it's all just part of the war on arabs - whoever is in charge of bushco provokes arabs into a fury and even goes so far as to commit atrocities incl 9/11 and framing the arabs for it for the sole purpose of exacting revenge on strategically placed arab locations just as whoever is in charge of israel does the same on their arab neighbors. everybody says oh israeli zionists are in charge of the u.s.!
more likely that israel is just a strategically located outpost for whoever is in charge of bushco and israel in the war on arabs.
----
Iran has turned away U.N. inspectors wanting to examine its underground nuclear site in an apparent violation - Meanwhile, Iran's supreme leader said Tehran will pursue nuclear technology despite...

moron iranians are playing right along with the war on arabs script.
----
At Press Conference, Bush Stays the Course

of course! he plays the leading role. the cowboy hero oil man! james dean would be proud.
damned voodoo redskins! stealing our cattle!

Staying the course of course!
- bushco '08

so what side are we on?
the sure winner for whom we must look the other way in order to support? go team!
or the evil other guys who are maniacally attacking us over here?

David: "....Bush...is still claiming that Saddam was something of a WMD threat....."

Many places we can nitpick here and there but since WMD was central to the Iraq War v.2003, I'll limit my time investment to just this one issue!

More than just "claiming", Bush believed, to this day, as do quite a number of us (at least the 30%+ in his `approval' column) that Saddam posed a WMD threat!

Imagine: A known (brutal) killer on parole moves into your neighborhood! He continue to flaunt `malice' and plays games w/his parole officers! You suspect he has more bodies and powerful weapon and weapons shop in his basement and he has declared you are his enemy! What's your `strategy' if you are the judge and jury?

David, extend yourself, give us your strategy for the situation we face in Iraq?

David Corn comes back rested from his vacation to give another terrific blog.

My wife heard the Liar on NPR and she said that he just does not sound well. Something must be wrong. Yes, something is wrong. His stupidity is catching up with him. He has tried to outrun it but he can't outrun his stupidity forever.

#173 Erling, from the previous blog! If the Nazi trolls are slow in responding, it may be due to the slow mail service. The playbooks may not have arrived.

I did not listen to the Liar's press conference. I have a problem with his speech and language development skills or his lack of skills.

#1

What does Iran have to do with a war on Arabs?

He may be the liar-in-chief, but he's also the decider-in-chief. Of course, as David points out, the decider or liar or whatever is the appropriate moniker for the guy (at this moment) is totally screwed up, not just in his (non)policies but in his speech patterns. Tactics, strategies, goals, objectives, whatever. It makes no difference to the King of the White House. I just wish he'd stop wearing that leather fighter pilot's jacket at those cheap photo ops he performs every now and then at some military post. He certainly didn't earn the right to wear one, being an AWOL jet jockey himself.

george washington and assoc handed out smallpox laden blankets to the indians in a gesture of goodwill in retaliation for them having attacked us over here. WMD
though of course george bush and assoc wouldn't dream of doing such a thing. DU is WMD
monkey see monkey do

If you go to the smirking chimp, you will see the half face of a chimp and the half face of Bush. The similarities are strikingly vivid.

The Smirking Chimp is one of the best websites for information.

Mr. David Corn,

Great post! Bush is unable to admit his mistakes. That would take some good character. He will "Stay the course" to prove he was right or "Stay the course" until it is someone else's problem. No matter how many of our troops are killed or injured, no matter how many women and children, no matter what - "Stay the course" because to do anything else is an admission of his failure and THAT is not going to happen.

Two hundred or two million - the numbers do not matter to Bush. "Stay the course" because the ship of state sinking fast is just the "cut and runners" take on his spectacular success!

What a guy, eh?

Thanks for all of your work

Kirk

And Joe S. has to devote an entire show to the question-"Is Bush an Idiot?" I have friends
who are idiots and this clown is giving them
a bad name! jeff

"Imagine: A known (brutal) killer on parole moves into your neighborhood! He continue to flaunt `malice' and plays games w/his parole officers! You suspect he has more bodies and powerful weapon and weapons shop in his basement and he has declared you are his enemy! What's your `strategy' if you are the judge and jury?"

You find out if you can get the police to search his house to see if he has weapons(re: inspections). Let's say that there are 10 people living in the house with him, do you shoot a missile into the house before determining whether he actually is a threat to the community? Is it our policy to start a war whenever we feel threatened? With that attitude and our technology, the human race is doomed to extintion for sure.

#8 Why let facts get in the way of a good rant?

The myth about British or Americans (depending on which version of the myth one hears) in colonial America distributing smallpox-infected blankets among the American Indians in order to massacre them. This story first appeared at the beginning of the political correctness movement, as an example of White males supposedly oppressing other ethnic groups. However, there are too many inconsistencies in this story for it to be credible. Viruses were not discovered until 1898. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it was believed that diseases were spread by "bad air", or maybe by acts of God against sinners. In view of this, it is unclear why the colonists would think that a blanket would be an efficient way to spread the disease. Also, if the colonists were in possession of smallpox-covered blankets, why wouldn't the colonists get wiped out from smallpox as well? This story, which becomes more elaborate as time goes on, has the aura of a disinformation campaign.

Indeed, the original Trent diary on which this rumor is based says absolutely nothing about giving Indians smallpox. On the contrary, Trent wrote:

... [the Indians] returned and said they would hold fast of the Chain of friendship. Out of our regard to them we gave them two Blankets and an Handkerchief out of the Small Pox Hospital. I hope it will have the desired effect.
Interpreting this as evidence of germ warfare seems to be a strained interpretation at best. On the contrary, given the widespread existence of smallpox hospitals in that time, it is far more reasonable to interpret it as a gesture of friendship, misguided to be sure in retrospect with what we know today.

Israeli vampires thirst for more blood

The bloody nose Israel received in south Lebanon has not shaken its leaders' confidence in their restless militarism. If anything, their humiliation has given them cause to pursue their adventures more vigorously in an attempt to reassert the myth of Israeli invincibility, to distract domestic attention from Israel's defeat at the hands of Hezbollah, and to prove the Israeli army's continuing usefulness to its generous American benefactor.

FOUND: bro.tex!

Strategy? Remember back last year when bush (all choked up with emotion and compassion) told young midshipman (and the country) about his strategy for winning in Iraq? Yeah, that strategy -- the 35-page document, "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq," claimed that the administration will win the war on three fronts -- (1) training Iraqi security forces; (2) establishing a democracy; and (3) rebuilding and economic development in areas of Iraq cleared of insurgents.

1, 2, and 3 have clearly not been accomplished. I think bush's words today indicate he is trying to pass the buck to the military. "Not my table," says the C-i-C when it's obvious he is a failure. Next, he'll probably be looking for a new crop of generals cuz the current crop just weren't "flexible" enough.

Gotta blame someone.

What Does Israel Want? More blood, yes

If the two Israeli soldiers could be rescued, then so could Olmert's government – but it is more than just internal Israeli politics that is driving the IDF. As I pointed out last week, we were warned by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who admitted "The war isn't over yet." Indeed, if the Israelis have their way, it has barely begun: they are now shifting their focus to a full-fledged effort to embroil Damascus in the conflict, and I wouldn't rule out air strikes on Syrian territory before all this is over.

Lebanon is just the pawn in the game to carry out more wars!

David, thanks for keeping on top of the thread length, I'm sure the dial ups were rejoicing the new threads, gets a wee bit long with the re-load page and wait scenario.

Bro.tex!

Where the heck have you been?

Glad to hear something from you.

capt

Judge drops Padilla terror charge

Prosecutors told to choose between two remaining counts

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A federal judge in Miami on Monday dismissed the lead terror count against Jose Padilla, the U.S. citizen once identified as a "dirty bomb" suspect and detained as an "enemy combatant."

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke said in a written opinion that the charge -- conspiracy to "murder, kidnap and main persons in a foreign country" -- duplicated other counts in an federal grand jury indictment handed down last year.

"An indictment is multiplicitous when it charges a single offense multiple times, in separate counts," Cooke wrote. As charged, she added, the indictment exposes Padilla and his codefendants to multiple punishments for a single crime.

The indictment, Cooke noted, "alleges one and only one conspiracy" and that the same facts are "realleged in each of the consecutive counts."

Cooke also ruled that the second count against Padilla and his co-defendants was "duplicitous" -- charging them with the same offense under two sections of federal law. She ordered the government to choose one of the two counts, which provide for different penalties, by Friday.

The two remaining counts are conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, and providing material support to terrorists.

Padilla has pleaded not guilty to the indictment, and a trial is scheduled early next year.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Not an insignificant development.

capt

Diplomats: Iran Refuses U.N. Inspectors

By GEORGE JAHN

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Iran has turned away U.N. inspectors wanting to examine its underground nuclear site in an apparent violation of the Nonproliferation Treaty, diplomats and U.N. officials said Monday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality of the information, told The Associated Press that Iran's unprecedented refusal to allow access to the facility at Natanz could seriously hamper international efforts to ensure that Tehran is not trying to make nuclear weapons.

The revelation came on the eve of Iran's self-imposed Aug. 22 deadline to respond to a Western incentives package for it to roll back its disputed nuclear program. The United Nations has given Tehran until the end of August to suspend uranium enrichment.

This does not bode well if they are trying to convince the world community of their intent of the non-lethal, practical use of nuclear power.

Raises those flags and gives the neo-conartists a reason to blast em into oblivion.

iranians are not arabs!
an iranian gentleman is very adamant that i not equate him with an iraqi. i will be more careful next time when a honduran gentleman insists to me that he is not a venezuelan as we are getting them over there in venezuela before they get us over here. damn all the terrorists!

Actually, the association of clothing, bedding and especially hankerchiefs with the spread of infectious disease was widely known prior to the isolation of any particular virus.

Innoculation with live pox was becoming de rigeur even in the middle of reign of Catherine the great. Later, a much less dangerous method of using "cow pox" came about when it was noted that "milk-maids" seemed resistant to contracting smallpox and had a much lower mortality rate when they did contract it.

_______________

So far as the strategy of using such infected blankets and things...

"...Fact is, on at least one occasion a high-ranking European considered infecting the Indians with smallpox as a tactic of war. I'm talking about Lord Jeffrey Amherst, commander of British forces in North America during the French and Indian War (1756-'63). Amherst and a subordinate discussed, apparently seriously, sending infected blankets to hostile tribes. What's more, we've got the documents to prove it, thanks to the enterprising research of Peter d'Errico, legal studies professor at the University of Massachusetts at (fittingly) Amherst. D'Errico slogged through hundreds of reels of microfilmed correspondence looking for the smoking gun, and he found it.

The exchange took place during Pontiac's Rebellion, which broke out after the war, in 1763. Forces led by Pontiac, a chief of the Ottawa who had been allied with the French, laid siege to the English at Fort Pitt.

According to historian Francis Parkman, Amherst first raised the possibility of giving the Indians infected blankets in a letter to Colonel Henry Bouquet, who would lead reinforcements to Fort Pitt. No copy of this letter has come to light, but we do know that Bouquet discussed the matter in a postscript to a letter to Amherst on July 13, 1763:

P.S. I will try to inocculate the Indians by means of Blankets that may fall in their hands, taking care however not to get the disease myself. As it is pity to oppose good men against them, I wish we could make use of the Spaniard's Method, and hunt them with English Dogs. Supported by Rangers, and some Light Horse, who would I think effectively extirpate or remove that Vermine.

On July 16 Amherst replied, also in a postscript:

P.S. You will Do well to try to Innoculate the Indians by means of Blanketts, as well as to try Every other method that can serve to Extirpate this Execrable Race. I should be very glad your Scheme for Hunting them Down by Dogs could take Effect, but England is at too great a Distance to think of that at present.

On July 26 Bouquet wrote back:

I received yesterday your Excellency's letters of 16th with their Inclosures. The signal for Indian Messengers, and all your directions will be observed.

We don't know if Bouquet actually put the plan into effect, or if so with what result. We do know that a supply of smallpox-infected blankets was available, since the disease had broken out at Fort Pitt some weeks previously. We also know that the following spring smallpox was reported to be raging among the Indians in the vicinity...

STRAIGHT DOPE

The Bush who cried wolf too often?

Oh, one more thing about bush's Iraq mess he helped create.

Don't the Iraqi Sunnis and Shia want a timetable for U.S. troops to pull out? We hear an anti-occupation parliament is developing in Iraq -- so does that mean the busheviks will try their original plan and insert yet another dictatorship in the Middle East in Iraq? One that will take its cues from Washington -- just like the other M.E. dictatorships which are supported by the U.S. government.

MESS-o-crapola!
   

Iran: The Next War

This article is a six page or part article. There will definitely be war with Iran. The more information we have about the war with Iran, the more we can debate another disaster before our eyes.

Let us take a few moments to remember Jesus' words, "Love one another, as I have loved you."

Let us grow up and be more mature and say, "no more wars."

No mature and sane person chooses war over peace!

Vengeance will not get us into heaven but humility will! "Unless you are like little children, you will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." Jesus of Nazareth

WHITEY HAS THE STICK!
the lesson that civilization has learned in 2006 years.

Alan from previous thread. #92
My lawyer friend is FASTTTTT.

For Counter-Worriers (like me) on Global Warming:

Greenland's glaciers have been shrinking for 100 years: study
Aug 21 3:18 PM US/Eastern

Greenland's glaciers have been shrinking for the past century, according to a Danish study, suggesting that the ice melt is not a recent phenomenon caused by global warming.
Danish researchers from Aarhus University studied glaciers on Disko island, in western Greenland in the Atlantic, from the end of the 19th century until the present day.

"This study, which covers 247 of 350 glaciers on Disko, is the most comprehensive ever conducted on the movements of Greenland's glaciers," glaciologist Jacob Clement Yde, who carried out the study with Niels Tvis Knudsen, told AFP.

Using maps from the 19th century and current satellite observations, the scientists were able to conclude that "70 percent of the glaciers have been shrinking regularly since the end of the 1880s at a rate of around eight meters per year," Yde said.

"We studied 95 percent of the area covered by glaciers in Disko and everything indicates that our results are also valid for the glaciers along the coasts of the rest of Greenland," he said.

The biggest reduction was observed between 1964 and 1985.

"A three-to-four degree increase of the temperature on Greenland from 1920 to 1930, and the increase recorded since 1995 has sped up the ice melt," he said.

The effect of the rising temperatures in the 1920s and 1930s was "visible dozens of years later, and that of the 1990s will be (visible) in 10 or 20 years," Yde said, adding that he expected Greenland's glaciers to melt even faster in the future.

The shrinking of the glaciers since the 19th century is "the result of the atmosphere's natural warming, following volcanic eruptions for example and greenhouse gases, created by human activities, which have aggravated the situation further," he said.

The study also showed new results on galloping glaciers, the name given to glaciers that surge very quickly for a few years, up to 50 meters a day, before advancing more slowly at a rate of 20 meters per year," he said.

"We have identified, thanks to new analyses of aerials photographs and satellite images, almost four times more galloping glaciers, or 75 compared to just 20 in previous estimates," he said.

The two authors of the study were to present their results on Monday at a conference in Cambridge, England on the impact of global warming on glaciers.

CT-SEN: Lamont To Get UAW Endorsement?

Ned Lamont is poised to receive the coveted endorsement of the United Auto Workers, a source familiar with talks between the two camps tells me. The endorsement could be announced as early as tomorrow at a big event being planned for the occasion, the source says, and a press advisory could go out as early as tomorrow morning. The support of the group -- which remained neutral in the primary -- could give Lamont an organizational and political boost at a time when Lieberman is leading in polls and is building support among GOP voters.

While nothing is certain until there's a public announcement, and anything could happen between now and tomorrow, the source tells me that he thinks it's a "done deal," adding that Lamont looked to be getting the endorsement because of "Lieberman's positions on trade and health care -- he refuses to support universal health care and enabled Bush's right-wing judges." More coming.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Another interesting development. This could be very bad news for the Indy candidate.

capt

Bush said....
Iraq was a -- the lesson of September the 11th is, take threats before they fully materialize.
-------------
So what does that statement say? Bush has the authority to go after anyone he deems as a threat? He can go after countries he sees as threats. He can go after journalists he sees as threats. He can go after groups of people he sees as threats.
So where does it stop?

How Washington Goaded Israel

Ironically, political action committees sponsored by liberal groups such as MoveOn.org, Peace Action, and Act for Change continue to support the election or re-election of Congressional candidates who have voiced support for Washington's proxy war against Lebanon despite massive Israeli violations of international humanitarian law, its serving as a trial run for a U.S. war against Iran, and its being against Israel's legitimate self-interests. And, unfortunately, on the other extreme, some of the more outspoken elements that have opposed America's proxy war against Lebanon frankly do not have Israel's best interest in mind.

As a result, without a dramatic increase in protests by those who see Washington's cynical use of Israel as bad for virtually everyone, there is little chance this dangerous and immoral policy can be reversed.

We must break the silence of our murdering ways; we must be outraged at the slaughter of our brothers and sisters in God.

According to the Boston Globe, defense weapons development price tag was projected at $1.6 trillion in June '06, up from $790 billion in Sep '01. Pork o'Plenty!

HI'YA! Been workin'like a gov't mule,as usual. Our union is meeting pretty often and gittin' it together for contract talks next month,so hopefully we can get some more $ and benefits.
The neighborhood kids are back-to-school,so I get some computer time again.
HAJJI #23: Thanks for the post. Hip-Hop rapper Rass Kass mentioned this subject on his "Soul On Ice" album back in the late '90's. CAPT: Always a pleasure to rap with you, my man. Pops is o.k. and doin'the usual.

Vote '06. Purge the bastards!!

A Climate Repair Manual

Global warming is a reality. Innovation in energy technology and policy are sorely needed if we are to cope

Explorers attempted and mostly failed over the centuries to establish a pathway from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the icebound North, a quest often punctuated by starvation and scurvy. Yet within just 40 years, and maybe many fewer, an ascending thermometer will likely mean that the maritime dream of Sir Francis Drake and Captain James Cook will turn into an actual route of commerce that competes with the Panama Canal.

The term "glacial change" has taken on a meaning opposite to its common usage. Yet in reality, Arctic shipping lanes would count as one of the more benign effects of accelerated climate change. The repercussions of melting glaciers, disruptions in the Gulf Stream and record heat waves edge toward the apocalyptic: floods, pestilence, hurricanes, droughts--even itchier cases of poison ivy. Month after month, reports mount of the deleterious effects of rising carbon levels. One recent study chronicled threats to coral and other marine organisms, another a big upswing in major wildfires in the western U.S. that have resulted because of warming.

The debate on global warming is over. Present levels of carbon dioxide--nearing 400 parts per million (ppm) in the earth's atmosphere--are higher than they have been at any time in the past 650,000 years and could easily surpass 500 ppm by the year 2050 without radical intervention.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

"Uncertainties about the extent and pace of warming will undoubtedly persist. But the consequences of inaction could be worse than the feared economic damage that has bred overcaution. If we wait for an ice cap to vanish, it will simply be too late."

capt

The stupidity will never end. Hezbelloh's true mission is social service!!! Israel's true mission is to be the Light to the World!!!

In Israel's Interest?

In the years prior to Israel's July 12 bombing of Lebanese cities, Hezbollah had become less and less of a threat. It had not killed any Israeli civilians for more than a decade (with the exception of one accidental fatality in 2003 caused by an anti-aircraft missile fired at an Israeli plane that violated Lebanese airspace). Investigations by the Congressional Research Service, the State Department, and independent think tanks failed to identify any major act of terrorism by Hezbollah for over a dozen years.

Prior to the attack, Hezbollah's militia had dwindled to about 1000 men under arms—¥his number tripled after July 12 when reserves were called up—°nd a national dialogue was going on between Hezbollah and the government of pro-Western prime minister Fuad Siniora regarding disarmament. The majority of Lebanese opposed Hezbollah, both its reactionary fundamentalist social agenda as well as its insistence on maintaining an armed presence independent of the country's elected government. Thanks to the U.S.-backed Israeli attacks on Lebanon's civilian infrastructure, however, support for Hezbollah, according to polls, has grown to more than 80%, even within the Sunni Muslim and Christian communities.

Even Richard Armitage, a leading hawk and deputy secretary of state under President Bush during his first term, noted that "[T]he only thing that the bombing has achieved so far is to unite the population against the Israelis."

The above paragraphs are real eye openers.

Claim of 'Hobbit' Species Discounted

Skeletal remains said to be that of a new "hobbit" species in 2004 do not represent a new species as then claimed, but some of the ancestors of modern human pygmies who live on the island today, according to an international scientific team.

The remains were found in a cave on the island of Flores, Indonesia. They show signs of microcephaly, a condition in which the head and brain are much smaller than average for the person's age and gender.

"Our work documents the real dimensions of human variation here," says Dr. Robert B. Eckhardt, professor of developmental genetics and evolutionary morphology, department of kinesiology, Penn State. He notes that "LB1

The skeleton, dubbed LB1, "looks different if researchers think in terms of European characteristics because it samples a population that is not European, but Australomelanesian, and further because it is a developmentally abnormal individual, being microcephalic," said Robert Eckhardt, professor of developmental genetics and evolutionary morphology at Penn State.

The new analysis, done by several researchers, demonstrates that claims of a new species "Homo floresiensis" and commonly called hobbits are incorrect.

The results are published today in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

I never thought they were hobbits - I thought right off Oompa Loompa's!

capt

David: Stop repeating the crap the president is saying!It's all shit and should not be repeated!We keep hearing the same thing over and over.The media should grow some balls, and really go after this goverment!We could do better with people off the street.Big problem you people in the media have sold your souls to this gov't ,just as our elected reps have!You all need to look in the mirror and see what the working slugs see!

Some of the nationalities in the state of Iraq:

Southwest: Arab
West: Kurd
North: Varied caucasian
Rest of country (most of it) east of Zagros Mts.: Persian

Most of those who travel to Europe are Persians and identify themselves as such, rather than Iranians, AFAIK.

More than just "claiming", Bush believed, to this day, as do quite a number of us (at least the 30%+ in his `approval' column) that Saddam posed a WMD threat!

I'm not sure I understand quite what you mean because of your difficulty with the English language, but are you equating belief with fact?

So if I believe that a winged Angelina Jolie will fly me off to a land of sunshine where the rivers flow with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and pizza grows on trees, it will happen, right?

I know this may come as a surprise to someone like you, but believing something doesn't make it so.

If walk around the farm long enough, you don't smell the shit on your boots.

August 21, 2006 at 13:44:17

"Caught on Tape, The Fix is In!"

by Joan Brunwasser

http://www.opednews.com

Caught On Tape, The Fix Is In

Aug 21: Philadelphia, PA -- Caught On Tape, The Fix Is In is a new online video about America's flawed voting process by freelance journalist Lynn Landes, producer of EcoTalk.org. In this 13-minute video Landes strongly urges all political candidates to not concede their races until they or their supporters have verified election results through the collection of voter affidavits or signed statements in some or all precincts. She calls these efforts, "Parallel Elections".

The video begins with a now-infamous clip of Congressman Peter King (NY-R) on the White House lawn just before the 2004 presidential election. "The election is over. We won." (Reporter's voice, "How do you know that?") "It's all over, but the counting. And we'll take care of the counting," King boasts.

Also featured are some fascinating clips of an examination of the Danaher voting system by Pennsylvania state officials in November of 2004. In one clip a company representative admits that, in their computer program, every candidate's name must have a party identifier next to it. Landes notes that this feature enables the company to skew election results across-the-board in favor of one party over the other before the machines ever leave the factory floor.

Landes cautions viewers not to jump to conclusions, "Most voting machine companies have close ties to the Republican Party and most voting machine irregularities appear to favor Republicans, but I must emphasize, that is not always the case. Even in Republican and Democratic primaries, where the race is between members of the same party, voting machines are exhibiting suspicious irregularities. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party and the Green Party's measured response to the gravity of this situation makes one wonder."

The film warns viewers that election officials and voting machine companies can easily manipulate votes and not get caught. They accomplish this through the use of the secret ballot, voting machines, and absentee or early voting.

"It wasn't always this way," she notes.

In the first half of our nation's history, Landes points out, elections in America were open and observable. It was only after the Civil War, as the right to vote expanded to African Americans, that the voting process itself began to recede from public view and meaningful oversight. It started with absentee voting by the military in the 1870's, the use of secret ballots in the 1880's, and voting by machine in the 1890's. Today, approximately 30% of all voting is conducted early or by absentee, 95% of all votes are processed by machines, and 100% of all ballots are secret and anonymous. Landes proposes th at these voting methods be rescinded and banned.

To view video see: http://www.ecotalk.org/votingsecurity.htm

I was at the Oriental Museum at the University of Chicago Friday with my daughters. There was history of Iraq dating back 7,000 years. The entire universe according to Dubya is only 60 years old.

Then we walked in the rain and saw snakes on a plane.

How ironic that Rockefeller used part of his oil money and our governments oil influence to catalog one of the best museums on the ancient middle east.

Now we just shock and awe.

Electronic Voting Attitudes

This article is a must read!

Thanks for the new thread David Corn.

Did you really think Bush would say anything other than "Stay The Course"?, and "Wire tapping helps me to listen to 'them alkeeda types' or 'el -kayda', you know, 'them bad arabs'. Did you actually expect him to come out and offer a logical and cogent statement?
David, if you really thought otherwise, would you please elaborate why you might feel that way?

I worry about ya sometimes, but thanks anyway.

Cheers,
th

On TomDispatch today, guest Michael Schwartz writes compellingly and knowledgably about Iraq. Highly recommended (after reading the quotes from Bush in David Corn's piece today...)

Rove trying to pass Bush off as a kinder gentler pathological liar/killer...

Today as I drove from Dayton Ohio to Athens I listened to the press conference. I begin to worry when Bush begins to sound reasonable to me. His tone and demeanor have changed so much over the years that at moments I forget the facts.

Under the Bush administration's watch 9/11, LIES LIES AND MORE LIES ABOUT WMD'S,illegal invasion of Iraq, torture, torture, torture, tens of thousands dead, record breaking oil profits, high gas prices, rape of Iraqi children, Enron, Delay, Abramoff, slow response to Katrina, absolutely no one held accountable for false pre-war intelligence, children left behind, etc etc.

I knew the old Bush would come through during the press conference, it did not take long before he was lying though his teeth.

When...THE PRESIDENT said: Nothing, except for it's part of -- and nobody has ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack. Iraq was a -- the lesson of September the 11th is, take threats before they fully materialize....Nobody has ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were ordered by Iraq.

Bush is truely a patholigical liar. Even though Rove is trying to pass him off as a kinder gentler patholigical liar

### Congressman Strickland (running for Governor) kicked Ohio's Secretary of State Blackwells ( the Republicon running)ass in a debate today.

Are Corn folks involved in races in their own states? I sure hope so.

Gerald, there is NO substitue for pencil and paper! Computers introduce too many variables which the neo-conartists are using to their advantage.

Missing? an effective way to eliminate touch screen machines from the voting booth. Pointing to the machines vulnerabilities and publishing theat fact in the MSM is a start.

The only good voting machine is one that is out of order and unuseable.

Hey Bro Tex!

Keep the Brotherhood strong!

-T

#42 geofo1..thanks for the information about the museum show in Chicago having to do with Iraq's history. Moved my middle daughter (26) to Chicago this summer, I will let her know.

Iraq's history is undergoing some "creative destruction" according to the Micheal Ledeen/Rove/Bush administration strategies.
To hell with these killers.

DDDon:

Am I getting to you? Can't say that I'm displeased! Did you hear Ford's going to cut back even more than last week's announcement! My condolences to you & your Motor City Daisies!

Fire Away!

That's my boy, Hapless...cheering on the loss of American jobs!

Quite the dick, aren't you? I'd love to take you into a bar on Schaefer or Van Dyke and have you breathlessly repeat your excitement over the declining auto industry.

Juan Cole today cites a poll, stating that 90% of Iraqis want Americans out.

But then Bush doesn't read, does he?

#51 Don good idea.

Then we walked in the rain and saw snakes on a plane. -
geof01

Last I heard planes had air conditioners and snakes were cold-blooded...somebody wake these mutherfuckin' snakes up...

god is a woman! (kate bush)
no! the devil is a woman! (ann coulter)
god is in the details! (moonlight sonata)

no!
god is a bullet.
- jeanette napolitano

Adapting to global warming --- As pointed out, humans evolved and survived during quite dramatic episodes of rapid climate change, the most dramatic being the last glacial maximum. Yes, approximately 500,000 people, hunter-gathers all, did so.

But 6.5 billion people require drinking water, already in short supply, food, etc. The predictions of the climatologists are not just 'warmer', but burstier weather, upsetting argricultural practices, increased ranges for pests and deseases, etc., etc.

After reading Jared Diamond's "Collapse", in which at least three of the collapses were due to abrupt climate change, and two others to other forms of environmental degradation, I feel the future is likely to grow ever grimer, for everyone.

Do not delude yourself, those who doubt...

Re #55: Engineers claim that the devil is in the details. But then, what do engineers know?

51
That's my boy, Hapless...cheering on the loss of American jobs!

Posted by: Don at August 21, 2006 06:55 PM
===============================================
You deliberately twisted my first post on Ford's problems and I let you `slide' w/it! Whatever!

I don't know a soul in Detroit and you will have to be your troubled city's stand-in.....Sad, It's no wonder American Auto industry is in trouble if Detroiters are like you!

on The Northwest Passage.

I heard that Canada is taking action to secure control over the opening shipping lanes that will, as the ice recedes, offer an alternate Atlantic-Pacific shipping corridor.

I wonder what effect, if any, this might have on the speed of cargo transfer. While it might be true that a year-round ice-free route is many years off, one rarely gets to imagine the impact of Canada's northern coast as a developable region.

Just a thought while cuttin' grass...

-T

#23

Nice work and very true. I appologise for the confusion that my earlier post may have created. I was only trying to show that Washingotn did not do it. Haste makes waste.

In Bill Kristol's latest article at the National Review Kristol labels Democrats who voted for (D) Ted Lamont instead of (I)(D) Liebermann "The Bugs Bunny Democrats".

I guess that would make Bill Kristol the Elmer Fudd of the Republican's (who wants Democracy spread at the end of a barrel of a gun) and the right wing radicals in control of the Bush administration's foreign policy the Wile D. Coyote's of the Republican party.

This group seems committed to driving our nation over the cliff. Beep! Beep!

Kristol seems to have forgotten that Bugs Bunny earned his right to defend himself against Elmer Fudd and Wile D. Coyote. Bugs Bunny always won!

They're all carrot and no stick.
by William Kristol
08/21/2006, Volume 011, Issue 46

We should work diplomatically and aggressively to give them reasons why they [the Iranians] don't need to build a bomb, to give them incentives. . . . I'd like to use carrots as well as sticks to see if we can change the nature of the debate.

--Ned Lamont, April 25, 2006

Ned Lamont's victory over Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut primary was a triumph for the European wing of the Democratic party. So it's fitting that Lamont is pro-carrot. It was impossible to go to Europe during Bush's first term without getting a lecture about the utility of carrots, the futility of sticks, and the Bush administration's regrettable neglect of the former and unfortunate proclivity for the latter. So Lamont is an appropriate spokesman for what one might call the Bugs Bunny caucus that now dominates the Democratic party.

Lieberman is fighting that dominance by not conceding his seat to Lamont--but others are rushing to ingratiate themselves to the new powers that be in their party. Former Clinton U.N. ambassador and hopeful Democratic secretary of state Richard Holbrooke--something of a Liebermanite in the past--tried to get right with the Bugs Bunny-ites in a Washington Post op-ed two days after Lamont's victory. His point? More diplomacy. In particular, we need "sustained high-level diplomacy" with Syria and Iran.

Faster Please! Put Micheal Ledeen the Creative Destruction Kingpin behind bars, FASTER PLEASE. Before he is successful at convincing this administration to kill more innocent people in Iran and Syria.

National Review
August 14, 2006,
The Real War ...
…Øne more time.

By Michael Ledeen
Watching the war in Lebanon and listening to the debate about it, is just like watching the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and its attendant debate. Israelis are demanding the resignation of Olmert, just as Americans are demanding the head of Bush. Israeli military experts, real and self-proclaimed, are explaining how the Lebanon war could have been won, if only the ground campaign had started earlier, or had been more ambitious. American strategists of varying competence are explaining how the Iraq war could have been won, if only there were more boots on the ground, or if only a different strategy had been employed, or if only the Baathist army had been kept intact.

I think it’≥ nonsense. Both campaigns and both debates suffer from the same narrow focus, the same failure of strategic vision, the same obsession with a single campaign in a single place, when the war itself —†the real war —†is far wider. Our leaders and our pundits are fighting single battles, and, since their strategies are not designed to win the real war, they are doomed to fail. The failure of strategic vision is not unique to politicians, or pundits, or military strategists; it seems common to them all. It is extremely rare to hear an authoritative voice addressing the real war.

The terror masters in Syria and Iran are waging a regional war against us, running from Afghanistan and Iraq to, Gaza, Israel, and Lebanon. Alongside the ground war in the Middle East, they are conducting fifth-column operations against us from Europe to India and on to Indonesia, Australia, and the United States; the plot just dismantled in Great Britain provides the latest evidence.

At National Review

Nothing like a little PBS for spongin' up some factoids!

"Shhhhhhhh, be vewy vewy quiet; I'm hunting wabbits, ehehehehehehe." said Elmer Fudd and Bill Kristol

The Need to Defend Our New Northwest Passage

Hajji and others -- this is an interesting article regarding the Northwest Passage -- from The Tyee, in Vancouver, BC. The Tyee is an independent alternative daily newspaper in British Columbia; since we're neighbors, many in my town read this paper, too.

When will bush put Canada on its invasion list?! Prophetic headline? Bush Invades The World

Olmert wonders "when will you folks get it? Do as we say not as we do. That ceasefire applies to Hezbollah not Israel".

Israeli warplanes roar over Lebanon
By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Writer Mon Aug 21, 8:37 AM ET

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israeli warplanes roared over Lebanon's northern Mediterranean coast and along its border with
Syria on Monday, after the Lebanese defense minister warned rogue Palestinian rocket teams against attacking
Israel and provoking retaliation that could unravel an already shaky cease-fire.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said countries that don't have diplomatic relations with Israel should not be permitted to contribute troops to an international peacekeeping force for southern Lebanon. That would eliminate Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh —†among the only countries to have offered front-line troops for the expanded force.

Olmert also ruled out peace talks with Syria as long as it supports "terror organizations." Earlier Monday, a top government official suggested it was time to resume talks with Syria despite its support for Hezbollah.

#65

A very good piece, but as it points out very clearly, there is no need to invade as Canada can do nothing to stop anyone who wants to go through. Dooh!!! We disbanded our military just a bit too early. The Korean Ice Breakers look a whole lot like catcher processors to me. Anyone who has been to Northern Canada will look a little askance at the claim that this would be a good way to move drugs or people into Canada. Ya you would technically be in Canada but you would be a long road less way from any people.

Drying up the Okanagan

This article reminded me of the time recently I went to a small museum on the Semihamoo Spit which is not too far from where I live. To get there, one passes by a "gated-community" (gated from whom?!) that hugs a HUGE emerald green golf course, with man-made ponds to make the golfers' task more interesting.

Anyhoo...at every "gated-gate," there was a reminder to the homeowners to use water wisely because of the summer heat, lack of rain, low reserves, etc. Many lawn spinklers were missing their targets and spraying the driveways leading up to the 3 and 4 car garages.

Go figure.

#67 Yeah -- no roads to no where and the Alcan isn't exactly easy street.

An aside -- about Alaska, not Canada -- I wonder how many people from the Lower 48 realize that there are no roads into Alaska's state capital, Juneau.

#69

As a result Jeneau has the lowest bank robbery stats in the country!

Breaking News at JTA

Dozens of Israeli reservists marched to Jerusalem demanding the Israeli prime minister’≥ resignation because of his management of the war.

Think David called this a while back.

By MATT APUZZO and JOHN SOLOMON

Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON — Then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage met with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward in mid-June 2003, the same time the reporter has testified an administration official talked to him about CIA employee Valerie Plame.

Armitage's official State Department calendars, provided to The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, show a one-hour meeting marked "private appointment" with Woodward on June 13, 2003.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has investigated whether Bush administration officials intentionally revealed Plame's identity as a one-time CIA covert operative to punish her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, for criticizing the administration's march to war with Iraq.

When contacted at home Monday night, Woodward declined to discuss his meeting with Armitage or the identity of his source in the CIA leak case. Instead, he referred to his statement last year that he had a "casual and offhand" discussion about Plame with an unidentified administration official in mid-June 2003.

A person familiar with the information prosecutors have gathered, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because the material remains sealed, said Woodward's meeting with the confidential source was June 13, 2003.

The calendar released to the AP is the first confirmation that Woodward and Armitage met during the key time in the CIA leak case that was the focus of Fitzgerald's probe.

The identity of Woodward's source remains one of the big mysteries in the case because the Post reporter is the first member of the news media known to have discussed Plame's CIA employment with an administration official.

Woodward's former Post editor, Ben Bradlee, has speculated publicly that Armitage was the reporter's "likely source."

And defense attorneys for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the lone administration official charged in the CIA leak case, also have suggested Armitage could have been Woodward's source when they unsuccessfully tried to persuade a court to order the release of State Department documents.

Fitzgerald's office declined comment Monday. Reached at his home in Virginia, Armitage said he could not discuss his cooperation with Fitzgerald's office, the meeting with Woodward or any details of the case.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, faces trial in January on charges he lied to authorities about conversations he had with reporters about Plame.

Libby's lawyer, William Jeffress, said Monday that Armitage's calendar only bolsters the defense's argument that information about the State Department official's role in the CIA leak affair should be released.

"I would hope that the facts on that would come out," Jeffress said. "We have asked for information as to Woodward's source in discovery but that has been denied."

Woodward's current boss, Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., said Monday, "We are not going to disclose the identity of a confidential source."

Woodward has said he received a written release from his confidentiality obligation to the source and was even asked by his source to tell prosecutors about their conversation. But he has refused to publicly identify the person.

Woodward has said Plame came up incidentally during an interview he was conducting for a book he wrote on the Iraq war. He said the source told him that Plame was a CIA analyst on weapons of mass destruction, and no evidence has emerged in public that Woodward's source actually knew she had been a covert agent. Fitzgerald has signaled there are no plans - beyond the Libby indictment - to prosecute any other officials for releasing Plame's identity.

Armitage's calendar also shows that a week before Woodward's meeting with Armitage, the deputy secretary of state met for 15 minutes with Libby.

That meeting occurred as State officials were about to prepare a report outlining how Plame's husband was sent to Niger before the Iraq war to check unverified intelligence that Iraq was seeking nuclear materials from Africa.

Wilson reported back to the Bush administration that he was unable to verify the claim, but the administration continued to use the information to bolster its argument for war. Wilson has cited the decision to rely on the bad intelligence in his criticisms of the administration.

Two people familiar with the meeting, however, said the Libby-Armitage meeting dealt with issues involving Pakistan and said the subject of the CIA leak case wasn't raised. Both spoke only on condition of anonymity because some information about the meeting remains classified.

Here’s a look at the rhetoric being pushed by neocons to scare the American people into supporting military action:

- “What is the significance of Aug. 22? […] This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary of the world. It is far from certain that Mr. Ahmadinejad plans any such cataclysmic events precisely for Aug. 22. But it would be wise to bear the possibility in mind.” [Bernard Lewis op-ed, Wall Street Journal, 8/8/06]

- “We all hope and pray that August 22 is not the day Ahmadinejad has chosen to launch the apocalypse, but there is little doubt in the White House and at the CIA that the Iranian leader is feverishly trying to build, buy, or steal nuclear weapons, and that he will quite likely use them once he has them.” [Joel Rosenberg, National Review, 8/10/06]

- “Will [Ahmadinejad] attempt to make good on these threats this year on the anniversary of the Miraj [August 22], illuminating the night sky over Jerusalem? Will Western powers heed Farid Ghadry’s words and move to stop Iran before it is too late?” [Front Page Magazine, 7/27/06]

- “It’s an important symbolic day for jihadists. And I’m curious to see what happens on Tuesday. [Ahmadinejad] may just say no or he may do something a little more dramatic, launch a missile or something, to show that - Iranian defiance of what looks like an impotent West.” [Bill Kristol, Fox News Sunday, 8/20/06]

- “‘The only thing we can know is that the date was not chosen by accident,’ said Robert Spencer, Director of Jihadwatch.org and an adjunct fellow at the Free Congress Foundation, a conservative think tank. ‘It does seem very likely, very probable, that he has something major in mind, whether only a major announcement or a major attack, we will soon see.’” [The Blotter, ABC News, 8/21/06]

It’s worth noting that a bipartisan group military experts believe there are no good military options against Iran.

I thought the French were going to lead this little goat rodeo? Hmmm bad memories of Bosnia? Wonder who they want to come in and fix the problem? Funny that they could not stop the killing of Muslims in their backyard and now they want to avoid the problem again. Ms. Rice needs to find a new job.

PARIS, Aug. 20 — The shaky, United Nations-brokered cease-fire in Lebanon suffered another blow on Sunday when the European countries that had been called upon to provide the backbone of a peacekeeping force delayed a decision on committing troops until the mission is more clearly defined.

Their reservations postponed any action on the force at least until Wednesday, when the European Union will take up the issue.

Haunted by their experiences in Bosnia in the 1990’s, when their forces were unable to stop widespread ethnic killing, European governments are insisting upon clarifying the chain of command and rules of engagement before plunging into the even greater complexities of the Middle East.

“In the past, when peacekeeping missions were not properly defined, we’ve seen major failures,’’ a spokeswoman for the French Foreign Ministry, Agnès Romatet-Espagne, said Sunday. “There are the bad memories of Bosnia. This time we want the answers beforehand, so we don’t come to the problems when they have happened.’’

In addition, a senior French official said, “Italy, Spain and Finland have raised the same questions as France has.” Following the usual diplomatic practice, the official asked not to be identified. A spokesman for the Spanish Foreign Ministry said Spain was willing to send troops, “but the rules have to be clarified and agreed on.”

Some countries, like Australia, which has placed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, have flatly refused to commit troops. “We have no intention of making any significant contribution,” said a senior Australian government official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. “We don’t have any confidence in it. It is not going to have the mandate to disarm Hezbollah.”

I watched some of the press conference. I don't think that a whole bottle of anti-depressants could counteract its effect on me. He, like Johnson and Nixon before him, is in total denial of reality.

Is America able to bring about our stated ends in Iraq? That is the pertinent question. The answer is no. The political soil of Iraq cannot bring forth democracy....not when its own citizens blow up each other, sit on rooftops and play sniper on unarmed worshipers of another faith, not when all factions are practicing ethnic cleansing, where the un-safest place to live is in an mixed-ethnicity neighborhood, where government corruption is rampant, and THE F*CKING PARLIAMENT CAN'T EVEN PASS A SINGLE LAW. We cannot bring forth the "freedom agenda" in Iraq. The entire notion is fantasy.

Bob

Have folks seen this clip of Keith Olbermans at Truthout having to do with politicizing terror. This one is a must see.

Would someone be so kind to link this for me I would greatly appreciate it. At Truthout

Keith Olbermann | Terror and Politics in America
Keith Olbermann does a stunning job of laying out a five year history of Bush administration Terror Alerts that came at moments when the administration may have wanted to change the subject.

North Dakota Bob. How many times did Bush say that we can not leave until the "job is done". Yet he will never/ever define "done" He is a madman.

Kathleen, glad you're back! Aug. 22nd? I thought doomsday was 6-6-06?

Neocons Always Have a "Plan B"
It turns out that Israel Defense Force Chief of Staff Dan Halutz dumped a lot of stock within a few hours of the "kidnapping" of two Israeli soldiers by Hizbollah. He even left an urgent meeting because of the crisis to do it.

NeoCons Are Busy Covering Their Asse(t)s
Israeli press reports about the Israeli Defense Force's Chief of Staff dumping stocks just before war broke out served as a reminder that the very leaders who demand that citizens trust them to do what is best for the country are often busy covering their asse(t)s in case their policies don't work out so well. In the case of Dan Halutz, the man in charge of Israel's war against Hezbollah and Lebanon, the Israeli general was so confident in his own war plans that he felt it prudent to dump his entire portfolio of stocks as his colleagues were meeting to give the go ahead for war.

There's a long tradition of tyrants and despots who stashed money and bought villas outside the borders of the country they were terrorizing. Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, who looted and strong-armed the Philippines for decades, had their Hawaii getaway. Idi Amin, the butcher of Uganda, was never tried and imprisoned for his crimes against his people, but instead spent 20 years living luxuriously in Saudi Arabia. Jean-Claude ("Baby Doc") Duvalier hasn't gone to prison yet either, though his wealthy playboy lifestyle in French Cote d'Azur seems to have been ended by a rancorous and expensive divorce.

But the United States is no banana republic. Surely its leaders, especially those who send other Americans off to war, would never contemplate profiting personally from their decisions or evading responsiblity for their mistakes. Well, think again. America's neocon leaders have been busy covering their asse(t)s in case their policies of endless war and raping the American economy produce too much blowback.

Learn who's doing what after the break.

NeoCon Continental

For all the contempt that the NeoCons shower upon "Old Europe," they sure seem to find it a good place to invest and even live. Vice-President Cheney likes to tout how great the American economy is, but he and his wife Lynne don't have much confidence in the dollar. Kiplinger Reports took a close look at the Cheney's financial disclosure report recently, and found that the Second Couple is betting against the U. S. economy. The biggest chunk of their estimated $96 million in change is bet on a fund that specializes in predominately European bonds and had only 6% of its assets in dollar-based investments when Kiplinger took a look. (Warren Buffett , no NeoCon, but known for his financial acumen, is doing the same.)

How nice for them. If the Vice-President's relentless push for a new war against Iran succeeds, and oil prices skyrocket to two or three times the previous record, with a resulting collapse of the dollar, it won't be the Cheneys who suffer...
==============
Happy investment strategies!

Shelter from the storm

#42
Geof01
We went to that museum last year with my daughters Girl Scout troop. We did a trip to Chicago. One parent on the trip kept shaking her head at all the artifacts that were stolen from those cultures. She was right.

I can't imagine that anyone in this country would be too happy if Saddam walked into our country and took stuff out of the Smithsonian. Carted off the Lincoln Memorial.

#51
Or take him down to the Ford Plant in St. Paul. I'm sure those people would love to hear what you have to say Happy. There's nothing like having the rug ripped out from under your life. It does great things to the whole family.

Kathleen,
Here you go the Oberman link.

Terror and Politics in America

Thanks Saladin. Spent the last 10 days visiting older relatives. Five hours with an uncle who worked at Wright Patterson Air Force Base for 40 years. He had attended MIT in Mass. and had been drafted by the Army and quickly joined the airforce.

He spent 40 years as an engineer working on the refueling of f/16s mid air and other assorted war machine technology. He hates this war, and these efforts to use pre-emptive unilateral aggression as a strategy.

Funny how your mind changes about people in your family as you get older. One of my cousins ( who has been the head of the Quaker American Friends in Dayton for 37 years) and I stood outside of Wright Patterson protesting the Vietnam War as 5 of our relatives went into design killing machines. Four of those very same relatives all in their late seventies early eighties were completely against the illegal invasion of Iraq.

He also hates to think about dying when this country is leaning over a cliff and is directly responsible for tens of thousands dying.

He is working on the Strickland campaign. There is going to be a tidal wave for the Democrats in Ohio if the machines are working fairly.

Jeanne-

When are the Ford folks going to realize that foreign owned plants are expanding in the US? The UAW and Ford and GM management killed those jobs. Supply and demand. Build cars that people want and guess what? You have a job. US car companies and US airlines have a lot in common.

Thanks Jeanne! That Olberman piece is so worth watching.

Neoconservatives Predict The Apocalypse Starts Tomorrow

For months, neoconservatives have been pushing for regime change in Iran. In their latest effort to beat the war drums and undermine diplomacy, they are attaching great significance to August 22 - the date Iran said it would respond to an incentives package from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

August 22 is a day "some Shiite sects believe...could correspond to the end of the world." That's enough for neoconservatives to conclude Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have "chosen to launch the apocalypse" tomorrow.

----------
We'll miss the World Series.

Kathleen-

Do you believe that the police in the US should carry weapons?

80
....One parent on the trip kept shaking her head at all the artifacts that were stolen from those cultures.....

I can't imagine that anyone in this country would be too happy if Saddam walked into our country and took stuff out of the Smithsonian...

Posted by: Jeanne at August 21, 2006 10:26 PM
================================================
Jeanne, why do you so despise the US and by extension, the West! I am no archeologist but I don't `Blame America/West First'!

The much more advanced West took an interest, scientific & cultureal, in the ancient civilazations & artifacts of the Asia, Mid-East, Central/South America, etc....And they mounted what must have been grueling and costly expeditions across the oceans to meticulously unearth such artifacts...Stealing? I would imagine not and that some kind of exchange took place to gain the local's permission to conduct these Digs!

I have been a lifelong reader of the National Geographic and I know that the locals throughout their respective histories, are often the first ones to stumble upon or unearth some significant finds. And what do they do? They take (without taking care in doing so), what is of value, gold, silver, gemstones, etc. and severely damage or otherwise disturb the remaining artifiacts.

Without the West's insatiable sense of discovery and adventure, the pyramids of Egypt would probably have been totally stripped of anything worth studying; had the West not gotten there!

The museums of the West have certainly returned some artifacts and perhaps could do more.

And your analogy of Saddam robbing the Smithsonian as something equivalent to the very deliberate & scientific archeological digs conducted by thousands of educated anthropologists/archeologists, is in poor taste!

#84
The "Ford folks" just go to work everyday. They don't have a lot of say about the auto production. I agree that Ford leadership needs to get its ass into the 21st Century. We would have been so much better off with a president like Gore who would have taken progressive ideas and gotten the car companies growing. The car companies would have been less concerned with the bottom line and the stockholders and more concerned with innovation.

I watched the MSM for the last two days it was disgusting completely focused on the JonBenet case. Showing the same clips over and over again. My 80 year old parents were completely disgusted. When will the MSM get it..they are going to continue to lose viewers.

Yesterday, a federal judge in Michigan issued “a sweeping rebuke of the once-secret domestic-surveillance effort the White House authorized following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.” The ruling was “a significant blow to Bush’s attempts to expand presidential powers,” but you wouldn’t know that by watching last evening’s network newscasts.

All three major TV networks led their evening news with stories on JonBenet Ramsey’s death and the comments made by arrested teacher John Mark Karr. The networks offered multiple segments and numerous expert analyses to provide in-depth coverage on the legal case. The NSA decision received only a passing mention from two of the newscasts, while ABC devoted a full segment to it.

Still, ABC devoted twice as much time to Ramsey as it did to the NSA story. More egregiously, CBS offered seven times as much airtime to Ramsey as it did to the NSA story, while NBC devoted 15 times more airtime. Below is a comparison of the allocation of time made by each network:

NETWORK RAMSEY SEGMENT NSA SEGMENT
NBC 7:39 0:27
CBS 3:23 0:25
ABC 4:03 2:00

#88
Happy wrote...
The much more advanced West took an interest, scientific & cultureal, in the ancient civilazations & artifacts of the Asia, Mid-East, Central/South America, etc
--------
That says it all. Since when are we more advanced? We are just arrogant enough to think we're more advanced.

Bush remains lost in Iraq, with the rest of the country (and the world) held hostage by the mistakes and miscalculations he will not concede.

Posted by David Corn at August 21, 2006 03:28 PM

#89

Why have the foreign companies, operating in the same US, with American workers, been so successful? Could it have anything to do with the UAW? Granted the management sucks but I have never had anything but problems with the two Ford products that I owned. Nice design, but the workmanship was a freaking joke. If they go to work and get a paycheck, then how about making sure that the wires don’t looked like they were installed by a drunken monkey? That is not a design or management issue, that is pure laziness.

#90

At least that pervert has a small chance of being convicted of murder. The NSA case has no hope of being upheld.

Some of you do not realize that Toyota has set up several plants in the US. The latest being in San Antonio, TX set to open later this year! A shitload of auto jobs in the MidWest have moved to the South, but you guys know that!

Accoutability, your very favorite word, for the problems of the US auto industry lie with both Managment and Labor. This past spring, I kept abreast of the negotiations between Delphi, its unions and GM (Delphi's ex-parent). WSJ covered it extensively and well. Those readings crystallized what most of us had known, more or less, for decades. It was really sad to read the many points in time where Management and Labor should have, and could have, joined hand instead of being selfish AND short-sighted! It seems, we humans just don't learn without massive pain!

History, not always the `pretty' ones, repeats itself more than it should!

89
.....The car companies would have been less concerned with the bottom line and the stockholders...
Posted by: Jeanne at August 21, 2006 11:03 PM
==============================================
Your prototype of a car company is one fast going out of business! Do a Google search on Renault when it was majority owned by the French government! Find out how it was saved!

With Toyota, BMW, Mercedes, Nissan, etc... available as alternate investments, why would anybody, other than a government, invest in a car company that has as its primary goal, of providing high-paying jobs and not profit?

Do none of you own stocks or funds through 401(k)? If you do and yet harbor these rabid anti-capitalist thoughts, YOU are doing a huge disservice to your own financial future! Go learn, you all have the time!

50 DDDon: Am I getting to you? Can't say that I'm displeased! Did you hear Ford's going to cut back even more than last week's announcement! My condolences to you & your Motor City Daisies!Fire Away!

Posted by: Happy but no Daisies at August 21, 2006

51 That's my boy, Hapless...cheering on the loss of American jobs! Quite the dick, aren't you? I'd love to take you into a bar on Schaefer or Van Dyke and have you breathlessly repeat your excitement over the declining auto industry.

Posted by: Don at August 21, 2006 06:55 PM

Douchebag Hapless took a bath on auto stocks so he feels entitled to some mean-spirited calousness toward the american auto worker.

#83 Four of those very same relatives all in their late seventies early eighties were completely against the illegal invasion of Iraq.

They were in the Vietnam war? That's kinda old, but maybe there's an explanation that I'm missing. Perhaps they were orchestrating the war? Old men making war for young men to fight and all that....

Most of the people I know who were in the war are not nearly that that age.

Yes Micki you did miss something "Funny how your mind changes about people in your family as you get older. One of my cousins ( who has been the head of the Quaker American Friends in Dayton for 37 years) and I stood outside of Wright Patterson protesting the Vietnam War as 5 of our relatives went into design killing machines." That's right Micki 5 uncles "designing killing machines". Four of these uncles have very different perspectives after Vietnam( one of them is dead.) Four uncles served in WWII. If you are still having a problem understanding let me know.

Later

97
...Douchebag Hapless took a bath on auto stocks so he feels entitled to some mean-spirited calousness toward the american auto worker.

Posted by: jlc through the looking glass at August 21, 2006 11:39 PM
=============================================
Wrong! I bought GM, my very first auto stock, at $20 in spring! Go look where it's at today!

You pay attention, you might learn a thing or two!

Goodnight all! Let's hope tomorrow is a better $ day!

About this JonBenet distraction.

I am sick and tired of people pissing and moaning about the amount of coverage devoted to this story. Yeah, it's way too much coverage because it doesn't warrant but an inside page mention, but how the f**k do you know it's too much coverage? You know, BECAUSE YOU ARE WATCHING THE CABLE "NEWS" CHANNELS and you think you're watching the "news." Turn that crap off. Don't watch it. Don't help boost their ratings. It's not news. It's infotainment at best.

Okay, since Kathleen brought up this distracting topic again, I'll say something that bothered me about this case 10 years ago -- her parents were the ones who CALLED news conferences. Talk about grandstanding. They could have kept their mouths shut. But, no. They sought attention. The cable news channels camped on their doorstep, taking the bait, looking for "news." They chose to "defend" themselves in the media -- well, they were feeding the frenzy. They must have had a really bad PR consultant -- imagine even wanting a "consultant" in this case. But they did. Sick.

What a bunch of bullshit. The poor (rich) little girl was brutally murdered. Some horrible person did it. But if "we, the people" -- THE CONSUMERS -- of news would look deeper and ignore the fluff and the so-called "news" that has no effect on our individual lives, this crapola would die.

#99 No need to get testy, Kathleen. I asked a reasonable question. I mentioned on a previous thread, late last week, about my uncles who were in WWII -- one killed, one injured...well, nevermind, there were others.. We are a family against war -- except for one black sheep, who actually was stationed at Wright Patterson at one point.

You don't need to explain anything to me. But thanks for the offer.

MP.5.youaremighty.com

...I stood outside of Wright Patterson protesting the Vietnam War as 5 of our relatives went into design killing machines." That's right Micki 5 uncles "designing killing machines".

Well, if you had said, "went in to design..." it would have a clearer meaning.

I guess I'm just too particular about clarity. Silly me.

mammoth oysters attack!

Posted by: Happy bragging at August 21, 2006

Here's to hoping you stocks tank and margin calls cause you to take a second mortgage on your home. . . you can't handle the debt service, your mortgage is forclosed, they take your home and you loose your internet service. When that happens, drop us line.

102 doesn't sound like micki to me. sounds like troll feces.

Happy, When are you going to learn to compose a sentence that conveys a complete and coherent thought not four or five unintelligible fragments?

American Soldiers

2,938 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan for Bush and his lies.

18,500+ American soldiers have been maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan for Bush and his evil lies.

55,000+ of the 140,000 American soldiers are suffering from PTSD. Stress disorder has increased and the percentage is now around 40%.

Over 350,000+ Iraqis have been killed in Iraq since Bush declared shock and awe bombings on March 19, 2003.

Contamination from depleted uranium may have affected 125,000+ American soldiers and several million Iraqis.

I will try to share with you a money figure for our war and occupation in Iraq. Our government taps into different bottomless money wells for wars and it is difficult to always know the correct amount of money that is being spent. Money figures will probably change from time to time. By 2010 we will have spent in Iraq $1.2 trillion. We will be in Iraq for at least 50 years and the money figure that is mentioned is $8 to 10 trillion. We will probably never leave Iraq, especially with 14 permanent bases in Iraq and of the 14 permanent bases 4 are mega military bases. Iraq will have access to a bottomless money well.

BUSH IS A UNITER! HE HAS UNITED THE TERRORISTS AROUND THE WORLD TO MAKE NAZI AMERICA, ENEMY NUMBER ONE! Are you feeling more safe and secure with Bush in the WH and Cheney as his chief hatchet man overseeing Nazi America and her citizens?

Our military men and women are used as cannon fodder for a terrorist Nazi American government.

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, AND NEITHER DO WE. George W. Bush, August 5, 2005

Rigged elections doom American democracy. American soldiers are being killed and maimed TO PROMOTE A NAZI AMERICAN STATE.

Henry Kissinger says that military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy. Does this mean our American soldiers are only cannon fodder to be murdered and maimed through our evil foreign policies and practices?

Nazi America is a mirror image of Hitler Bush.

Nazi Americans continually justify sin.

Nazi Americans are accomplices with Bush for his murders and war crimes.

The Bush Regime's war on terror has defeated truth and the constitutional protections of liberty in the United States. No conceivable number of Muslim terrorists could inflict comparable damage on America.

Since Israel chooses not to be the Light to the World, Iran must do what she can to protect herself from the devil incarnate nation, aka United Nazis of America, and Israel's brutal and merciless attack upon the Lebanese people in July by Israel's military machine. We must not forget that Israel has a large nuclear arsenal waiting to be used.

Jeanne 86, they should really get their descriptions straight. Apocalypse means an unveiling or revealing. Maybe they mean Armegeddon? And maybe the KKKristian-Zionist fundamentalists are the biggest cheerleaders of all.

Kathleen, Jeanne, Gerald ..... love your posts.

Just watched Bush give his press conference on CSpan. What a condescending prick he is to the press. If this war is such a righteous war, why doesn't his daughters enlist? I also saw a special about 911 on Court TV tonight that lasted an hour and a half. It was very good. Very factual. They showed lots of footage I've never seen before. All scenes of the pentagon and Pennsylvania jet crashes had no signs of any wreckage. If you get a chance, watch it. Those buildings were definitley imploded, no doubt. Anyone with eyes can see that. Some things are fact, no opinion necessary.

Sorry Judy, you will soon find yourself subject to a wide range of commentary expressing the fact that you are somewhat lacking in common sense. Believe me, the true believers in the "official" conspiracy theory are religious in their convictions, they know exactly what happened and they also know there is no room for doubt. Do not question or request independent research. The Govt. has already provided everything that you need to reach a sound, patriotic conclusion. Just vote the democrat ticket, they will make it all right again.

I actually read about a candidate today who is running on a ticket to reopen the 911 investigation.

Goodnight

Bushbaby has of late been seen with an existentialist book, Camu I believe.

Suddenly our collective Psyche is bruised? Or is he just trying to justify his division from mainstream America.

There IS Civil War in Iraq, the entire Middle East is a freeking Powder Keg and he has our Troops concentrated at ground freeking Zero.

The existentialists won't help him now.

The decider finally hoisted on the petard of his f uped ideas.

Who knew?

The American people of the wounded phyche.

New Oliver Stone 9/11 Film Introduces 'Single Plane' Theory

NEW YORK—Academy Award-winning director Oliver Stone said Monday that his new film World Trade Center unveils "compelling and controversial" new evidence that a single plane was responsible for all four collisions in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001.

"Get ready to go through the looking glass here, people," Stone told reporters at a Manhattan press conference before an advance screening of the movie, which premieres Wednesday. "The film you are about to see is going to blow the lid off the 9/11 Commission's official report and expose a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of government."

World Trade Center, which stars Nicolas Cage as a dedicated Port Authority officer who stumbles on secret evidence amid the rubble and carnage of the terrorist attack, tells a story quite different from what Stone called "the official government line" about the event. According to the film, at 8:46 a.m., a lone commercial airliner flew diagonally through the North Tower of the World Trade Center, maintained a circular holding pattern for approximately 17 minutes, then struck the South Tower before heading to the Pentagon.

After its collision with the center of American military operations, the so-called "magic plane"—which variously and ingeniously identified itself to air-traffic controllers as "American Airlines Flight 11," "United Airlines Flight 175," "American Airlines Flight 77" and "United Airlines Flight 93"—took to the skies once again, landing at a top-secret "black-ops" Air Force base in West Virginia, where it was reloaded with a group of clones from another shadowy government program that Stone described as "shocking."
=================
I should have put a warning at the top that it was satire because we have a few people posting here that would believe it.
Read the rest, it's funny.

Just in case anybody didn't 'get it', the Onion is making fun of the conspiracy theorists and their followers. *giggles*

I liked this line...

Early public reaction to the film has been skeptical. Many 9/11 conspiracy theorists claim Stone is presenting an exploitative, far-fetched, and manipulative Hollywood version of the pain and suffering—including eye strain and carpal tunnel syndrome—they have undergone during their countless hours on the Internet in the tragedy's aftermath.

Still no trolls! Exept from Happy this and that, who is bragging about his stocks and shares. I hope you have a fixed income on the side of your speculations in the stock market. Remember 1929? Looong time ago, but it can happen again! Companies can go bankrupt as well, like in the following story:
Some years ago, a German reporter stated that Norway must be the last pradise on earth. When he was asked why, he said: "Norway is the only country in modern history where a weapon plant went bankrupt!" This is true. Kongsberg Weapons went bankrupt in the eighties.

Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your Honor. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse: Mark Twain.

=
"In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell." Justice Black. NYT v. US. 403 US 713

=
"Some explanations of a crime are not explanations: they're part of the crime.": Olavo de Cavarlho

===
Thanks ICH Newsletter!

Finish What Job?

President Bush's simplistic rhetoric could be used to justify open-ended commitment in Iraq.

PRESIDENT BUSH EMPHASIZED no fewer than 10 times in his news conference Monday that U.S. forces would not leave Iraq "before the job is done." It's a clever piece of rhetoric, appealing to Americans' sense of duty as well as their pride. Just one question: What was that job again?

Is it to end the sectarian violence in Iraq? Prevent terrorists from flocking to the United States? Bring democracy to Iraq and thus provide a beacon for reformers throughout the Middle East?

All of the above, apparently and then some. Previous rationales, such as locating Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and avenging 9/11, are no longer convincing even to the president (which should give pause to those few still clinging to them, including some members of Congress). But on Monday, Bush had others at the ready.

At times, the loudest noise at his news conference was the sound of mission creep. In June, Bush conceded that a democratic Iraq will at some point have to stand or fall on its own. ("Success in Iraq," he said, "depends upon the Iraqis.") On Monday, however, Bush said U.S. forces would remain until the Iraqi people "achieve their objectives and their dreams, which is a democratic society." Success may depend on the Iraqis, but it is defined by the Americans.

And the justification for continued U.S. involvement isn't just nation building. Success in Iraq, Bush declared, is central not only to the war on terrorism but to the grandiose strategy of fostering democracy in the Middle East and protecting the flow of oil. "A failed Iraq would make America less secure," Bush said. "A failed Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will provide safe haven for terrorists and extremists. It will embolden those who are trying to thwart the ambitions of reformers. In this case, it would give the terrorists and extremists an additional tool besides safe haven, and that is revenues from oil sales."

This debate is not, as the president would like it to be, over whether one supports or opposes "a failed Iraq." Of course no one wants a failed Iraq just as no one wants a failed Somalia or a failed Haiti.

Yet the U.S. has finite resources, and whatever effect they have in Iraq is blunted by the growing civil war there. The U.S. mission has a patchwork of goals supporting democrats, providing transitional security and, above all, making it less likely that Iraq becomes an exporter of terror. Some goals are short term, others not; some are complementary, others in conflict; some may suggest a reduction in U.S. military involvement, others an increase.

In tying together several U.S. objectives in one vital "job," Bush is trying to make it harder for critics of an open-ended U.S. commitment to question any particular goal. The debate that needs to take place is about which, if any, of those objectives can justify the president's ominously open-ended commitment.

More HERE

Israeli minister calls for talks with Syria
By Eric Silver in Jerusalem
Published: 22 August 2006 The Independent UK
A senior Israeli minister suggested yesterday that, in the wake of its inconclusive war with Hizbollah, Israel should consider resuming peace negotiations with Syria. Avi Dichter, the Internal Security Minister, told the army radio station that, in exchange for peace, Israel could return the strategic Golan Heights, conquered in the 1967 war. He noted that Israel had paid similar territorial prices for treaties with Egypt and Jordan. "Any political process is preferable to a military-fighting process," Mr Dichter, a former head of the Shin Bet security service, said. "Syria is a very significant country." Although Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister, ruled out such negotiations unless Syria stopped sponsoring terrorist groups, the idea was already gaining purchase among his colleagues. Tzipi Livni, the Foreign Minister, has appointed a "project manager" to assess the prospects. Amir Peretz, the Defence Minister, and Shimon Peres, the vice-premier, have also speculated about renewing contacts with Damascus, despite recent hostile statements by Syria's President, Bashar Assad. The aim would be to detach Syria from its central role in the Tehran-Damascus-Hizbollah axis before Iran acquires nuclear weapons. "Assad may be a bastard," an official was quoted as saying yesterday, "but it might be better to have him in our camp". Boaz Ganor, a leading Israeli expert on counter-terrorism, urged the US to take the initiative. "It is a strategic goal for the Western world to see that Syria will not stay as a military ally of Iran. I think there is a chance of achieving this kind of goal. Iran and Syria have an artificial alliance." Israel is smarting from its failure to stop Hizbollah's rocket attacks, or get back its two kidnapped soldiers. Residents of the border town Kiryat Shmona told Mr Olmert during a visit yesterday that they felt abandoned. "Where were you?" Yigal Buzaglo, a local councillor, asked him. "Why didn't you look after us?"
After retiring at the weekend as chief infantry officer, Brigadier-General Yossi Hyman said: "We all feel a sense of failure and missed opportunity. We committed the sin of arrogance."

The brutal Anfal campaign against the Kurds

By Anne Penketh The Independent UK

The US and Britain did nothing to stop Saddam Hussein's Anfal campaign against the Kurds because the Iraqi president was then a bulwark against the Shia revolutionary regime in Iran.
Although human rights groups accused Saddam at the time of committing genocide, criticism from Western governments, including Britain, was muted towards the dictator, then viewed as a vital ally against the Islamic Republic. The lack of criticism from Washington may even have emboldened Saddam to invade Kuwait in 1990.
Saddam unleashed the Anfal campaign against the Kurds in 1988 at the end of Iraq's eight-year war with Iran. Amnesty International estimates that more than 100,000 Kurds in northern Iraq were killed or disappeared. The offensive was under the command of Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, who earned the nickname "Chemical Ali" from the military's use of poison gas against the Kurds. It was the first time any government had used toxic gas against its own people. Anfal, during which hundreds of villages were cleared and local people expelled, comprised eight military offensives and ran from February to September 1988.
On 23 February, the Iraqi army launched its first assault, against Kurdish guerrilla headquarters in Sergalou, along a 40-mile front. Survivors say villagers were warned that if they did not flee, they might be killed or "become the victim of chemicals". During the campaign, the Iraqi troops were accused of a systematic eradication of all Kurdish settlements controlled by guerrillas allied to Iran.

Israel Helicopters, Tanks Move Into Gaza

Tuesday August 22, 2006 8:31 AM
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israeli soldiers backed by helicopter gunships, tanks and armored personnel carriers, moved into Palestinian-controlled areas near the main Israel-Gaza cargo crossing on Tuesday, conducting house-to-house searches and arrests. Five Palestinians were wounded moderately, including three Hamas militants, medical officials said. Three Palestinians were arrested, security officials said. The military confirmed an operation near the Karni crossing but wouldn't divulge its objectives. In the past, Israeli troops have searched for tunnels being dug by militants near the crossing. ``They took two of my cousins and asked them about fighters, tunnels and many other issues,'' said farmer Ahmed Helles, 65, whose olive trees were being uprooted by Israeli military bulldozers as part of the operation.
``I was waiting for the harvest, which was to start next month, to pay for the marriage of my grandson, but the bulldozers are destroying my hopes,'' Helles said. Separately, in southern Gaza, the Israeli army moved into farmlands near the town of Khan Younis, firing machine guns into the fields after calling on farmers to evacuate the area, Palestinian security officials said. Cameramen filming the operation said they came under fire but were not wounded.

The army had no immediate comment.

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

Ceasefire in the North, but....

Astronomers offer proof of 'dark matter'

NEW YORK -- Astronomers say they have found the best evidence to date for "dark matter," that mysterious invisible substance that is believed to account for the bulk of the universe's mass.

Using a host of telescopes, researchers focused on the collision between two galactic clusters. They found that most of the gravitational pull from the aftermath of the encounter comes from a relatively empty looking patch of sky, a strong suggestion that there is something more there than meets the eye.

"This provides the first direct proof that dark matter must exist," said Doug Clowe, a research astronomer at the University of Arizona.

More HERE

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Interesting but a bit of a tease as "They will publish their results in a future issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters."

Dark Matter? Is that the space between monnkey-boy's ears?

capt

A War Crime Or An Act of War?

Who really gassed the Kurds?

[..]
This much about the gassing at Halabja we undoubtedly know: it came about in the course of a battle between Iraqis and Iranians. Iraq used chemical weapons to try to kill Iranians who had seized the town, which is in northern Iraq not far from the Iranian border. The Kurdish civilians who died had the misfortune to be caught up in that exchange. But they were not Iraq's main target.

And the story gets murkier: immediately after the battle the United States Defense Intelligence Agency investigated and produced a classified report, which it circulated within the intelligence community on a need-to-know basis. That study asserted that it was Iranian gas that killed the Kurds, not Iraqi gas.

The agency did find that each side used gas against the other in the battle around Halabja. The condition of the dead Kurds' bodies, however, indicated they had been killed with a blood agent —†that is, a cyanide-based gas —†which Iran was known to use. The Iraqis, who are thought to have used mustard gas in the battle, are not known to have possessed blood agents at the time.

These facts have long been in the public domain but, extraordinarily, as often as the Halabja affair is cited, they are rarely mentioned. A much-discussed article in The New Yorker last March did not make reference to the Defense Intelligence Agency report or consider that Iranian gas might have killed the Kurds. On the rare occasions the report is brought up, there is usually speculation, with no proof, that it was skewed out of American political favoritism toward Iraq in its war against Iran.

More HERE

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Worse I think we sold them the stuff they used.

capt

Did Saddam Hussein Gas His Own People?

Reality Checks Needed During War

No doubt, Saddam has mistreated Kurds during his rule. But it's misleading to say, so simply and without context, that he killed his own people by gassing 5,000 Kurds at Halabja.

Halabja (pop. 80,000) is a small Kurdish city in northern Iraq. On Wednesday, the Star reminded readers that Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army killed 5,000 Kurds in a 1988 chemical weapons attack on Halabja near the end of a bloody, eight-year war with Iran.

The statement that Saddam was responsible for gassing the Kurds - his own people - was straightforward.

Indeed, U.S. President George W. Bush has used similar language about the disaster at Halabja in making a case for a military strike to oust Saddam.

Yet the Star also reported, in a Jan. 31 Opinion page column, that there's reason to believe the story about Saddam "gassing his own people" at Halabja may not even be true.

Curious about those contradictory reports, and prodded by Star reader Bill Hynes, the ombud decided to examine how this paper covered the Halabja story 15 years ago, when Washington was tilting toward Saddam's side in the Iran-Iraq war.

More HERE

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If the issue was so murky then I wonder if it is more clear now? Makes the "new" Saddam trial seem more a device for propaganda than a quest for justice. Inflame the emotions and spur revenge.

There must be mountains of evidence of other crimes against the "Butcher of Baghdad" that could convict him in a fair, open and honest proceeding. The choice of a weak case might be more telling than the rest of the process.

capt

There is a mountain of information in:

GENOCIDE IN IRAQ
The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds
A Middle East Watch Report
Human Rights Watch

Mass murder, camps, firing squads, etc. so gassing was only a part of his crimes. Add his prisons and a few mass graves and charge him with all of it. Should be a no brainer. All out in the open.

I guess they might not want it All out in the open.

I hope the "trial" does not turn into a circus.

capt

Give Iraqis Real Justice -- not a U.S. Puppet Show
By Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch

Published in The Globe and Mail

April 10, 2003

Saddam Hussein and his henchmen have been responsible for murdering or "disappearing" some 225,000 Iraqis. Now that his dictatorship is crumbling, what is the best way to bring to justice the surviving members of his government who are responsible for these atrocities?
The Bush administration has proposed an "Iraqi-led" tribunal. It sounds wonderful in theory: Why not entrust the Iraqi people with pursuing the crimes committed against them?
In practice, though, Washington proposes to handpick the Iraqis from among its closest exile and opposition friends. This threatens to aggravate political tensions and undermine the rule of law. Only an internationally-led tribunal will have the independence, credibility, and legitimacy needed to see justice done.
At stake are not Iraq's alleged crimes against U.S. forces, such as executing prisoners of war or attacking troops while pretending to surrender. If the Pentagon can provide evidence of these crimes, no one would quarrel with its right to prosecute the perpetrators on its own.
But these offences pale in comparison with the atrocities that Saddam Hussein and his government committed against the Iraqi people: the so-called Anfal genocide of 1988 in which some 100,000 Kurdish men and boys were rounded up and executed, and entire Kurdish villages assaulted with chemical weapons; the suppression of the 1991 uprisings in the largely Kurdish north and Shia south; and the suppression of the Marsh Arabs in the mid-1990s.
In an ideal world, one would hand the prosecution of these atrocities to Iraqi judges and prosecutors. But there are only two potential sources of Iraqi jurists, and neither is promising. The first, judges and prosecutors who populated Saddam Hussein's brutal and arbitrary justice system, is hardly a source of independent, fair-minded professionals. The second comprises Iraqi jurists in exile, as well as Iraqis from communities historically repressed by the Baath Party who remained in the country. It will be an uphill battle for these people to show they are not so consumed by hatred of the former dictatorship they won't simply assume the guilt of the accused. Moreover, Washington's designees would likely be seen as puppets of Washington, rather than independent dispensers of justice.
A more prudent route would be to find an internationally-led justice process, modeled after the international tribunals set up for Rwanda and former Yugoslavia, perhaps in streamlined form. To facilitate Iraqi involvement, one could emulate the special court for Sierra Leone, which is dominated by international judges but has significant involvement of local jurists. To decide on which format, and to begin preserving and assembling evidence, the United Nations could establish an international commission of inquiry.
An internationally-run court is far more likely than an Iraqi-led tribunal to be seen as a step toward the rule of law rather than a continuation of arbitrary violence. This is essential in a country where, after decades of brutal dictatorship, there is an enormous temptation to summary score-settling. So why does the Bush administration press for a tribunal led by hand-picked Iraqis?
First, Washington wants to control the scope of the inquiry to prevent examination of U.S. conduct in Iraq. The Pentagon seems to have gone to great pains to avoid civilian casualties in most cases, but certain of its actions have been controversial under the laws of war, such as the use of cluster bombs, the targeting of civilian morale, and the way in which it has used lethal force in urban areas. The last thing the Pentagon wants is for an independent tribunal to examine its behaviour.
Second, the Bush administration wants to apply the death penalty in Iraq. Most democracies have abolished capital punishment, and international tribunals don't permit it. But Washington doesn't want to be denied the option.
Finally, and perhaps most important, the Bush administration and the Pentagon detest international justice. Their ideological antipathy toward the International Criminal Court (out of fear that it might focus on an American) has led to its presumptive dislike of any international tribunal.
None of these reasons speak to the needs of the Iraqi people, who deserve a fair accounting of the many cruelties they have endured, a credible process for bringing those responsible to justice, and a positive precedent for building the rule of law in their lawless state. An internationally-led judicial process is the Iraqi people's best bet for a more lawful and just future.

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

Roth warned about "a US puppet show" allready back in 2003. What we now are seeing unfolding, is exactly what his warning was all about. Further more, US is the only western democracy which is still upholding Capital Punishment. This type of sentence has never kept crime rate low. Compare US with Canada, even when US population are ten times the population in Canada, US has more crime pr. capital than any other western country.

Erling

LAT: Reid Pushed for Buddy Developer, Contributor

Democrats have tried to make a campaign theme out of the "culture of corruption" in GOP-run Washington. But stories like this don't help their cause one bit.

From his perch as the top Dem in the Senate, Harry Reid (D-NV) -- that's would-be Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to you, ma'am -- has been trying to do big favors for a close real estate developer/lobbyist friend, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. Unfortunately for his pal, Reid's efforts were only middlingly effective.

How close is Reid to Harvey Whittemore? Reid's son, Leif, is Whittemore's personal lawyer. At one point or another, all four of Reid's sons have worked for Whittemore's law firm. Whittemore says the relationship goes back "decades." (Reid wouldn't comment to the Times for the article.) And Whittemore's given $45,000 to Reid's various organizations, plus $20,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Eight years ago, Whittemore sank at least $15 million for land and rights in a 67-square-mile tract of empty Nevada desert, the paper reported. There, he hoped to build a massive development of 159,000 homes, 16 golf courses, and requisite stores and services.

Only three things stood in his way: Government plans for a high-voltage power line, the Environmental Protection Agency, and a tortoise. According to the paper, Reid led efforts to help Whittemore around at least two of the three.

More HERE

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I predicted we would hear about the corruption on the other side of the aisle just in time for the midterms.

I wish both sides would tear the other up on corruption. Expose every criminal act - it would be a healthy purge. I doubt many familiar names would be left standing. That is why both sides are loath to really expose the other. They take superficial swipes but never address the core of corruption "Money"

capt

What advantage could there be in charging the weak case? I really wonder, it makes no sense to me.

A puppet show trial will not really help Saddam and it will not help the Iraqi judiciary, it does nothing for Bush - it seems bad for everybody. If there is some angle on this I cannot see it.

capt

I find myself amazed by Happy 21st's entry. He thinks that because he and others believe in something it must therefore be true. His idea that Saddam was a threat is ludicrous. He had been emasculated long before and was only demonstrating false bravado in order to avoid being attacked by his neighbors and his subjects. His chosen and only prey in 2003 was his own population. He had no cpacity to frighten anyone except those who were too ignorant to look at him with clear eyes and an unbigoted mind.

Kal,

That is why Rummy thought it would be a cake-walk - because the knew Saddam was a paper tiger. If our trillion dollar military cannot walk into any country and defeat them militarily we are not getting our moneys worth. Of course we did win the war it is the occupation we cannot win, nobody can win an occupation.

I remember the military talking heads at the time saying "the worst case would be having to fight house to house" now they "report" they are fighting house to house.

capt

Defendants: Anfal Mission Targeted Kurds

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Defendants in the second Saddam Hussein trial insisted on Tuesday that Iraq's military was attacking Iranian troops and Kurdish rebels only when it launched the Anfal campaign in the 1980s in which tens of thousands of Kurds were killed.

Their comments came on the second day of the trial, in which Saddam is charged with genocide over the 1987-88 Operation Anfal, during which troops swept across parts of northern Iraq, destroying villages.

More HERE

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The concept that those killed were collateral damage is weak but possible. I think karma could have many other leaders[sic] in the dock to answer for their collateral write-offs.

The same people posting here that would defend the collateral loss of life in Iraq today would be inclined to support Saddam, eh? It was a military decision during a time of war, right? Saddam was just exercising his "unitary" presidency.

capt

Capt! The angle is that Saddam should have been on trial at an International Court in order to avoid the "circus" that we now witness.

Erling

Some Nazi conservatives are saying that we need a president who is intellectually curious. Bush is the worsed and dumbest president in the history of the Nazi republic. These Nazis should have thought about his curiosity six years ago.

The spin now is from mission accomplished to IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE.

This nation is truly an insane and stupid nation.

Bush is the WORST and dumbest president in the history of the Nazi republic.

#113 Judy, Bush's daughters, Chainey's daughters, and Hillary's daughter should all enlist. Thank you for the information!

#123 Erling, Israel needs to focus on being the Light to the World and not on darkness and wars.

#124 Erling, Molly Ivins had a piece sometime ago on Bush, Sr. helping the Kurds if they tried to overthrow Saddam Hussein. He broke every promise to the Kurds. We are truly an evil nation. The Bush family are low life creatures.

#126 capt, does his "matter!" The spin is now that Bush is not intellectually curious. That is truly a soft landing instead of saying that Bush is dumb and stupid.

#136 Erling, good point!

As a Jew I'm fasinated by Geralds continually equating everything and everyone he disagrees with as a Nazi.I consider myself a conservative, yet I dont remember gassing or burning people in ovens. As a liberal, Gerald,I assumed you stood for free speech and exchange of ideas, so I dont understand why everytime you dont agree with someone you brand them a Nazi. By doing this you trivialize the holocaust and the murder of millions of Jews and other minorities. Does that mean anything to you or are you just a fucking moron?

The War President's Latest Fiasco

Yet the White House still keeps listening to absurd military advice from the same neoconservatives thirsting for conquest, oil and Muslim blood. Undaunted even by the fiasco in Lebanon, the Bush/Cheney White House is now heading into a full-blown crisis with Iran over its nuclear enrichment program.

Call this the "guns of August." All the pieces are still in place for a bigger war. Israel will keep violating the Lebanon cease-fire and attempting to assassinate its new nemesis, Hezbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. Bush's pre-November surprise remains to be unveiled. Iran is gearing up for war. Even Hezbullah may still have a few tricks up its sleeve.

The self-declared "war president" could yet have a few more defeats in store for the nation.

War is outmoded. No mature and sane person chooses war over peace. The Liarfuehrer trivializes murder and war crimes.

Some Dems want Lieberman out of party

A group whose members described themselves as peace activists asked Sharon Ferrucci, New Haven's Democratic registrar of voters, to remove Lieberman from the party, arguing that he cannot be a Democrat while running under another party's banner.

The request could lead to a hearing in which Lieberman, the Democrats' vice presidential nominee in 2000, would have to argue that he still adheres to the party's principles.

"The law is pretty clear he is no longer a member of the Democratic Party in good standing," said group leader Henry Lowendorf. "There was an open vote and he was voted out. He joined a different party."

Ferrucci said she would research the request, the first of its kind in her two decades on the job.

More HERE

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It would be interesting to hear how Mr. Magoo explains how he has "Democratic party principles" when his previous statements seem to be much closer to GOP principles.

capt

Faces of Surveillance - Targets of Illegal Spying

Ordinary, law-abiding Americans are targets of the government's illegal surveillance. Learn more about the victims and their "crimes."

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Check out some of the domestic wiretap victims.

capt

CCC

CCC stands for Christian, Compassionate, and Conservative. In other words it stands for Bush according to his worshippers. When he ran in 2000, there was excitement because of the three Cs. Now we realize that these Cs are a farce. Every time I hear these three words I want to puke.

Puking reminds me of an experience our youngest son shared with us. Our youngest son went away to college. He lived in a home with seven other students. One of the students is a close friend and he also studied engineering. The home was on the central campus and the engineering department was on the north campus. In order to get to the north campus you had to take the shuttle bus.

Our son and his roommate would take the shuttle to and from the north campus. Our son’≥ friend was not feeling well but he did not want to miss class and the lecture. So, he took the shuttle with our son.

The shuttle is usually packed with students like sardines in a can. Plus the ride is not always smooth. As the shuttle arrived at the north campus, the friend was not feeling well and he had to throw up. He worked his way to get off the bus but a student would not let him leave the bus so Craig said that he was not feeling well and he was about to throw up. The student still did not believe him so Craig puked all over the student. The puke all over the student must have been a truly glorious sight.

This puking incidence reminds me of the bus ride that Bush has taken us. We are packed into the bus like sardines and the ride is jumpy. The longer the bus ride, the more I have to puke.

Bush's rhetoric lays the groundwork for lifelong presidency

At a press conference this morning in Washington, D.C., President Bush declared, "We're not leaving [Iraq] so long as I'm the president. That would be a huge mistake." Bush leaves office in January 2009. (Don't bet on it! Bush is never going to leave the presidency as long as he is breathing.)

Gerald still going with the Nazi thing. Do you dress up in an SS costume and whack off to a pic of Hitler. You sir are a chode.My only hope for you is that you use one of your Nazi rants at a public event and some nice Jewish boy shoves his foot up your anti-semitic ass

Gerald still going with the Nazi thing. Do you dress up in an SS costume and whack off to a pic of Hitler. You sir are a chode.My only hope for you is that you use one of your Nazi rants at a public event and some nice Jewish boy shoves his foot up your anti-semitic ass

antiwar.com has many good articles for August 22, 2006. One of my foxes has an article. Her name is Kathy Kelly.

Little Difference

As we enter the twenty-first century, I have come to the realization that there is little difference between the Democrats and the War Party of the bushits. Even with little difference between the two parties I may still vote because I do not want to give up my right to vote.

The reason for me now questioning to vote for Democrats is the Democrats are also warmongers. The Democrats will give you a bone with some meat on the bone so the soup can have some flavor. The bushits will give you a bone but they scrape all the meat off the bone. How you enhance the flavor of your soup that is for you to figure out. With either party in power it will be important for the 90% of Americans to master the art of making soup. Each home will be a soup kitchen for the poor and disenfranchised 90% of Americans.

In trying to find out the difference between the Democrats and the bushits there is now little difference between the two parties. The Democrats will ram a poker up your ass and the poker is straight with a curved section at the end that is similar to the War Party. Pulling the poker out of your rectum will create problems and healing will take a long time.

The bushits will ram a poker up your ass. The poker is straight and attached to the poker is a curved section as we see with some fireplaces to spread the burning wood. This poker goes in but when the bushits pull the poker out of your ass, your rectum is shot to hell. Healing of the rectum takes a long, long time. As you can see, there is little difference between the Democrats and the bushits or War Party regarding the pokers that are rammed up your rectum.

Either party is going to screw the 90% of Americans and the Democrats are now linked to the bushits and they are operating with little difference from the War Party. So either way you look at it you are going to have a poker rammed up your ass.

P.S. I have one more point to make that either party will give Nazi Americans shit. The Nazis will give us more shit and the Democrats may give us less shit. Yet, we cannot forget the fact that we will have to chew on shit. The only difference will be more shit or less shit for our shit eating smiles.

P.P.S. B.O.H.I.C.A.! What an appropriate word for our times! Bohica means BEND OVER HERE IT COMES AGAIN! Do you have that feeling of constantly bending over to be rammed by some Nazi? If you do, please remember to protect and hold onto your cajones so they are not rammed by the Nazis. A shot to hell rectum is enough of a bad experience. Try to avoid the ball busting experience as much as possible!!!

Bush finally admits Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11

President Bush said Monday the Iraq war is "straining the psyche of our country" but said American soldiers will remain there "as long as I am President."

But Bush also admitted, for the first time, that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, reversing claims made previously by himself and Vice President Dick Cheney.

The President said leaving Iraq "before the mission is accomplished" would be a mistake and would leave the country vulnerable to the kind of resurgence in terrorist power that has happened in Afghanistan. He failed, however, to note that it was his decision to move troops out of Afghanistan and redeploy them to Iraq.

Bush served notice at a news conference that he would not change course or flinch from debate about the unpopular war as he campaigns for Republicans in the fall congressional elections, even as a growing number of Republicans distance themselves from him and his war. He suggested that national security and the economy should be the top political issues, and criticized the Democrats' approach on both.

Many Democrats want to leave Iraq "before the job is done," the president said. "I can't tell you exactly when it's going to be done," he said, but "if we ever give up the desire to help people who live in freedom, we will have lost our soul as a nation, as far as I'm concerned."

Now in its fourth year, the war has taken a toll —†more than 2,600 Americans have died and many more Iraqis have been killed. Last month alone, about 3,500 Iraqis died violently, the highest monthly civilian toll so far. Bush's approval rating has slumped to the lowest point of his presidency, and Republicans are concerned that they could lose control of Congress because of voters' unhappiness.

Bush said he was frustrated by the war at times.

More HERE

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At times frustrated the rest of the time he cannot give a darn.

capt

The Nazi American Way

Dear Cornposters:

This is the sixth Gerald Doctrine. This doctrine tries to compile the essence and manifest destiny of Nazi America that is now totally complete. I have divided this doctrine into three parts, Nazi America, bushianity, and conclusion.

Nazi America

Here are the fourteen characteristics that are necessary for a Nazi nation. America currently possesses all fourteen characteristics.
1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause
4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism
5. Rampant sexism
6. A controlled mass media
7. Obsession with national security
8. Religion and ruling elite tied together
9. Power of corporations protected
10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated
11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts
12. Obsession with crime and punishment
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption
14. Fraudulent elections

There should be no doubt in anyway in the people's minds that America is a fascist nation. Rapidly the self-implosion and destruction of America are starting to take hold. America is no longer America but she is now called Nazi America.

Bushianity

Bushianity is Nazi America's religion. Nazi America has turned her back on Christianity and she has embraced the eight pillars of bushianity. These eight pillars of faith are hatred, murders, torture, war crimes, corruption, decadence, greed, and lies. Nazi America is completely under the control of bushianity.

Conclusion

I have concluded that Nazi America is a very evil and a very vile nation.

Sincerely,

Gerald

'Armed men' enter Indian nuclear plant

New Delhi (dpa) - Security agencies at India's Kakrapar Atomic Power Station (KAPS) in western Gujarat state were on high alert Tuesday after two armed men were reported to have entered the complex, news reports said.

Security forces including the police and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) launched massive combing and search operations soon after the security breach was reported by nearby villagers.

The KAPS is located in the southern region of the state, near the Surat city.

RK Jain, chief of India's Nuclear Power Corporation, told the NDTV network that the search was continuing in the outer area of the plant, but totally ruled out that the armed men could cause any damage to the plant.

He said the outer fence was about 1.6 kilometres from the inner fence which had a double layer of security.

"Nothing can go wrong. Security arrangements are impeccable. We have sophisticated gadgets and heavy security in the area. Crossing the inner area is totally ruled out," he told the channel.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Nothing can go wrong? THAT make me skeptical. Something can always go wrong - the worst are always the things that "cannot go wrong".

capt

MP5 wrote:

When are the Ford folks going to realize that foreign owned plants are expanding in the US? The UAW and Ford and GM management killed those jobs.

Look, as I've said before, you won't get any argument from me regarding the problems of the auto industry. I own two small companies and I'm out of business if I don't run lean and mean. But it's one thing to point this out and another for someone to emit orgasmic squeaks every time cuts are announced. Because Hapless is never able to win an argument, he grasped at the fact that I live and work in the Detroit area and attempts to use the failures of the auto industry as some type of cudgel against me (even though my businesses have nothing to do with automobiles). I do, however, have family and friends who depend on the auto industry for their livelihoods. They don't make the incompetent management decisions, nor do they condone any of the rot inside of the UAW. Anyone who whoops and hollers when people like this lose their jobs is a prick.

Don,

I think it is a deep seated self-hatred that compels a person to revel in another’s pain. It is the evil within that celebrates through hate and belittling without.

capt

Jewish Intelligence

Dear Cornposters:

I have recently talked to a Jewish colleague whom I have known from my working days. We were talking about education and I said to him that the Jewish people pursue an education like breathing and it is important to them. The areas of studies that they enter reveal their intelligence. He said to me that historically Jewish people stressed education because that is all they had to take when they had to leave town in a hurry. To avoid the Nazi panzer troops you did not have time to pack your bags. Now there is Hitler Bush and his gang of pistolerros that must be avoided and at any moment the Jewish people may have to leave in a hurry.

By my use of the word Nazi I am called many things. I do not agree with what is said but people are free to voice their opinion of me. Any person who does not believe that America is a Nazi controlled state does not have the intelligence to comprehend the world around him or her.

Sincerely,

Gerald

Chimpster yesterday: "Either you say, 'Yes it's important we stay there and get it done,' or we leave," Bush argued. "We're not leaving so long as I'm the president. That would be a huge mistake."

Let the impeachment procedings commence!!

Kill two birds with one stone.

# 103 Micki I am sorry that you felt I was getting testy. You mentioned that you had missed something, I was agreeing and then hoping to clarify any misunderstanding.

Sorry if you felt I was getting testy.

#122 Capt "Finish What Job?" Capt great article!

capt,

I agree. Often the people with the least self-esteem are the ones who crow the loudest. Usually, though, it takes the form of braggadocio (e.g. look at my awesome stocks!) rather than outright revelry in another's misery. That's what makes this particular troll so despicable.

Judy, you're right, Dr. Robert Bowman, a former director of Advanced Space Programs, is running as a dem for congress in the 15th district of Florida.

Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret. flew 101 combat missions in Vietnam. He is the recipient of the Eisenhower Medal, the George F. Kennan Peace Prize, the President’≥ Medal of Veterans for Peace, the Society of Military Engineers Gold Medal (twice), six Air Medals, and dozens of other awards and honors. His Ph.D. is in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering from Caltech. He chaired 8 major international conferences, and is one of the country’≥ foremost experts on National Security.

Bowman worked secretly for the US government on the Star Wars project and was the first to coin the very term in a 1977 secret memo. After Bowman realized that the program was only ever intended to be used as an aggressive and not defensive tool, as part of a plan to initiate a nuclear war with the Soviets, he left the program and campaigned against it.

Bowmans theory

Bowman stated that at the bare minimum if Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were involved in 9/11 then the government stood down and allowed the attacks to happen. He said it is plausible that the entire chain of military command were unaware of what was taking place and were used as tools by the people pulling the strings behind the attack.

Bowman outlined how the drills on the morning of 9/11 that simulated planes crashing into buildings on the east coast were used as a cover to dupe unwitting air defense personnel into not responding quickly enough to stop the attack.

"The exercises that went on that morning simulating the exact kind of thing that was happening so confused the people in the FAA and NORAD....that they didn't they didn't know what was real and what was part of the exercise," said Bowman.

Asked if he could name a prime suspect who was the likely architect behind the attacks, Bowman stated, "If I had to narrow it down to one person....I think my prime suspect would be Dick Cheney."

Bowman said that privately his military fighter pilot peers and colleagues did not disagree with his sentiments about the real story behind 9/11.
===========
Now I know that he is just another one of those hair-brained loonies without a lick of smarts or common sense, you can see that by reading the brief bio I gave, like Ray McGovern, but I think his theory is more likely them hundreds of people being involved. Now we see the whitewash commission working hard to lay the blame on an incompetent military response, and that is bullshit. One statement he made at the Symposium was,

"If our government had merely done nothing - and I say that as an old interceptor pilot and I know the drill, I know what it takes, I know how long it takes, I know what the procedures are, I know what they were and I know what they changed them to - if our government had merely done nothing and allowed normal procedures to happen on that morning of 9/11, the twin towers would still be standing and thousands of Americans would still be alive. My sisters and brothers, that is treason!

As a combat veteran, I will not stand idly by watch our security destroyed by a President who went AWOL rather than serve in Vietnam. As one who has devoted his life to the security of this country. I will not stand by and watch an appointed President send our sons and daughters around the world to kill Arabs for the oil companies."

Israeli Soldier in Bil'in: This is Lebanon!Posted in Reports, Bil'in Village, Video
Israeli activists have uploaded a video of the shooting of Lymor and the initial violence of the Israeli military in Bil'in on Friday, August 11th.

The video clearly shows the Border Police unit firing on the demonstrators from close range. There is no evidence that the soldiers were in danger. Typically, the military spokesperson has claimed that activists threw stones and Haaretz's article yesterday reiterating the same false information. The video also clearly shows the commander of the unit saying, this is Lebanon! as he orders his force to fire on retreating demonstrators, and I will not allow a demonstration during wartime!
The commander, Majdei, made this decision despite a military court decision in August 2005 that people in Bil'in have the right to protest on their land on the village-side of the apartheid wall. Every week since the wall was finished in March 2006, the Israeli military has also denied them the right to protest on their farmland on the other side of the wall. The wall separates villagers from 60% of their farmland, half of which has already been annexed and developed by Jewish settlements.

In addition many villagers have been arrested in the night during army raids for participating in the demonstrations in Bil'in. Two villagers are still in prison: Esaam Matar, 29, has been imprisoned eight months and the military has ruled he is to be deported to Jordan; and Muhammad Burnat, 19, has been imprisoned for 3 months and has not yet had a trial for his alleged crimes.

According to official military regulations, which were reported in the Hebrew version of Haaretz today, soldiers are not allowed to fire from a distance closer than 40 meters. They are instructed not to fire at vital areas of the body and only to fire when they are in immediate danger. Each week during demonstrations in Bil'in, many non-violent demonstrators are injured in the head, neck and chest.

The Israeli who was shot in the head and a Danish woman beaten with a gun on Friday are the most serious injuries the army has caused since Ramzi Yassin, who was shot in the head with a plastic-coated steel bullet. Ramzi, from Bil'in, was handing out water during a demonstration in Bil'in on July 8th 2005, when he was shot in the side of the head. The bullet caused severe bleeding of his brain and he was left unconscious for 7 days and with permanent brain damage. Haitham al Khateeb of Bil'in, Yonathan Pollack, an Israeli, BJ from Denmark, and Phil of Austrailia were hospitalized at different times all for rubber bullets injuries to their heads at close range at Bil'in demonstrations, except for Haitham who was hit by a tear gas canister fired at his head.
=========
This is how the military behaves in the "only" democracy in the middled east? I will post a link if anyone wants to watch the video.

Rafi Eitan spy/warmonger..very very ill.

Aug. 22, 2006 Eitan: Ready shelters for Iran attackBy JPOST.COM STAFF

Pensioners Minister Rafi Eitan called for the readying of bomb shelters and reinforced rooms countrywide on Tuesday, in advance of a possible conflict with Iran.

The comments were made on the eve of an Iranian announcement regarding the country's nuclear program. The UN has given Iran until August 31 to comply with a Security Council resolution to cease nuclear development. Iran has indicated that on Tuesday they will reject such calls.

During a tour of the North on Monday night, Eitan, who is a former senior Mossad official, said that if there was an escalation between the US and Iran, Israel would be the first to be attacked by Iranian missiles.

"We are liable to face an Iranian missile attack," Eitan told Israel Radio. "The Iranians have said very clearly that if they come under attack, their primary target would be Israel."

Following the month-long conflict with Hizbullah, Prime Minister Olmert has come under increasing pressure to answer concerns about Israeli readiness. In a meeting with Kiryat Shmona Municipal Council members, those concerned turned into heated criticism.

"It is an understatement to say the residents here are very angry," said Yigal Buzaglo, a councilman. "People here were abandoned. I ask you, Mr. Prime Minister, where were you? Why didn't you worry about us?"

Another councilman, Yona Fartok, said he had never witnessed such poverty and humiliation.

"It looked just like New Orleans," he said. "Suddenly you see how weak the city is. Stop showing us disrespect. Why are army bases moving to the South and not to the North? Where are you leading us?"

Olmert listened and then defended his government, saying it had only been in power for two months when the war broke out. The fighting "was a wake-up call that allows us to defend ourselves better," he said.

GOOD MORNING NSA!!! Hope you have your coffee in hand and ready to go to work.

This morning we have several interesting people to keep an watchfull eye upon.

First, capt will be posting stories from around the globe, where does he get his information? Our job is to do surveillance and discover his sources and eliminate them, monitor all IP's visited today.

Second, Gerald is attaching the nazi monniker to all the patriotic governmental officials and insisting there is no need for elections.(note, keep a watchfull eye on this one, claims Jesus is his savior)

Third, Don likes to challenge our carefully selected spokesmen assigned here to distract and redirect attention away from Bush hate speak. Watchout he will burn you with his special, brand of rhetoric.

Fourth, Jeanne, watch this one, she is a Minnesota Liberal, remember Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey. Dangerous in her writings and a defintite threat.

Fifth, Erling the fellow from Norway. Might try to slip in some illegal cartoons to influence and contaminate those that might be vulnerable, he is also a threat to our spokesmen.

Those are just several of the potential threats to our way of life and patriotism. So keep a clear mind and get out there and follow their every move, so we may defeat this liberal rebellion for our leader, G.W.B.

Liberals stand are what? Democracy and freedom of speeach, association and all that `good' stuff? Then why won't they let CT's 2 miilion voters decide?

Connecticut Groups Push to Remove Lieberman From Ballot
Associated Press
Tuesday, August 22, 2006

HARTFORD, Conn., Aug. 21 -- Critics of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman's independent run to keep his job attacked on two fronts Monday, with one group asking an elections official to throw him out of the Democratic Party and a former rival calling on state officials to keep his name off the November ballot.

......Lieberman, popular among Republicans and unaffiliated voters, led Lamont by 12 percentage points in a recent statewide poll, with Republican Alan Schlesinger far behind.

John Orman, a Democrat who gave up a challenge to Lieberman last year, argued in complaints filed with the state Monday that the senator should be kept off the Nov. 7 ballot.....

==============================================
Whether Joe should be stripped of his Dem party card is less clear and redacted from article!

Cornuts, I visit this blog and leave behind my opinions or like the article above, points of view most of you do not agree with! Sometimes, like this past Sunday when I had time to burn, I engage in some levels of `debate' with the more-reasoned of the Corn Lefties; to my pleasant surprise, even with your hero, Panty!

What amuses me, are the type of responses from the DDDons' of the blog! Their abusive responses invite the likes of the INFRACTION gang! Like I keep on saying, some folks never learn; and becasue of that human fallacy, folks like me count on it....like in the financial arena!

With the elections less than 3 months away, the language and name-calling is heating up. Bush supporters haven't a leg between 'em to stand on so all they have left is empty insults and push button patriotism. In all honesty, the only war these people care about is the war between liberals and conservatives, that's it. Forget that Iraq is an embarassing failure (much like our president)and that our government operates with a dangerously maxed out credit card, just fight the evil libs, nothing else matters. After listening to nothing but Fox and the Rush O'Hannity syndicate,Bush's own personal Pravda, you too would be feeling the effects of constant brainwashing. I mean really, what has he done right, anything, other than win fraudulent elections? When someone calls you a traitor for not supporting this ongoing disaster, just recall V. Putin's words at the G-8 summit. When Bush said that he'd like to see, uh, Russia move toward, well, more of a democracy, Putin responded with the ultimate put-down for our juvenile acting prez. He said "Like the one in Iraq? Ouch. There are many ways to define the word traitor. How about someone who knowingly inflicts damage on their own country. Well, Mr. Bush you said that you aren't surprised at how things have turned out. Did you "knowingly" take us to this point? I can't really believe you're as stupid as you act. If you aren't acting, than I guess that you're just a ....... No one, but no one, could have misserved their country like you and yours accidentally. No one, no way.

One other thing troops. It has been brought to my attention there was two of the most sinister lefties ever to show up on this site by the names of Saladin and Kathleen. We must double our efforts to monitor these two.

They are here to do damage to our plans of world domination and must be stopped at a all costs.

Special Plan 401 must be invoked at this time and all activities monitored through Comsat 21. All ground movements must be reported and cataloged.

Carry on and remember be careful out there!

Mygoodness, I agree. Incompetence is a shield. No one could have created so many disasters in such a short time by accident. This is all leading to a final conclusion planned out long ago.

DEN, I thought you had forgotten about me! Though there are those here who would argue with your observation that I am a lefty, whatever that means. You forgot my most dangerous label, that of "jew-hater." I told my friend Rosanne about that, she is Jewish, and she got a good laugh.

Happy's axiom: History repeats...just make sure you do not become a statistic in the next version of its `Release'! My home state of FL is the poster child of coastal developments!

Worst is yet to come, hurricane chief says By Jim Loney
2 hours, 23 minutes ago

MIAMI (Reuters) - If you thought the sight of the great American jazz city New Orleans flooded to the eaves -- its people trapped in attics or cowering on rooftops -- was the nightmare hurricane scenario, think again.

Max Mayfield, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center, says..."People think we have seen the worst. We haven't,"....

"I think the day is coming. I think eventually we're going to have a very powerful hurricane in a major metropolitan area worse than what we saw in Katrina and it's going to be a mega-disaster. With lots of lost lives," Mayfield said.

"I don't know whether that's going to be this year or five years from now or a hundred years from now. But as long as we continue to develop the coastline like we are, we're setting up for disaster."

Looking back nearly a year to the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, and the third-worst hurricane in terms of American lives lost, Mayfield said Katrina itself could have been a greater disaster.

....New Orleans was squarely in the danger zone, and emergency managers and residents had plenty of time to prepare.

VULNERABLE CITIES

The worst-case hurricane scenario? Mayfield has many in mind. A stronger hurricane closer to New Orleans. A direct hit on the vulnerable Galveston-Houston area, the fragile Florida Keys or heavily populated Miami-Fort Lauderdale.

Or how about a major hurricane racing up the east coast to the New York-New Jersey area, with its millions of people and billions of dollars of pricey real estate?

"One of the highest storm surges possible anywhere in the country is where Long Island juts out at nearly right angles to the New Jersey coast. They could get 25 to 30 feet (7.6 to 9.1 meters) of storm surge ... even going up the Hudson River," Mayfield said.

....Katrina, he says, killed people who stayed in their homes with confidence because they had lived through 1969's Hurricane Camille....

"There were a lot of people who lost their lives because they thought that they had already lived through the worst they could possibly live through," Mayfield said.

"Experience isn't always a good teacher."

Saladin @114: Just vote the democrat ticket, they will make it all right again.

Please, Saladin, where did you read that idiotic comment? No one on this blog has posted that. If you can find an example, please post it, with the source (blogger's name).

Exaggerating diminishes one's credibility.

caroline, I didn't read that comment anywhere, I wasn't quoting anyone I was being facetious. You and micki tend to take me seriously when I don't mean to be serious.

Sal, how could I ever forget you? Caroline on the other hand....

Apparently tongue and cheek comments DO NOT work here, persons with sarcastic tendencies beware!

yeh, I know, as if she finds me in the least credible anyway! And as if I care whether she does or not.

#160 Saladin would you post that link..Thanks

Who knows how many dead in Lebanon, a million displaced, many of their lives turned to rubble, who can get to the enviromental disasters, or holding the liars who took our nation into the illegal war in Iraq accountable.

Oilspill cleanup may take up to one year, Greenpeace says Tuesday August 22, 2006

Beirut- The cleanup of a massive oil spill caused by Israeli air strikes on a fuel depot during the July offensive on Lebanon could take up to one year, the environmental group Greenpeace Mediterranean said Tuesday. It could take between six months and a year depending on how quickly an assessment is done and cleanup begins, Zeina Al Hajj, Greenpeace's Beirut coordinator, told reporters during a press conference.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that between 11,000 and 16,500 tons of fuel oil leaked from an electric power plant bombed south of Beirut by Israel last month.

It polluted about 150 kilometres of the Lebanese coast and spread north into Syrian waters, officials said.

Officials warn that if all the oil from the damaged plant were to seep into the sea, the environmental crisis could rival the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill that devastated Alaska's Prince William Sound.

Greenpeace released video footage Tuesday which it said showed an underwater slick off Jiyeh, Lebanon, that stretched for at least 100 metres to the west and dozens of metres to the north and south.

Al Hajj said that while no mass fish deaths were evident under the water, oysters, crabs and fish on shore have been found covered in oil which sank to the seabed.

Helicopter surveys and a joint effort to clean up to 30 coastal sites in Lebanon were part of a recovery plan unveiled last week by senior officials from the United Nations, the European Union and regional states meeting in Greece.

Israel is still maintaining a sea and air blockade on Lebanon since it ended its onslaught on August 14 by a UN-brokered ceasefire.

The clean up operation would cost at least 50 million euros, according to environmental experts.

European and Lebanese teams working in Jbeil, north of the capital Beirut, have already recovered about 100 tons of spilled oil, Hajj revealed.

# Den...thanks for the compliment.

Here ya go Kathleen.

VIDEO: Israeli Soldiers "Shoot to Kill" at Israeli Anti-war Demonstrators

Ann Coulter's New Book
Just $4.99

How low will the price go? As low as Ann?

# 176 Saladin..Thanks. Folks should watch that footage. It is amazing that the camera person was able to hang onto the footage.

Unless of course the Israeli army wants folks to see whether you are a Palestinian or an Israeli citizen if you question the right wing radical expansionist plan they will treat you the same.

Amy Goodmans Democracy Now coverage for today. Amy is a news treasure.

Headlines for August 22, 2006
-------------------------------------------------
- Bush: Iraq War is ғtraining The Psyche of Our CountryӠ
- Italy Will Lead Force in Lebanon Only If Israel Stops Fighting
- Bush Pledges $230 Million In Aid to Lebanon
- Lebanon Calls For Israel to End Blockade
- Lebanon Considers War Crimes Charges Against Israel
- Scientist: Israeli Bomb Contained Radioactive Materials
- Israeli Reservists Call For Olmert To Resign
- Judge Drops Charge Against Jose Padilla
- Protesters Seize 12 Radio Stations In Oaxaca, Mexico
- Humanitarian Aid Needed for 500,000 in Sri Lanka
- War Resister Lt. Watada Charged With Three Offenses
- California Minimum Wage to Increase to $8/Hour

Last commentary of the am: The GOP tried to remove Delay's name from the ballot after he resigned. What do the Dem HYPOCRITS want to do? Remove Joe Lieberman, a contender and probably winner, from the Nov. ballot!

Are we becoming, yuck, like Iran?

Sugar Land mayor quits District 22 race
Wallace, saying GOP should be united in write-in campaign, backs Sekula-Gibbbs

By ERIC HANSON and RUTH RENDON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

SUGAR LAND —†Citing his desire to support the Republican Party in its difficult write-in campaign to hold the congressional seat vacated by Tom DeLay, Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace withdrew from the race Monday.

The move leaves Houston Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs as the sole Republican write-in candidate —†a condition, Wallace said, for $3 million in campaign funding from the national GOP.

The state party endorsed Sekula-Gibbs' candidacy last week at a meeting of GOP precinct chairs in the 22nd Congressional District. Wallace said he will support her.

...The withdrawal brings some clarity to a contest that has been in flux since DeLay, a Sugar Land Republican, announced in April that he was stepping down after winning the GOP nomination for a 12th term.

A federal court, ruling in a suit filed by Democrats, said Republicans could not replace DeLay on the Nov. 7 ballot, forcing the GOP to mount a write-in campaign.

...Having just one Republican write-in candidate will improve the party's chances of holding the seat, she said.

How can the mainstream media wonder why people are using the web to read the news, when they spend hours repeating the same mindless bullshit?

TV News Vultures Circling JonBenet's Corpse - Again By Jeff Cohen t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Monday 21 August 2006
The top story on TV news lately has not been the Iraq war or tentative Lebanon peace, or major court rulings on tobacco and warrantless wiretapping, or oil prices, or pension "reform," or any of a dozen stories that affect millions of citizens.

TV's top story - a new suspect in the decade-old murder of 6-year-old beauty princess JonBenet Ramsey - affects very few people.

But it has the potential of grabbing millions of us, as spectators. That's the beauty of the story to the owners and managers of TV news - my former bosses. They couldn't be more thrilled to see new life in the tabloid story of the death of Little Miss Colorado, a story they'd grudgingly given up on years ago.

In a media system dominated by entertainment conglomerates, it's no accident that we're served up a steady stream of "top" stories saturated by sex, violence and celebrity: OJ, Princess Di, JonBenet, JFK Jr., Condit/Levy, child abductions (especially upper-middle class blonde girls), Laci Peterson, the runaway bride, the missing teen in Aruba, etc.

Let's face it: The Murdochs and Disneys and Time Warners and GEs that own our media system much prefer a nation of mindless consumers and spectators over a nation of informed, active citizens. They like the fact that avid TV viewers know all the intimate details about the JonBenet or OJ murder cases - and almost nothing about how big corporations lobby against middle-class interests in Washington.
at truthout

Received today:

Dear Dennis,

Many times I have asked for your help, and you've come through every time. Never before have I asked for your help on a matter of life and death. Before one more child is tortured, before one more woman is raped, we must urge President Bush to lead the effort to create a NATO force to stop the genocide in Darfur.

Sudan began a genocide against tribes of small farmers in its Darfur region three years ago. Militia groups backed by the Sudanese government have slaughtered an estimated 400,000 people and driven 2.5 million people from their homes. U.N. troops are on their way, but will take at least five more months to arrive in Darfur. NATO forces -- if the U.S. stepped up to moral leadership -- could end the conflict immediately.

Tell George Bush to lead the effort to create a NATO force for Darfur NOW.

America was once trusted and respected around the world. People around the globe expected us to provide moral leadership and inspiration to make their lives better. It's no secret that our reputation has been tarnished over the past six years. The Bush Administration put our country's military strength and vast resources behind a reckless war in Iraq and turned a blind eye to people around the world that desperately needed our help. The U.S. military's unique assets -- our airlift capabilities, logistical support and intelligence operations -- can and must be used to assist NATO peacekeeping in Darfur.

The Save Darfur Coalition, an alliance of over 100 faith-based, humanitarian and human rights organizations, has already sent one million postcards to President Bush asking for the immediate deployment of a robust peacekeeping mission. Clearly, many, many more voices are needed to get his attention -- we cannot allow the Bush Administration to stand by for five more months while thousands of civilians are dying in Darfur every month.

In May, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel called Darfur "the capital of suffering." He called on all of us to "tell the victims they are not alone." And just last week a senior United Nations official alerted the Security Council that Sudan seems to be preparing a significant military operation in the Darfur region that will leave aid workers increasingly in danger and hundreds of thousands of lives at risk.

Please speak up for them and urge President Bush to take quick and decisive action.

Tell George Bush to lead the effort to create a NATO force for Darfur NOW.

The people of Darfur cannot wait five more months for U.N. troops to arrive. At the current rate of violence and destruction, another 30,000 civilians will die and another 300,000 people will become refugees over the next five months. In addition, as the international community stands by, violence and chaos is spreading to neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic. More than 100 Chadians were hacked to death in a single incident earlier this year.

I admire the African Union troops stationed in Darfur. They have done their jobs courageously and deserve the world's gratitude. But they need help. The African Union peacekeeping troops, which number just 7,000, have been unable to protect civilians or enforce a 2004 ceasefire. In the meantime, security has deteriorated dramatically.

At a time when the world is questioning U.S. sincerity and motives, what better way for the Bush Administration to show that we still believe in human rights and still have the moral authority to lead, than to step up and do our part to stop the genocide in Darfur? Tens of thousands of lives hang in the balance. So does our nation's moral credibility.

The time to act is now.

Thank you,

John Edwards

P.S. We need to raise every voice possible against the genocide in Darfur. Please forward this message to friends and family and urge them to contact President Bush immediately.

A bit of keyboard activism for a good cause!

SIGN HERE

Signed! (182)

Thanks

capt

182-signed

178-kathleen
I think it shows how much they dont care who witnesses the crap they do. They know nothing will happen to them.

After USA Today Issues Correction, Fox Host Repeats Smears Against Gore

Earlier this month, Peter Schweizer published a hit piece on Al Gore's environmental habits. (Schweizer works at the Hoover Institute which has received nearly $300,000 from Exxon Mobile since 1998.) It was an obvious attempt to discredit Gore's efforts to combat the threat of global warming.

The problem was the piece was inaccurate and USA today was forced to print a correction. That didn't stop Rich Lowry, filling in for Sean Hannity, to repeat Schweizer's false claims on Fox after the correction was printed. Lowry also took the liberty to add some new smears. Watch it: (at the linked piece)

Here are the facts:

1. Gore does not receive royalties from a zinc mine. From the USA today correction: "In a column that appeared Aug. 10 on the Forum Page, writer Peter Schweizer inaccurately stated that former vice president Al Gore receives royalties from a zinc mine on his property in Tennessee despite his environmental advocacy the mine was closed in 2003."

2. Gore has never owned any Occidental Petroleum stock. His father worked for the company for several years and his parents used to own some stock. All of it was sold years ago.

3. Gore pays for his own carbon off-sets. Parmount is also purchasing off-sets above and beyond what Gore is doing individually.

The critics have no answers for Gore's scientific arguments so they've decided to smear him personally. Desmog blog has more.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Who cares about facts when a smear is better for ratings?

capt

These admissions of Bush look like adolescent responses to parental rebukes... they say things like "oh wasn't it obvious", "I never actually said..." Youknow, the "technicality" stuff. These so-called leaders at best can admit a little regret on their tactics, but so far they can't admit to their major character flaws and surely haven't changed from them. Sometimes you can put up with a half-baked apology from a pre-teen, but not from the most powerful people in the world.

Here is a link to a bunch of "regrets" that just haven't led to "repentance"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hisr8PZAw4Q

Those who fail to learn
from History are apt to repeat it.

Probably the most frightening thing I have heard or read recently is that Fart boy has been trotting around with a copy of an existentialist book under his arm.

Not a very good sign.

When all else fails, get existential on their ass.

Run do not walk away from Ports, Trains, Boats, Planes, Busses, Electrical grids, tunnels, avoid all borders (no matter what).

Then tuck your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye, The sky Will be falling, Chicken Little was right.

Please read; Fiasco.

Night Cornbloggers.

Dear David,

When you say, "intelligence report that 9/11 ringleader Mohamad Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence official in Prague," shouldn't you have said ALLEGED 9/11 ringleader instead?

As one who expresses quite eloquently the sheer farce that is the truth with these people, I'm quite surprised that you take at face value their assertion that Mohammed Atta was indeed the "ringleader" of a group with the wherewithall to both supress North American air defense AND suspend the laws of physics in a six block area of Manhattan.

Did Mr. Atta also direct the pre-positioning of Thermate charges throughout WTC buildings 1, 2, and 7? This would substitute for my assertions about the suspension of the laws of physics, as then the observed behavior of objects on video can be easily explained.

One thing that doesn't jive with the ringleader theory is that Mr. Atta was wired $100,000 by the head of Pakistan's Security Service. I heard no assertions that the plot was actually formulated in Pakistan, although this fact (the money transfer) has been well known for years now.

Perhaps Mr. Atta was working on some OTHER project for the ISI... Who knows? Could be. Or, it is more likely part of maintaining a network of "sheepdipped" patsies. Poor saps of limited ability manipulated by powers much greater than they.

I invite you to view the Symposium by 9/11 Scholars for Truth that was covered on C-Span and is now one of the most popular videos on Google.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5004704309041471296

The 9/11 Truth documentary "Loose Change" is apparently THE most popular video on Google right now.

So in summary, I humbly request that you adhere to the journalistic principles that I know you cherish, and use the word "alleged", when there is clearly no "proof" that the Bush administration's theories about who did what on 9/11 are even vaguely accurate.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

David Caputo
President
Positronic Design
www.PositronicDesign.com
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