BUSH MEETS POPE - Reads GOD'S latest message.

Rome 2003 Bush met with the Pope to compare notes on GOD's revelation as next in line to be attacked by the Axis of GOD. He told the Pope that God could not be against Robertson, Falwell, Sharon, and the Pope and that a Coalition of the Godly would drive evil from the world and make it safe for the wealthy.



I can't believe he is reading this to me.

Did he say GOD now speaks to both of us?

Be sure to join the 'caption contest here or at South Knox Bubba

16 words become 28 PAGES

The mystery of the Saudi pages deepens:

Even Senator Sessions, Republican of Alabama, who has carefully read all 28 pages only finds a few lines worthy of classification. Sessions, a ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee, is puzzled by Bush's refusal to release most of the material. What is at work here? Is it simply more obtuse behavior from the pReznit who's bumbling remarks on the matter left much doubt if he had read what he has refused to declassify? Or is there a deeper mystery?

VISIT THE CARNIVAL OF THE VANITIES #45
at Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics
Rush Limbaughtomy is featured under Politics

TAZ welcomes Hatamaran's Hairball to the RTB
along with Dreams of Flying Fish which he does often, and Bugly which he chases.

Around the web on Tuesday with some new friends considering an association. Here is a sample.

A Rational Animal humanizes victims of the hunt for Saddam very well written & not a pretty picture. It's not easy being green - white, black, brown, red, yellow or Alas a Blog.
Apathy Inc does the Young Repulsican meet in DC and throws up along with Blunted on Reality Democratic Veteran takes it further and writes a letter
Arms and the Man Resource.full, and Frog N Blog are all over the Pentagon's new terrorist futures market
Emma's Notes on the Atrocities takes on the atrocity that is the DLC and Pandagon piles on in a blistering analysis of their misconceptions.
Blah 3's scoop on the latest FIXER for IRAQ looks like Alabama's search for a new head coach.
Blowtorch Monkey Armada knows they fire guys that get it right,& keep those that get it wrong.
Down on Lieberman? Tell Folkburn why Down on Pryor? Ignatz tells us why.
Zota has a nice piece on the UC Conservative study for the TTLB showcase
Heller Mountain features more random notes on an undeclared world war.
Jesus's General hits the campaign trail and quits blogging.
You Live Your Life as if it's Real informs us that High Water is now The River
Mark A. R. Kleinman is disgusted with the 'nimble' and 'agressive' new US method of intelligence gathering involving kidnapping women and children.
Nurse Ratched sends Cheney to the padded room for some quiet time after Dean drills the veep in fund raising and T Rex backs her up.
OUT2LUNCH has a beautiful essay on William Gibson's new book juxtaposed with US oil interests in Sao Tome and the hell that has become of Liberia. Prometheus 6 has the truth in black and white. Rantavation's take on the truth and the cognitive dissonance of the war party is all gray.
Rook's Rant bids farewell to Hope
Sadly No has discovered that Andrew Sullivan is running out of things to say. No good news for Bush backers anywhere and that is good news for everyone else.
Suburban Guerrilla is my new hero with great posts on the Limbaughtomizer and Dr. Gonzo.
PLEASE STOP BY THE POISON KITCHEN AND VOTE IN THE ARI CONTEST. (I am sure you can find the right entry to vote for (Barry B) if you read through all the entries (Barry B) I am sure you will make the right decision (Barry B) But I feel it would be wrong of me to influence your decision (Barry B.) So I will not tell you who to vote for(Barry B,) because that would be wrong (Barry B.)
Tom at The Funny Farm finds this tax mistake anything but funny. Totalitarianism Today talks telecommunication in IRAQ. So does MCI the governments criminal communication corporation. Veiled 4 Allah asks what kind of America we want to live in - give her your answer. Reach em High advocates 100% replacement of all incumbents

STUCK ON THE FLYPAPER USING ELEPHANT REPELLANT

The latest spin has GWB as author of a brilliant strategy: “We are saving American lives at home because the Jihadists are being drawn to IRAQ like flies to shit” according to Dubya. “It is just like the Elephant Repellant I used to sell down in Midland to the shit-kickers so I could finance my (fruitless) oil search” he laughs, “You don’t see terr*er*rests in the USA so it must be working.” “Hell it only costs a Billion a week and most of that is going to my supporters and friends” “War is better than snake oil when it comes to clearing a profit”

The Flypaper Theory was evidently put forward by David Warren – the last remaining Conservative in Ottawa and possibly the only Canadian who cannot use being stoned as an excuse:

“Bush has also, quite consciously to my information, created a new playground for the enemy, away from Israel, and even farther away from the United States itself. By the very act of providing this lower ground, he drains terrorist resources from other swamps. This is the meaning of Mr. Bush's "bring 'em on" taunt -- is not a mistake. It is carefully hung flypaper.”

Instapundit links to a CNN paragraph on the magnetic qualities of Iraq___ "This is what I would call a terrorist magnet, where America, being present here in Iraq, creates a target of opportunity," Sanchez said on CNN's "Late Edition." "But this is exactly where we want to fight them. ...This will prevent the American people from having to go through their attacks back in the United States." __that echos David Warren’s essay that describes occupied Iraq as "flypaper" for terrorists. And, they both maintain, it's working. Sayeth Reynolds: You may have noticed that although people are upset about acts of terrorism there were no attacks in the United States. This doesn't meet the Occam's razor test. Are terrorists not striking the US because we met them on their home ground in Iraq -- or are they not striking the US because it's logistically difficult and terror strikes on America are comparatively rare anyway? And, oh yeah, how many terrorists attacking American soil have ever come from Iraq? Tacitus disagrees

So just to get all of this straight: The new/old theory is that we are spending ONE BILLION DOLLARS and EIGHT US SOLDIERS LIVES A WEEK in IRAQ as "FLYPAPER" to suck terrorists away from the USA so we can kill them in IRAQ.
Did anyone ask Congress about this or the American people?
A recent exchange on the South Knox Bubba Comment section between William Hobbs and Rush Limbaughtomy:

And yes, our survival is at stake. Or have you forgotten that 3,000 of us are already dead?

NO BILL We had (not) forgotten that 16 Iraqis (or was it Saudi Arabians –mostly) armed with box cutters and airline tickets furnished by Saddam Hussein (or was it Saudi Arabia) hijacked 4 airplanes in America and flew three of them into buildings. We lost more lives on the nations highways (41,000 a year) since 9-11. Is our survival at stake there? I didn’t think so.

If we don't decisively defeat or otherwise force out of power all of the Islamic wackos, there WILL be Islamic terrorists blowing us up here in our own shopping malls and pizzerias.

NO BILL We had forgotten that Saddam Hussein was an Islamic Zealot who believed he will achieve Paradise after death (or was he just another greedy bigot like so many here in the USA who believed he could buy paradise on earth with enough oil)

The thing about Iraq is, it has drawing the terrorists attention away from the U.S. homeland and drawing the jihadis to Iraq - as Glenn Reynolds points out today, pointing to a CNN story.

So permanent war in Iraq where we lose American Soldiers at more than one per day at the cost of ONE BILLION DOLLARS A WEEK is the answer to terrorists threats. – Good Answer Bill are you ready to pay for it perpetually?

Bush has created a trap for terrorists, and drawn their fire away from the American homeland, safeguarding us while killing increasing numbers of the enemy. This is classic military strategy and it is working.

For one BILLION DOLLARS AND 8 AMERICAN LIVES A WEEK THE BUSH STRATEGY IS WORKING. Isn’t that kind of like the old elephant repellant jokes? You don’t see any elephants around here do you? What was it? 10 years between WTC bombing attacks before IRAQ. So far it has been 5 months since the IRAQ ATTACK we only have 115 months plus to go before we know if this BILLION DOLLAR 8 LIVES A WEEK STRATEGY really works don’t we.

So it all boils down to 52 Billion dollars and 400 American lives a year to save the USA from a WTC every decade - 520 Billion and 4,000 lives.
________________________________________________________________________________

. . CHOOSE YOUR ASSOCIATES WISELY . . . We are known by the company we keep

. . . . . . . . . . CHOOSE YOUR ASSOCIATES WISELY
. . . . . . . . . . .We are known by the company we keep


___________

_____IT IS ALL ABOUT THE DIFFERENT WAY WE SEE THE WORLD

35 Years ago this summer these words described the Liberal Vision

"For the fortunate among us, there is the temptation to follow the easy and familiar paths of personal ambition and financial success so grandly spread before those who enjoy the privilege of education. But that is not the road history has marked out for us. Like it or not, we live in times of danger and uncertainty. But they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history. All of us will ultimately be judged and as the years pass we will surely judge ourselves, on the effort we have contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which our ideals and goals have shaped that effort.
"The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society.
"Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny. There is pride in that, even arrogance, but there is also experience and truth. In any event, it is the only way we can live."
This is the way he lived. My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:

"Some men see things as they are and say why.
I dream things that never were and say why not."


LIBERALS___________Vs.__________CONSERVATIVES

Expansive______________________ Reductive
Inclusive_______________________ Exclusive
Educate _______________________ Imprison
Head Start _____________________ Juvenile Home
Privacy ________________________ Invasive
Pro Choice _____________________ No Choice
All the ships rise_________________ Zero Sum Game
Generous ______________________ Greedy
Love __________________________ Fear
Find Solution ____________________ Assess Blame
Share _________________________ Hoard
Community _____________________ Individual
Consensus _____________________ My Way or the Highway
Compromise ____________________ Strong Arm
Environmentalism_________________Corporatism
Spiritual________________________ Dogmatic
Tolerant________________________ Intolerant
Co-operate______________________Dominate
Placate_________________________Aggravate
Welfare________________________ Warfare
Serve__________________________ Protect
Defend_________________________ Prosecute
Elevate_________________________Persecute
Uplift __________________________ Hold Back
Assist__________________________ Impede
Compassionate __________________Vindictive
Permissive______________________ Controlling
Boundless_______________________Restrictive
Humanist________________________Eliteist
Diversity________________________Conformity

READ THE LATEST ANNTHRAX SCARE HERE

CORPORATISM RUN AMOK

These three stories from Corporate Watch have been absent from the mainstream press and they are devastating indictments of the Bush Administrations policies of World Corporatism. Read them carefully.

Halliburton Milks British Nuclear Submarines for Millions

By Solomon Hughes Special to CorpWatch July 25, 2003
ANOTHER HALLIBURTON INVESTIGATION - This one by the British.
Just outside of Plymouth on Britain's south coast are the Devonport royal dockyards, which have maintained ships for the British navy for hundreds of years. For the last three decades these docks have been the home for four nuclear powered "Trident" submarines, each carrying 48 atomic warheads that roam the world's oceans. In 1997 Tony Blair's Labour government sold the docks to Devonport Management Ltd. (DML) -- a consortium led by Brown and Roota division of Halliburton, and contracted the new owners to refuel and refit the nuclear engines, which involves stripping and replacing their radioactive parts once a decade.
Halliburton chief executive officer Dick Cheney took a tour of the dockyards in April 2000. "My general impression is that our British colleagues are far ahead of us in the US in the extent to which they have adopted changes in culture, attitude and style of operation that are required for successful privatization efforts," said Cheney, just months before he quit his job at the company to launch a successful bid to become vice-president of the United States.

Not surprisingly Cheney's new job as vice-president has coincided with a major increase in military privatization in the United States with Halliburton profiting handsomely from contracts to supply US troops around the world from Bosnia to Uzbekistan. Meanwhile Halliburton has allegedly been milking their British colleagues for as much money as they can get. The National Audit Office (NAO) was called in to investigate when Devonport project costs budgeted at $904 million in 1997 increased by over 50% by 2002.

It is simply amazing how much money Cheney has saved Britain and the USA while giving billions to Halliburton.
__________________________________________________________________________

Repeal Bush Immunity for US Oil Companies in Iraq

Source: Institute for Policy Studies Posted: July 23, 2003

WASHINGTON - Representatives of The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and Government Accountability Project (GAP) today urged Congress to investigate - and repeal - an executive order signed by President George W. Bush that gives sweeping powers to U.S. oil companies operating in Iraq.

The two public interest organizations charged that President Bush far overreached a May 22, 2003, United Nations resolution that was designed to protect Iraqi oil revenues for humanitarian purposes when he signed an executive order that could place U.S. corporations above the law for any activities "related to" Iraqi oil, either in Iraq or domestically. Bush signed Executive Order 13303 the same day that the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1483, which sets up a development fund, from Iraqi oil revenues, for "humanitarian purposes."

"This order reveals the true motivation for the present occupation: absolute power for U.S. corporate interests over Iraqi oil," said IPS Senior Researcher Jim Vallette. "This is the smoking gun that proves the Bush administration always intended to free corporate investments, not the Iraqi people."

"In terms of legal liability, the Executive Order cancels the concept of corporate accountability and abandons the rule of law," charged Tom Devine, legal director of the Government Accountability Project. "It is a blank check for corporate anarchy, potentially robbing Iraqis of both their rights and their resources."
_________________________________________________________________________

Enron Style Corporate Crime and Privatization A look at the U.S. Coalition of Service Industries

By Darren Puscas Polaris Institute June 20, 2003

The U.S. Coalition of Service Industries (CSI or USCSI) is the largest services oriented lobby group in the United States. With prime access to elite government and corporate circles, its various corporate members gain handsomely from international trade agreements, from IMF or World Bank handouts, and from privatization programs. As well, many USCSI corporate members have been embroiled in the corporate scandals that have rocked the U.S. and the world in the past two years. You can almost pick at random from the USCSI membership to find a corporation that is either privatizing public services, embroiled in financial controversy, or gaining from the misery imposed by an IMF loan.

The degree to which members of the USCSI were among the corporations most involved in the recent wave of corporate scandals is disturbingly high. For example, Enron, Andersen, and WorldCom were all USCSI members at the time they were hit with the scandals (Enron and Andersen have since left the coalition). Enron was the company that hid debt from its books in order to artificially inflate its value to shareholders and was also heavily involved in the illegal trading which led to the California energy crisis in 2001. Andersen was Enron's accountant who let this all happen. And Worldcom was the corporation that inflated profits by nearly $4bn through deceptive accounting and later went bankrupt (only to reemerge as MCI). And, we shall see, this is just the tip of the iceberg, as many other USCSI corporations were heavily involved in various forms of illegal and unethical activity.

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HALLIBURTON

Mother Jones July 23, 2003 Issue is featuring a fascinating (and frightening) map of the Halliburton empire. Created by Michael Scherer, this interactive map lets you explore the tax havens, defense-related contracts, and federal energy subsidies in the company's global web consisting of offices in 70 countries and annual revenues of $12.6 billion.
Since Dick Cheney took over as CEO of Halliburton in 1995, after serving as secretary of defense during Gulf War I, the company has had tight political connections -- revenues rose 26 percent in his first year. "Federal investigators looking into charges that Halliburton defrauded taxpayers said that company officials "had the upper hand at the Pentagon because they knew the process like the back of their hand."
Scherer shows that Halliburton continues to remain well-connected. The tax dollars the company receives -- $2.2 billion in defense-related contracts and generous subsidies for profitable pipeline projects -- "couldn't come at a better time for Halliburton," Scherer states, "its share price has collapsed under the weight of asbestos lawsuits, a federal investigation into its accounting practices, and a drop in oil prices." And Halliburton adds insult to injury to the American people by avoiding paying taxes, Scherer notes. "In 1995, the company had nine subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and other countries that serve as tax havens. By 2002, it had 58."

anyone reading this grim report on corporatism may wish some international comic relief.

THE BUSH OIL CONSPIRACY. Follow the money.


THE ABCD's of the Bush war machine.

A.) FIND THE SETUP
Fraud Traced to the White House How California’s energy scam was inextricably linked to a war for oil scheme - Seeing the Forest from Blah 3
B.) BUILD A PROPAGANDA MACHINE
November 3, 2002 HADLEY NAMED KEY MAN IN "MARKETING" OF WAR ON IRAQ
The goal of building fresh public support for U.S. policy to invade IRAQ falls to NSC deputy Hadley. Cheney delivered a public indictment of Hussein at the end of August, while Bush presented a bill of particulars to the opening session of the U.N. General Assembly two weeks later. Randy Scheunemann, exec. dir. Committee for the Liberation of Iraq said Capitol Hill offices have been "getting a lot of calls against and not many for the war." The Committee's methods will borrow heavily from the NATO effort, including sessions with opinion makers, contacts for journalists and mass marketing when the time is ripe. The approach is a familiar one to the Bush administration. Hadley co-founded the NATO project. Board members included Rice, Wolfowitz and U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick. Cheney and Powell advise the group
C.) START A WAR
D.) SEE THE RESULT
Is Halliburton building a SECRET pipeline to Kuwait? This guy thinks so:
Theft of Iraqi Oil: Palm Bay man has eye for detail Balochistan Post
Halliburton Makes a Killing on Iraq War
Iraq rebuilding contracts awarded Halliburton, Stevedoring Services of America get government contracts for early relief work. The first contracts for rebuilding post-war Iraq have been awarded, and Dick Cheney's old employer, Halliburton Co., is one of the early winners.
Cheney, Halliburton and the Spoils of War oil-services company provides construction and military support services - a triple-header of wartime spoils.
Will Halliburton Clean Up? Cheney Co. stands to make millions rebuilding Iraq.

A WARM WELCOME FOR UDAY TODAY
A special place awaits you Uday but NO virgins.

This is one of 5 Republican Supporters who qualify as AMERICAN SUCKERS
Jack Gesteves, 28, Birmingham, AL, Software “I don’t vote for pussies.”

Jack voted hard right and never made the connection with his weed consumption because only dumb black street types ever got caught. Then he misses a stoplight and forgets to toss out the joint on the dashboard, and the cop spots it. Next thing, boom, gun in the face, cop yelling, cuffed and booked…then it turns out he was driving near a school—ten blocks or so, some Elementary School Jack never even heard of. That makes it a mandatory ten-year stretch. Jack stares at his lawyer waiting for the punch line, because it has to be a joke. Nope. Ten years. Ten years as somebody’s bitch, sold to a new guy for a carton of cigarettes, because he had a joint that night instead of a gin & tonic. Jack remembered one night while getting fucked in the ass that he’d actually voted for that mandatory-sentencing deal. And even though he’s trying to find a way to kill himself before they sell his little white ass to the Black Muslims in D Block, he still, you know, believes we’ve got to do something about this drug thing, come down hard on it. He still wouldn’t vote for any tie-dyed loser who was soft on drugs.

How do so many vote Republican when it is clearly against their best interest?

Fans of Cowboy Kahlil shoud stop by and offer their sympathy today

PICTURES OF THE WEEK dumbya and Blair - no comparison


No W that is just another statue -

-----------------

we still don't have Osama or Saddam ________Click the pic for Black Box Voting

BUSH brings in BLAIR to take the blame. .......... BUSH in the African Bush.
"No finger pointing here." says Bush .... "You can clearly see I was in Africa I saw
____________________________________Saddam buying Uranium" GWB


I once compared Tony Blair to Colonel Nicholson -- the British officer whose warped sense of duty leads him to collaborate with his Japanese captors in The Bridge On the River Kwai. But the more I listen to Blair -- as in his speech to Congress today -- the more I'm reminded of Kurtz, the crazed colonial administrator in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. With these words and more Billmon has literally and eloquently dissected Blair and his speech to Congress

WHO THINKS THEY ARE IN THE UPPER ONE PERCENT OF THE COUNTRY WEALTH WISE?

I found this quote and it confirmed a suspiscion that began when the guy installing my muffler down at the local Midas told me that he was real happy about the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy like him because it was the welfare people that were causing the deficits. Is Bush's popularity predicated on a mass delusion that folks making as little as $24,000 a year believe they are wealthy and benefit from the Bush cuts?

""Us versus Them" casts a heavy pall across all the vastness of Bush country. There are the "haves" versus the "have-nots" with an absurdly large number of the have-nots believing they are the haves.
(A recent poll showed that a noticeable percentage of people making $39,000 a year thought they were in the upper one percent of the country.) These delusional haves, who think the new tax breaks are designed for THEM, are more disdainful of the poor than the rich are."

It is easily demonstrable that unless you make more than $100,000 a year that the federal tax cuts will be absorbed by increased state and local tarriffs, nevermind what the cost will be for your children. Maybe Bush is popular because many people are just plain dumb.

UPDATE: If you wish to log your discontent with Mark Shapiro and ESPN a good place to start is on the ESPN NFL message board Visit and leave a piece of your mind.

Limbaugh ESPN blabber ''Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.''


ESPN TEST: survive 8 hours with Sapp, Lewis, and Rice AFTER they hear selected quotes.
''They (Blacks) are 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?''
Mark Shapiro, ESPN's executive vice president of programming and production, claimed that the move was made to ''give fans a voice.'' THAT IS THE RACIST ULTRA-CONSERVATIVE LUNATIC FRINGE FANS VOICE OF COURSE
An Atlanta Journal Constitution columnist who called Limbaugh a ''blowhard'' said, ''I'm going to step out on a limb here and assume that not many so-called feminists hunker down to ESPN's `Sunday NFL Countdown.'' The fascinating thing is that on the first day of the news about Limbaugh's hiring by ESPN, no straight news stories went out on a limb to remind readers about Limbaugh's past. The past would seem significant, since he is about to pontificate on the NFL, where well over half the players are African-American. Limbaugh has feasted off berating people of color. African-Americans have come in for supercharged blasts of his hot air. Limbaugh has always had crime and black people on the brain., ''Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?'' ''Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.'', ''The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.'' When Spike Lee said that African-American children should be allowed to skip school to see his movie on Malcolm X, Limbaugh said: ''Spike, if you're going to do that, let's complete the education experience. You should tell them that they should loot the theater, and then blow it up on their way out.''. When a Mexican won the New York marathon, Limbaugh said, ''An immigration agent chased him the last 10 miles.'' ''Let the unskilled jobs, let the kinds of jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do - let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work.'' Limbaugh's popularity is symbolic of a United States that still quietly buys into his stereotypes.. Limbaugh once complained about African-Americans: ''They are 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?'' ESPN and Disney should be made to care about hiring someone to cover a majority black sport who does not care about black people. Most important, newspapers should care, even if ESPN and Disney do not.

RECORD breaking REPUBLICAN RESIDENTS RED INK is drowning our country.
Fiscal irresponsibility is unsurpassed in history.
BUDGET DEFICIT GROWS BY 50% TO 450 BILLION and may surpass that.


The deficit for the last two years of this Residents term is greater than any in history. It is official now: this administration intends to bankrupt America while lining the pockets of the wealthy. Fiscal conservatives are Democrats not (cut)Tax and Spend Republicans. The Resident is caught in a war we did not need for a price we cannot afford to pay. Newsweek poll of 33,000 shows 77% want Bush out.
From the Daily KOS
And why do the Republicans need to spin the deficit? Because it'll be in the range of $400-450 billion each of the next two years (probably more) -- far surpassing the previous record of $290 billion notched by papy Bush. And far surpassing the administration's previous bogus estimate of $300 billion.
Republicans say the more important measure of red ink is how it compares to the size of the U.S. economy, because that illustrates the government's ability to afford carrying the debt.
Even gauged that way, a shortfall 4 percent as big as the economy — as this year's and next's will probably be — begins to approach the dimension of the deficits of the 1980s and early 1990s that both parties agreed were untenable. The GOP has blown away any semblance of rationality. Also covered by Angry Bear and Atrios

Whereas the efforts of international weapons inspectors, United States intelligence agencies, and Iraqi defectors led to the discovery that Iraq had large stockpiles of chemical weapons and a large scale biological weapons program, and that Iraq had an advanced nuclear weapons development program that was much closer to producing a nuclear weapon than intelligence reporting had previously indicated; From JOINT RESOLUTION 114 October 10, 2002 Read this in total for the first time and you will be amazed at the detail of the lie.

BUSH moves to "PASS THE BUCK" Resident refuses responsibility.
Cites "DARN GOOD" intelligence - at least "they are smarter than I is."
"Who lied in George Bush's State of the Union speech" is big mystery in WHODUNIT
Condi is officially toast states THE LIKELY STORY and Notes from Atlanta has a great switch on the Clinton phrasing. Lean Left has a different lie covered, and Prometheus Speaks has simply "moved on"

"When you've got the world by the balls, just squeeze."

From Rice's appearance today on CNN's Late Edition:
BLITZER: Supposedly, it [request to send Wilson] came at the request of the vice president.
RICE: No, this is simply not true, and this is something that's been perpetuated that we simply have to straighten out. The vice president did not ask that Joe Wilson go to Niger. The vice president did not know. I don't think he knew who Joe Wilson was, and he certainly didn't know that he was going. ..They did not brief it to the president, the vice president or any senior officials.

From a newly-released article in Time:
When it got to Washington, the Iraq-Niger uranium report [the forged documents] caught the eye of someone important: Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, told TIME that during one of his regular CIA briefings, "the Vice President asked a question about the implication of the report." Cheney's interest hardly came as a surprise: he has long been known to harbor some of the most hard-line views of Saddam's nuclear ambitions. It was not long before the agency quietly dispatched a veteran U.S. envoy named Joseph Wilson to investigate.
Is Cheney hanging Condi out to dry?
FROM SADLY NO
Joseph Wilson was "the Deputy Chief of Mission, the acting ambassador at the US Embassy in Iraq 12 years ago during Desert Shield, the lead-up to the first Gulf War." Vice-President Cheney was "Secretary of Defense from March 1989 to January 1993, [and] directed [...] Operation Desert Storm in the Middle East." Wilson was the last US diplomat in Iraq, and met with Hussein and several high ranking diplomats after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. And somehow we're supposed to believe Cheney might not have known who Wilson was? I don't think so.
The 16 words are also covered by The Blue Bus and Catalyst
So that chiding White House official was right: there was more to the picture. But I'm afraid the bigger the picture gets, the more it looks like a pattern of dishonesty.

Bush's position was at odds with those of his own aides, who acknowledged over the weekend that the CIA raised doubts that Iraq sought to buy uranium from Niger more than four months before Bush's speech. The president's assertion that the war began because Iraq did not admit inspectors appeared to contradict the events leading up to war this spring.
For a complete workup on the sordid "PASS THE BUCK" affair this is an excellent source.

WHY THERE IS A GREATER DOWNSIDE TO THE URANIUM LIE.
(cry wolf in IRAQ and who will help cover the real threat in NK?)
North Korea Says It Has Made Fuel for Atom Bombs

North Korean officials told the Bush administration last week that they had finished producing enough plutonium to make a half-dozen nuclear bombs, and that they intended to move ahead quickly to turn the material into weapons, senior American officials said today. The new declaration set off a scramble in American intelligence agencies — under fire for their assessment of Iraq's nuclear capability — to determine if the North Korean government of Kim Jong Il was bluffing or had succeeded in producing the material undetected. Covered in more detail by Billmon">BILLMON and Blah 3

In the 'Might be tight in NYC between W and Son of Sam if psychotic felons allowed on ballot' dept:
IS ANYTHING MORE HOSTILE THAN AN ANGRY NEW YORKER??
RNC NOT WELCOME
The BIG APPLE gets ready to hang out a huge "not welcome" sign.

Gore, Al ....................................Bush, George W.
4,107,697................................ 2,403,374
60.21........................................ 35.23

These results were almost 2 to 1 statewide for Gore.
In NYC the margin was even greater.
GWB in NYC after stonewalling 9-11 Comm. with "explosive" revelations predicted.
Without doubt the most hostile territory the RNC will encounter outside of Hollywood
No surprise if convention dumps BUSH for Pataki so delegates get out of town alive.

A little Sunday study of the Religion of George W. Bush

The Gospel According to Bush: Good Christian George?

Consider the abundance of empirical evidence that George Bush and his regime are pathological liars, unabashed tools of the ultra wealthy, and no friend to the working man. What then results in their popularity with the multitudes? Aside from the compliant corporate media as a propaganda machine there is the compliance of pseudo Christians like Falwell and Robertson who abet the myth that Bush is "Christlike" which IS what "Christian" means. This is a good time to notice the pseudo Christianity of Pat Robertson who now seems to think W may not be such a good Christian since he seems to favor replacing "Christian" Liberian President Taylor. Of course Pat Robertson's 7 million dollar investment with Taylor in Liberian Goldmines has nothing to do with that.

What kind of man was Jesus Christ? He was a peacemaker.

1) Is George "Bring Em On" Bush a peacemaker?
No. Bush has the blood of thousands of innocent people on his hands.
2) Jesus shunned wealth and possessions. Does Bush shun wealth and possessions?
Hardly. He covets wealth, especially oil; none more so than Iraqi oil. His policies have placed huge burdens upon the working poor in America while giving more wealth to the rich.
3) Jesus Christ spoke profound truth in the form of parables. Does Bush speak truth?
He lied repeatedly about the threat posed by Iraq. Bush stated time and again that there is a demonstrable link between the events of 9/11, Al Qaeda, and Saddam Hussein and of course he lied about the Uranium in Africa, the job production of his tax cuts for the rich, and his commitment to education.
4) Jesus Christ life was given to the needs of the outcast, the poor and oppressed. What has Bush done for the working class people?
The answer: absolutely nothing. Bush continues to give ever more welfare to his rich associates and corporate cronies Halliburton, Bechtel, Worldcom, the Carlyle Group. Bush, like all neo-conservatives, staunchly opposes raising America's pathetic minimum wage to an actual living wage. This is detrimental to the family structure and has a perverse effect on the entire social fabric. Bush is a purveyor of class warfare; the avowed enemy of organized labor. He is one of the ruling classes endowed with special privileges that ninety-nine percent of us don't have. His policies always have a common denominator: they disproportionately aid the rich and harm the poor.

A GENTLE REMINDER OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE CURRENT RESIDENT

Only the very rich or very confused could love this guy.
He has destroyed our economy, security, and credibility in three years.
Give him four more and he may be the Last Resident of the United States

A PIECE OF MIND FOR PEACE OF MIND MOVEMENT.

A call to action against the AMERICAN TELESERVICES ASSOCIATION Refer to this previous post

The link above will take you to the ATA contact website. There is a form you can fill out to contact the ATA and give them a Piece of your Mind for violating your PEACE OF MIND

Interestingly there are two 800 numbers for you to call.

I am going to start calling these two numbers at 1pm on Monday EST. I am going to say to the person who answers
"Hi" "Who am I speaking to today?" "Could I please speak to Mr. Tim Searcy Executive Director?"
"Why hello Ms or Mr. ________ , How are you doing today?"
"Isn't it a lovely day today Mr or MS __________?
"I am calling from the Piece of Mind for Peace of Mind movement where I am regional director and a member"
"We are a loose association of individuals who value greatly our Peace of Mind"
"Do you value your peace of mind Ms or Mr _____?"
"Do you like that quiet time with your thoughts or your family after you get home from work"
"Do you hate being interrupted by some jerk trying to sell you something you neither need nor want"
YOUR CALL WILL PROBABLY BE TERMINATED BY NOW so just wing it.

Wouldn't it be interesting if many people called those numbers beginning at 1PM Monday in their respective time zones and continued calling until 2pm in their respective time zones. What if we did that for a week? Do you think the telemarketers would get the message?
Probably not but I am going to try.
Care to join me in this? Please comment. For those of you who support this idea but do not wish to call there is a page of e-mail addresses.
Mass e-mail from the Piece of Mind for Peace of Mind movement to every addressee on the page would be appropriate.

Inspired in part by SKB and this post on the Association of Pickpockets and Muggers but they don't have a website with phone numbers.

9-11 Report to be EXPLOSIVE


A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists.

Former Rep. Tim Roemer, who served on the House Intelligence Committee and who has read the report, said it will be ''highly explosive'' when it becomes public.
A source familiar with the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity, cited two ''sensitive areas'' of the report that will command public attention:
• More information on ties between the Saudi royal family, government officials and terrorists. The FBI may have mishandled an investigation into how two of the Sept. 11 hijackers received aid from Saudi groups and individuals.
John Lehman, a member of the independent commission, said at a hearing Wednesday: ``There's little doubt that much of the funding of terrorist groups -- whether intentional or unintentional -- is coming from Saudi sources.''
• A coherent narrative of intelligence warnings, some of them ignored or not shared with other agencies, before the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

WARNING IN 2001
The report will show that top Bush administration officials were warned in the summer of 2001 that the al Qaeda terrorist network had plans to hijack aircraft and launch a ``spectacular attack.''

Thanks to Frog n Blog for the tip.

Good timing on this report. It will heighten the pressure for co-operation with the current 9-11 commission.
This stuff was expected and is pretty tame. Bigger questions are brewing at the new commission like why interceptors did not fly.

TELEMARKETERS LOBBY IN SUIT AGAINST DO NOT CALL LIST

What a crock of crap!

Something called the American Teleservices Association (can we get a phone number and call them relentlessly?) is complaining that 2 million people will lose their jobs because of the DO NOT CALL effort. The only reason that is of any concern is the state of the job market due to the Bush Administration. Telemarketing jobs are minimum wage bottom of the barrel employment with high turnover and few benefits.

I am among those who take a very agressive posture toward telemarketers. I am either extremely rude and abusive "Get a *&%$ real job JERK and quit bothering people you moron!!!" OR if I do not need the telephone I simply lay it down next to a speaker that keeps saying 'yes' at random intervals.
The audacity that anyone thinks the telephone line into my home is a conduit they can use as a sales device without my consent is ludicrous. What I cannot understand are people who actually buy things that are sold this way.

Some will say that the poor souls that take telemarketer jobs are just trying to make a living and that kindness is required. Bullshit I say. Telemarketers need to recognize immediately that their job is going to require a very thick skin. Thick skins are like thick heads deserving of scorn when they invade the peace and quiet of my home and interrupt my train of thought. Next time one of these parasites calls feel free to give them a piece of your mind since they have disturbed your peace of mind. The "loving" thing to do is to help them break the habit of preying on poor suckers who buy from telemarketers. It may help save their souls and at least get them thinking about a job that helps people instead of hurting them. TELEMARKETERS ARE TRASH BECAUSE THEY ARE TELEMARKETERS. Stop being a telemarketer and you can regain your humanity.

as Bubba sez "Ok, then"

(cut) TAX and SPEND CONSERVATIVES!!!!

Rumsfeld Estimates U.S. Monthly Costs in Iraq at $3.9 Billion
House Approves $369 Billion for Defense Spending
A few billion here - a few billion there - and it starts to add up.
A couple of Trillion in Tax cuts and a couple of Trillion in "defense" spending and maybe those Halliburton boys might want to get paid in gold.
Does anybody know how much the KBR/Halliburtion boys have gotten this week? Are those checks starting to bounce?
The estimates have doubled on the per month cost of our "adventure in Nation Building" in IRAQ.
Who are these estimators anyway? Ken Lay and Thomas White? Sounds just like that Enron/Worldcom accounting team of Overbill, Stonewall, and Hyde.

What happens in America when there is a total financial collapse?
See below THE SUM OF ALL FEARS.

UPDATE: Halliburton KBR Logcap contract billing now at $425 Million and climbing. When last reported this amount was at $187 Million just 12 days ago. This is only one of two contracts that Halliburtion KBR is profiting by in IRAQ.

LIMBAUGH IS THE MOST RECOGNIZED NAME IN RADIO SURVEY



TBOGG: "I don't listen to talk radio and I don't know anyone who listens to talk radio. So when I hear that Limbaugh is the 'most recognized name' in radio that strikes me as being on the same level as Preparation H being the most recognized name in hemorrhoidal creams. They're both for assholes."

The Limbaughtomy is for the Limbaughtomized as Prep H is for Anal Cyst sufferers.

Do you think we could get a LIMBAUGH TIE to go with those shoes for Tucker?

ONE MILLION COPIES OF HILLERY'S BOOK SOLD


What will you have for your entree tonight Tucker? A nice rare Dr. Marten or perhaps O.J's favorite Bruno Magli's?

THE SMOKING GUN. THE PROOF OF THE LIE. as predicted the British press will sink the Resident because the US Republicans do not control the British Media.

Bush, according to CIA sources, knew ten months before the state of the Union, that the Niger documents were false and used them anyway

Doubts about a claim that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from the African state of Niger were aired 10 months before Mr Bush included the allegation in his key State of the Union address this year, a CIA official has told the BBC.

On Tuesday, the White House for the first time officially acknowledged that the Niger claim was wrong and suggested it should not have been used in the president's State of the Union speech in January.

But the CIA official has said that a former US diplomat had already established the claim was false in March 2002 - and that the information had been passed on to government departments, including the White House, well before Mr Bush mentioned it in the speech.

Bigger Than Watergate!

The story you are about to read is in this writer's view the biggest political scandal in American history, if not global history. And it is being broken today here in New Zealand.

This story cuts to the bone the machinery of democracy in America today. Democracy is the only protection we have against despotic and arbitrary government, and this story is deeply disturbing.

Imagine if you will that you are a political interest group that wishes to control forevermore the levers of power. Imagine further that you know you are likely to implement a highly unpopular political agenda, and you do not wish to be removed by a ballot driven backlash.

This breaking news is being covered across the blogosphere and it gets very scary when it is applied to this post from yesterday: The Sum of All Fears.

42 Years Ago in 1961 I spent the Summer as a Senate Page for Senator Albert Gore Sr.

I was 14 years old and lived alone in a rooming house run by Mrs. Alexandra Columbus where the red X marks the spot behind the Supreme Court Building. Every morning I would stroll past SCOTUS on the way to the NSOB (Now the Dirksen) for breakfast in the Senate Cafeteria. There were usually a few Senators present. I would then hop on the short "subway" that ran from the Senate Office Buildings to the Senate side of the Capitol and to the Senate Chamber by 9:00AM.
Senate pages would set up the desks in the Senate chamber prior to each day’s session that began at 11:00am. We would place a copy of the Congressional Record from the day before and copies of Bills or Resolutions to be considered on each of the 100 desks. Pens, pencils, and legal pads were checked. During the morning and throughout the sessions we would be dispatched to one office or another to pickup some document and deliver it to another for signature and return or simply to drop off. The worst of those tasks would be when dispatched to a far corner office on the third floor of the NSOB for a missive that had to go to a Congressman who was quartered in the far upper corner of the Rayburn HOB. The House pages did not have the luxury of a subway train so a long underground walk was involved. I wore out three sets of heels on a pair of loafers in 3 months on those marble floors.
The picture of Senators above shows Kenneth Keating R NY, Hubert Humphrey D MN the Majority Whip, Jacob Javits R NY, Everett Dirksen R IL who was the Minority Leader of the Senate, Tom Kuchel R CA., Warren Magneson D WA and Phillip Hart. Keefauver and Gore were the Democratic Senators from Tennessee. There was almost a 2/3rds majority of Democrats. I was serving on the Republican side of the aisle because the Democrats controlled patronage and most of the tenured (year long) pages were on the Democratic side.
John Tower joined the Senate from Texas as a Republican while I was there and he was seated next to Barry Goldwater R. AZ who marked his bills every day to tell him how to vote. Norris Cotton R NH., Saltonstall R MA. and Margaret Chase Smith from Maine were among the memorable faces on the Republican side. Pat Robertson's father was a Democrat Senator from Virginia, 'Midnight' Wayne Morse D OR. held a 12 hour filibuster on something strange and kept us there all night; Richard Russell D of Georgia was old and Carl Hayden D AZ class of 27 was older. Strom Thurmond was a Democrat then and not so old. I collected autographed pictures of every Senator that summer.
More Here

RUSH NEWSPEAK detailed and defined.

Kevin at Lean Left points out this terriffic PDF document made available by Orcincus with the help of many notable bloggers.
A very small taste:
In Limbaughland, there are still “evil” people in government but since Bushies took over they’re all liberals. Indeed, the demonization of all things liberal has always been a component of Limbaugh’s routine. But now it has become his focus. And it is in that shift, taking place in a context of rising extremism, that he has become openly divisive, and truly dangerous. Limbaugh has in recent months been one of the national leaders in the right-wing campaign to characterize opposition to President Bush’s questionable policies as “anti-American,” a campaign that is closely associated with broader conservative attacks on the underlying ideals of multiculturalism. But Limbaugh has taken the rhetoric another step by associating liberals with Nazis and other fascist regimes.

Consider, for instance, this essay, which appeared on Limbaugh’s Web site on April 17, 2003:
Little Dick Promises Fascism If Elected (There is a brief description of the Gephart Healthcare proposal here)
That’s fascism — a term thrown around by people who don’t have the intellectual chops to defend their ideas, but Gephardt’s plan has features of that discredited ideology. Merriam-Webster: “Fas • cism: A political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.”
This is a classic case of Newspeak — diminishing the range of thought (it’s telling that Limbaugh originally filed this under “Making the Complex Understandable”) by nullifying the meaning of words. Democracy, according to Limbaugh, is fascism. In fact, even as he ironically sneers at “people who don’t have the intellectual chops to defend their ideas,” he resorts to the notoriously inadequate dictionary definition of fascism in order to stand the meaning of the word on its head.
I suggest that anyone interested in debunking Limbaugh to download the PDF and keep it handy. There was a huge amount of work that went into this notable document. Thank you Orcinus.

"No Child Left Behind .........errr Held Back............err Held Down"

The dumbya edukashun enishativ: A pat on the head is better than money

THIS JUST IN FROM THE TTLB SHOWCASE:
Rush Limbaughtomy Wins the Showcase


Father for Dean gets my vote for weblog showcase
Many Thanks to the RTB members and others who "voted" on my behalf
Barry B.

This weeks entry from the nomination of TOM at THE FUNNY FARM

Republican Rick Santorum (R-PA) REPUBLICAN ROLE MODEL OF THE DAY # 6
is under fire for likening consensual gay sex with bigamy, polygamy, incest, and adultery. Santorum told the AP, "If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything." Rick Santorum, the pudgy-faced Pennsylvanian is a hero among social conservatives. He make Trent Lott look like a man of principle, John Warner like a deep thinker, and Newt Gingrich like Miss Manners.
His only exposure to life in the private sector was a brief stint as a lawyer and lobbyist (where his clients included the World Wrestling Federation). Nonetheless, Santorum can sound like a militia member denouncing big government: "I've read the Bible. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that America will be here 100 years from now,"
After he was elected to the House his chief issue was the House Bank scandal and their goal, to force full disclosure of the number of checks bounced by various members. His biggest supporters were the pharmaceutical and medical-insurance industries, impressed with his implacable resistance to health-care reform. In both the House and the Senate, he has remained firm in his doctrinaire opposition to any kind of meaningful campaign-finance reform.
Hepped up on Gingrich's candidate-training tapes, Santorum’s campaign against Sen. Wofford was notable for its uncalled-for personal nastiness. Responding to Wofford's support for national service, Santorum smirked, "Someone's going to pick up trash in a park and sing 'Kumbayah' around a campfire and you're going to give them 90 percent of the benefits of the GI Bill & $30,000 a year” he lied and then accused Wofford of being dishonest. "I have never seen another candidate in my life who would stand up in front of the voters and tell lies, absolute lies, the way he does,"
At 36, Santorum became the youngest member of the Senate and made a name for treating fainthearted older members of his own party with the same boorishness and arrogance he had displayed toward Wofford. Santorum's personal unpleasantness and affinity for injecting religion into politics have led many liberals to cast him as a sort of Jesse Helms of the North. One looks in vain, however, for any thread of consistent belief. Santorum is pro-life, but supports the death penalty; he opposed NAFTA, but favored GATT; he wants to balance the budget while providing more pork for Pennsylvania. Unlike some of his class of '94 comrades in the House, who are principled in their bullheaded way, he never met a principle he wouldn't swap for a few more votes.

NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN FOR FUTURE ENTRIES you can choose from ideas here and here or offer ideas of your own.

This very cool Electoral Map is provided at the Edwards for President site. It is interactive. By clicking on the resized for electoral votes states you can turn them Blue for Democrats, Red for Repulsicons, or white for unsure and total up the 270 needed for election NOT SCOTUS selection for President not Resident of the USA

THINGS ARE TURNING AROUND ON THE WMD DEBATE
75 PERCENT OF AMERICANS NOW SAY IT WOULD MATTER IF THEY WERE MISLED ON WMD.
53 PERCENT SAY IT WOULD MATTER A GREAT DEAL Take a look at W's face upon hearing about this poll


The Residents handlers are said to be quite concerned and taking precautions that
he does not return to his old drinking habits. Concern escalated yesterday when he
purportedly asked Secretary Powell to join him in prayer to ask God to tell
him the location of the WMD
Less than half of Americans said they were confident that U.S. forces would capture
or kill Saddam, down from 70 percent in March. About 45 percent said they lacked confidence
that Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction would be found, up from 15 percent in March.

UPDATE: Maryland poll says majority think Bush STRETCHED THE TRUTH ON WMD