategy for invading North Korea and toppling its regime within 30 to 60 days, adding muscle to a lobbying campaign by U.S. hawks urging a pre-emptive military strike against Pyongyang's nuclear facilities.
Less than four months after the end of the Iraq war, the war drums in Washington have begun pounding again. A growing number of influential U.S. leaders are talking openly of military action against North Korea to destroy its nuclear-weapons program, and even those who prefer negotiations are warning of the mounting danger of war.
Some analysts predict that North Korea could test a nuclear warhead by the end of this year — an event that could cross the "red line" that would provoke a U.S. attack.
The tensions were heightened by a recent exchange of gunfire across the border between North Korean and South Korean soldiers. Talks between U.S. and North Korean officials are expected to be held in Beijing soon, but nobody is predicting an imminent diplomatic agreement, especially after North Korea denounced a U.S. negotiator as a "bloodsucker" and "human scum."
Patriot Act: Momentum Builds Against It: The Christian Science Monitor (Tom Regan) describes the "second thoughts" that the public and lawmakers are having about the USA Patriot Act, which gave the Justice Department all but a blank check to seek terrorists without restraints. The Center for Constitutional Rights filed suit in federal court in NY against the section that makes it illegal to provide "expert advice and assistance" to groups with alleged links to terrorists. Previously, the American Civil Liberties Union and several Muslim and Arab groups had filed a suit re Section 215, which stipulates that the federal government does not need a search warrant or probable cause or even suspicion of a crime to search private records and search homes... all in the name of fighting terrorism!
California: Successful Organizing by the Right Energy companies, including Ken Lay's contribution, manipulated the energy markets resulting in California's energy "crisis"; hard Right money funded the recall effort, Cheney and Rove gave their overt blessing, and Recall organizing began soon after Davis' election. Arnold seems to have no competition and the Democrats (and Arianna Huffington) would split the vote. So, as of now, Arnold could walk in, though it's early, and there's been no focus on his lack of positions or the apparently well-known humiliation he's visited on his wife via chronic, blatant "womanizing."
BTW: Maybe someone could build on Arnold's theme: 'Davis should be recalled since he turned the state's deficit into a monumental deficit.' Well, if Davis is recalled, then I guess Bush should be 'recalled' as well, no?
Military Families Campaign: "Bring Them Home Now"
A coalition of Military Families Speak Out, Veterans for Peace and other organizations in the military community have banded together to begin this "campaign". Its goal is to end the Occupation of Iraq and bring the troops home. The Campaign will be officially launched at a press conference on Wednesday.
Bush Popularity Fades, $ to Oppose Him Grows
The Pew Center found only a 53% approval rating in its latest survey, and that Bush beats "Democrat" by only 5 percentage points. So, he's just about where he was on 9/10/01. Another sign of change is that a coalition of labor, environmental and women's organizations is raising $75 million to reduce the financial edge of the Republicans. The groups are Emily's List, the labor-backed Partnership for America's Families, the Service Employees International Union, the Sierra Club, and America Votes.
Iran Contra Redeux:
Does one chuckle when reading the AP report that "The Pentagon has had renewed contacts with a discredited Iranian exile who was a central figure in the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s. Two officials from the Defense Department's policy office met over a three-day period in late 2001 with Manucher Ghorbanifar, and one of them had another meeting with Ghorbanifar this year, a senior defense official said Friday."
Ghorbanifar, a shady arms dealer identified in the nutty and unconstitutional 'arms for hostages' trade orchestrated by Ollie North and John Poindexter, is only the latest familiar figure from those scandals to be back in government. Poindexter, as noted previously, has been running schemes as as Total Information Awareness and last month's idea of a betting pool on terrorism. They are only two of a cadre of ex-Iran Contra figures in governmental positions. The Guardian captures it more graphically with the headline Convicted felons responsible for thousands of deaths are calling the shots at the White House The Isabel Hilton piece recapitulates the Central American escapes and concludes: "In Washington, under this administration, the crimes of the past have been the passport to power; the methods, far from being discarded, have merely been refined." The article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1013696,00.html
Pieces:
(1) 9/11: The desirable narrative of the Pennsylvania plane passengers rallying and storming the cockpit, and crashing the plane to prevent it from reaching Washington was altered in a quiet, buried article in Friday's papers. The report to Congress on 9/11 had included the conclusion that the hijackers had deliberately crashed the plane prior to the passengers reaching the cockpit. The clarifying doesn't diminish the horror and heroism, but is just corrects the (factual) record
(2) Chris Lydon: Those wondering where Christopher Lydon of WBUR's The Connection is: In part, he blogs! His site is http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/lydon/
(3) Buy Early! Elite Force Aviator: George W. Bush - U.S. President and Naval Aviator - 12" Action Figure Pre-order: Available 09/15/03
http://www.kbtoys.com/genProduct.html/PID/2431939/ctid/17/place/aguc?_ts=n&ls=collect&_e=3f33e&_v=3F33E7088a4FaD1987109A13&_ts=y
-R
