"The war came so suddenly. We didn't have enough information to challenge the assumption that there were WMDs.

Does anyone feel like the war came "suddenly"?

To me it feels like the war was anticipated for months, while most of the world was pleading for more time as the inspectors were trying to determine the truth.

The administration was hell-bent for war, and wanted no part of any campaign that could disrupt their plans.

Since the war was being planned as early as Jamuary of 2001 and since there were masses of GIs twiddling their thumbs in the Arabian peninsula it is hard to swallow the notion that the war came suddenly. From all I have read plans were written and discussed well before the 18 months hiatus between Afghanistan and Iraq.

I suppose CIA operatives find it hard to stop lying. Just as much as the current administration finds it hard to start telling the truth

David: "HUBRIS and The Nation article, citing CIA sources, reveal that she was in covert operations and that--ironically--she had spent two years trying to find proof of the administration's claims that Iraq posed a WMD threat. She and the Joint Task Force on Iraq, of course, came up empty-handed."

IF Plame was `covert' as David discloses, then why did this little ?fact? did NOT surface earlier? Smells a little like Armitage (not coming forward) for years.....while Bush critics & backers argue over something that certainly could've been easily established!

Also, IF she was Covert, could there been a Conspiracy among the Bush critics? with Armitage staying silent & Plame's status purposely left vague but logically appearing to be NON-covert? Hmmmm....

As for Plame coming up "empty-handed", that figures for the CIA of the time! like Joe on Saddam's attempt to source uranium in Niger! She couldn't even find the 500 or so 1991-vintage chemical weapons recently found! Saying there were no WMD in Iraq is just flat out wrong! Old chemical weapons may or may not be potent but they are what they are! A rusted pistol is nevertheless, a pistol, Get It?

I still don't understand why anyone and everyone, including LooseLips Armitage, didn't commit treason by outing someone working to protect us against "rogue nations", regardless of the reason.

Treason: Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one's country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies. A betrayal of trust or confidence.

Bush Aims to Kill War Crimes Act
By Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith
The Nation
Tuesday 05 September 2006

The US War Crimes Act of 1996 makes it a felony to commit grave violations of the Geneva Conventions. The Washington Post recently reported that the Bush administration is quietly circulating draft legislation to eliminate crucial parts of the War Crimes Act. Observers on The Hill say the Administration plans to slip it through Congress this fall while there still is a guaranteed Republican majority-perhaps as part of the military appropriations bill, the proposals for Guantánamo tribunals or a new catch-all "anti-terrorism" package. Why are they doing it, and how can they be stopped?

American prohibitions on abuse of prisoners go back to the Lieber Code promulgated by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. The first international Geneva Convention dates from the following year.

After World War II, international law protecting prisoners of war and all noncombatants was codified in the Geneva Conventions. They were ratified by the US Senate and, under Article II of the Constitution, they thereby became the law of the land.

Wishing to rebuke the unpunished war crimes of dictators like Saddam Hussein, in 1996 a Republican-dominated Congress passed the War Crimes Act without a dissenting vote. It defined a "war crime" as any "grave breach" of the Geneva Conventions. It thereby advanced a global trend of mutual reinforcement between national and international law.

The War Crimes Act was little noticed until the disclosure of Alberto Gonzales's infamous 2002 "torture memo." Gonzales, then serving as presidential counsel, advised President Bush to declare that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to people the United States captured in Afghanistan. That, Gonzales wrote, "substantially reduced the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act."

Noting that the statute "prohibits the commission of a 'war crime' by or against a US person, including US officials," he warned that "it is difficult to predict the motives of prosecutors and independent counsels who may in the future decide to pursue unwarranted charges." The President's determination that the Geneva Conventions did not apply "would provide a solid defense to any future prosecution."

More.

**************************************

It's all so, so, what's that word I'm looking for? Oh, yeah. It's all so quaint.

IMPEACH THE BASTARDS. THEN LOCK THEM UP FOR LIFE.

Bush Declares Eco-Whistleblower Law Void for EPA Employees
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
Monday 04 September 2006

Stealth repeal of Clean Water Act Protections by invoking "sovereign immunity."

The Bush administration has declared itself immune from whistleblower protections for federal workers under the Clean Water Act, according to legal documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). As a result of an opinion issued by a unit within the Office of the Attorney General, federal workers will have little protection from official retaliation for reporting water pollution enforcement breakdowns, manipulations of science or cleanup failures.

Citing an "unpublished opinion of the [Attorney General's] Office of Legal Counsel," the Secretary of Labor's Administrative Review Board has ruled federal employees may no longer pursue whistleblower claims under the Clean Water Act. The opinion invoked the ancient doctrine of sovereign immunity which is based on the old English legal maxim that "The King Can Do No Wrong." It is an absolute defense to any legal action unless the "sovereign" consents to be sued.

The opinion and the ruling reverse nearly two decades of precedent. Approximately 170,000 federal employees working within environmental agencies are affected by the loss of whistleblower rights.

More.

***************************************

How's that for a Labor Day Present. Fuck Federal Employees and the nation's environment as a twofer.

IMPEACH THE BASTARDS. THEN LOCK THEM UP FOR LIFE.

Condi uses Civil War to slap Iraq critics

Secretary of State Rice compared the Iraq war with the American Civil War, telling a magazine that slavery might have lasted longer in this country if the North had decided to end the fight early.

"I'm sure there are people who thought it was a mistake to fight the Civil War to its end and to insist that the emancipation of slaves would hold," Rice said in the new issue of Essence magazine.

"I know there were people who said, 'Why don't we get out of this now, take a peace with the South, but leave the South with slaves?'" Rice said.

Rice also bristled at the notion that the Bush administration's slow response last year in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was because of the race of the majority of the victims.

"I resented the notion that the President of the United States, this President of the United States, would somehow decide to let people suffer because they were black," Rice told the magazine.

"I found that to be the most corrosive and outrageous claim that anybody could have made, and it was wholly and totally irresponsible."

Asked if she felt personally accountable, Rice said, "The government did its best. People aren't perfect, and this response was not perfect. You know, I do foreign policy, I don't run Homeland Security. I don't run FEMA. I do foreign policy." She added, "I did what I could to coordinate the international response."

**************************************

"I did what I could to coordinate the international response." "You know, like make sure the Cubans didn't send any doctors or supplies, and especially the Venezualens who could have provided fuel." "We can't have any of that." "No siree."

"I did what I could to coordinate the international response."

Like buy shoes.

Most frustrating about the WMD dabacle is the deafening silence on the disconnect between purported "faulty" intelligence and the "leaves no doubt, but can't reveal the details" Bush delivery of the message to not only the public, but to congress as well.

The underlying "intelligence" that supposedly convinced Tenet, Bush, Powell, Cheney et. al. has now been revealed to be nothing more than hearsay testimony from people with names like Curveball, photographic and technical evidence that was far from conclusive and subjective judgements from nameless analysts who had obvious motivation to lean toward the stated desired conclusions that Rumsfeld and Cheney had already arrived at about Iraq, long before 9/11.

It is the ultimate wink wink policy. Bush has acknowledged "mistakes were made" but lets his stated opinion that we had "darn good" intelligence stand, and even gave Tenet the Medal of Freedom for his silent complicity in the scam. Anyone working at any level in the intelligence community can take away the lesson that if you make either collosal errors that lead to false conclusions that agree with the administration or you secretly "fix" the intelligence around the policy, there are not only no punishments, but there are obvious rewards!

Did the Curveball handler, the Niger forgeries analyst, the aluminum tubes as centrifuges expert, the Chalabi associate contact agents get named and run out of their jobs for coming up with garbage? No, but the few agents who had the stones to speak out about mistakes being made or political agendas being imposed got cold shouldered.

The same MO is apparent as we speak with Iran and the Bushies are full speed ahead creating the twisted reality. By the time the truth catches up with the Iran threat being pedalled now, it won't matter, because it will be some maverick reporter fighting to disclose the slow to materialize real facts to a public that views it as yesterday's news.

Most frustrating about the WMD dabacle is the deafening silence on the disconnect between purported "faulty" intelligence and the "leaves no doubt, but can't reveal the details" Bush delivery of the message to not only the public, but to congress as well.

The underlying "intelligence" that supposedly convinced Tenet, Bush, Powell, Cheney et. al. has now been revealed to be nothing more than hearsay testimony from people with names like Curveball, photographic and technical evidence that was far from conclusive and subjective judgements from nameless analysts who had obvious motivation to lean toward the stated desired conclusions that Rumsfeld and Cheney had already arrived at about Iraq, long before 9/11.

It is the ultimate wink wink policy. Bush has acknowledged "mistakes were made" but lets his stated opinion that we had "darn good" intelligence stand, and even gave Tenet the Medal of Freedom for his silent complicity in the scam. Anyone working at any level in the intelligence community can take away the lesson that if you make either collosal errors that lead to false conclusions that agree with the administration or you secretly "fix" the intelligence around the policy, there are not only no punishments, but there are obvious rewards!

Did the Curveball handler, the Niger forgeries analyst, the aluminum tubes as centrifuges expert, the Chalabi associate contact agents get named and run out of their jobs for coming up with garbage? No, but the few agents who had the stones to speak out about mistakes being made or political agendas being imposed got cold shouldered.

The same MO is apparent as we speak with Iran and the Bushies are full speed ahead creating the twisted reality. By the time the truth catches up with the Iran threat being pedalled now, it won't matter, because it will be some maverick reporter fighting to disclose the slow to materialize real facts to a public that views it as yesterday's news.

Watch the MSM and conservative bloggers ignore this scoop. After all, Byron York may have to apologize for all his smears of Valerie Plame.

As usual, bush makes no fkn sense, while again he tries to pull the wool over American's eyes. He strikes fear with "al Qaeda" and "9/11", and yet everybody sees that he took us to Iraq instead of fighting the real war on terror.
Now, check out AOL's latest poll. His b/s isn't playing so well anymore.

Bush Defends National Security Record
White House Releases Anti-Terrorism Update

WASHINGTON (Sept. 5) -- President Bush used terrorists' own words Tuesday to battle complacency among Americans about the threat of future attack, defending his record as the fall campaign season kicks into high gear.
---
---
=============================
scroll down just a little and add to the poll...

Do you think the nation is safer now than it was before 9/11?
No 64%
Yes 30%
Not sure 6%
Total Votes: 6,058

Which party do you trust more on national security?
Democrats 67%
Republicans 33%
Total Votes: 5,918

Who is winning the war on terrorism?
The terrorists 71%
The United States 29%
Total Votes: 3,169

How concerned are you about terrorism?
Very 46%
Somewhat 37%
A little 11%
Not at all 6%
Total Votes: 3,306

American Soldiers and American Contractors

The ratio is five to one. For every five soldiers who are killed there is one contractor killed.

3,658 American soldiers and American contractors have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan for Bush and his lies.

Bush is his name and murder is his game!

Even if the signs indicated that bush and his boyfriends were plotting their War of Choice on Iraq for quite some time, I can understand how CIA-types might feel that the war came "suddenly."

The war hawks knew that the cover story (WMD) for their war was that close to being totally exposed so they did, indeed, "hastily" start the bombing and the invasion -- suddenly, they saw the handwriting on the wall that their flimsy, fabricated casus belli was unraveling rapidly.

It's a matter of semantics, I guess, but "suddenly" doesn't seem like an unreasonable choice of words to describe bush's hastily-commenced war.

Arianna will have a new section on her blog called Becoming Fearless it seems to offer interesting reads.

Now I'd direct your attention to bush's failure in Afghanistan with this article from the NYTimes. Here's more proof that misdirecting our attention to Iraq was a major mistake.

An Afghan Symbol for Change, Then Failure

Helmand’s descent symbolizes how Afghanistan has evolved since the initial victory over the Taliban into one of the most troubled fronts in the fight against terrorism.
=============================
I honestly don't know of one thing these neocons have done right, nothing! They know how to lie to get elected, and that's it. That and lying to STAY elected.

Rove is preparing Warmonger Bush's legacy and library. Warmonger Bush is preparing to take down the Clinton Library with a submarine missile. Will Warmonger Bush's library cost several billion dollars of taxpayer's money.

At Bill library, Bush sounds sub-versive

President Bush and top strategist Karl Rove (l.) took a trip to the Clinton Library to seek inspiration for W's own legacy-building.

President Bush once daydreamed about blasting Bill Clinton's presidential library to smithereens, according to a new book.

In "How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime," former Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal recounts a November 2004 visit by Bush and his political guru Karl Rove to the William J. Clinton Library in Little Rock, Ark., on the banks of the Arkansas River.

"Bush appeared distracted and glanced repeatedly at his watch," Blumenthal writes about a presidential tour during the library's dedication. "When he stopped to gaze at the river, where Secret Service agents were stationed in boats, the guide said: 'Usually, you might see some bass fishermen out there.' Bush replied: 'A submarine could take this place out.'"

The author muses: "Was the President warning of an Al Qaeda submarine, sneaking undetected up the Mississippi, through the locks and dams of the Arkansas River, surfacing under the bridge to the 21st century to dispatch the Clinton Library? Is that where Osama Bin Laden is hiding? Or was this a wishful paranoid fantasy of ubiquitous terrorism destroying Clinton's legacy with one blow?"

Blumenthal, who attributes his account to two anonymous eyewitnesses, adds that "Rove showed keen interest in everything he saw, and asked questions, including about costs, obviously thinking about a future George W. Bush library and legacy.

"'You're not such a scary guy,' joked his guide. 'Yes, I am,' Rove replied. Walking away, he muttered deliberately and loudly: 'I change constitutions, I put churches in schools.'"

Amen to that.

Merton and Gandhi

In commemoration, some 50 of us will gather this week for a retreat at a Hindu temple in Louisville, Kentucky, and then on to the Abbey of Gethsemani near Bardstown, where Thomas Merton lived the monastic life. We'll set off from Merton's hermitage Friday morning, Sept. 8, and make a 52-mile peace pilgrimage by foot to Louisville. Our destination: the downtown corner where Merton had his storied revelation, recorded in Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander. He wrote:

In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers.

It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.

In honor of both, Merton and Gandhi, we'll gather where Fourth and Walnut once stood, on the afternoon of Sept. 11, and profess a vow of nonviolence. We'll commit ourselves to the lifelong pilgrimage of Gospel nonviolence towards God's reign of peace.

What a difference? Rove, the smear agent for the government, and Bush, the butcher of Baghdad, versus Merton and Gandhi, lovers of people and non-violence!!!

So the rightwing spin that Fred Rustman said she was not is untrue? Then again - didn't Rustman leave the CIA in 1990? David - be careful. A troll named Patrick R. Sullivan will likely hammer you with all sorts of Byron York-like nonsense.

*a funny from a right-wing friend

Roswell Incident

Many will recall that on July 8, 1947, witnesses claim an unidentified object with five aliens aboard crashed on a sheep and cattle ranch just outside Roswell, New Mexico.

This is a well known incident that many say has long been covered up by the US Air Force and the federal government.

However, you may well NOT know that in the month of March 1948, exactly nine months after that historic day, Albert Arnold Gore, Jr.; Hillary Rodham; John F. Kerry; William Jefferson Clinton; Howard Dean; Nancy Pelosi; Dianne Feinstein; Charles E. Schumer; and Barbara Boxer were born.

That piece of information has now cleared up a lot of things.

Counterproliferation Division

what is that the anti-saddam's mushroom cloud dept?

America at War: Killiing People in Order to Free Them?

by Dave Lindorff

http://www.opednews.com

Here's a headline you won't see in your local paper:

"U.S. Accused of Using Cluster Weapons Against Civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan"

We all saw the headline about the State Department investigating Israel's use of US-made cluster weapons in Lebanon, because they had been dropping these deadly and indiscriminate munitions in civilian areas of southern Lebanon, with the prospect of killing large numbers of non-combatants including children. This allegedly violated restrictions placed by the U.S. on how the weapons could be used by the Israeli Defense Force.

It turns out, though, that there are no such restrictions on how these same munitions can be--and are being--used by U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

According to a number of sources including military documents and reports from organizations like Human Rights Watch, the U.S., which has refused to sign an international treaty that outlaws cluster weapons, does not even restrict the use of cluster weapons in urban or populated areas. Army and Air force generals have blocked efforts to ban cluster weapons where there are large numbers of civilians present, claiming such a restriction would just lead enemy combatants to locate themselves among civilians.

Well, duh!

Their argument could pretty much be used to oppose restrictions on any kind of weapon in civilian areas. And guess what? That pretty much is the way the U.S. wages war: The hell with civilians! If they happen to be in the way when we drop our bombs, so much the worse for them.

In fact, back in early 2003, when the Australian government agreed to send some troops to join Bush's "Coalition of the Willing" in Iraq, it first had first to assure the troops and the people of Australia that Australian soldiers would not participate in American actions that involved the laying of mines or the use of cluster weapons.

Shock and Awe, the initial aerial bombardment of Baghdad and other cities of Iraq at the start of the U.S. invasion, reportedly led to tens of thousands of civilian casualties, and one reason was the heavy and indiscriminate use of cluster weapons, which disperse hundreds of little fragmentation bombs over a wide area, many of which explode when a person disturbs them. The Christian Science Monitor, which investigated civilian deaths in the first year of the Iraq War, found that the U.S. was killing Iraqi civilians at the astonishing rate of 30 for every enemy fighter. That's a civilian slaughter that would have made even Hitler's SS envious. One reason for this high "collateral damage" kill rate was almost certainly the use of cluster weapons, some of which spread hundreds of their little bomblets over a 20-acre area, with between 5-30 percent of these secondary weapons failing to explode on impact.

There are a number of reports suggesting that the U.S. used cluster weapons extensively later on in carpet bombings that preceded assaults on Al-Qiam, Ramadi, Tal Afar and of course Fallujah, all cities where the civilian casualties were horrific.

So where is the outcry against this criminal U.S. use of cluster weapons? Most Americans don't even know about it. The media have largely blacked the story out. The Pentagon won't talk about it. When Agence France Presse back in April 2003 ran photos of US cluster weapons stockpiled for use in Iraq, no major media outlet in the US picked them up. The only report on cluster weapons at the time in Amnerica came from CNN reporter Peter Arnett. But of course, the Iraqis and the Afghanis know all about it.

It seems particularly inappropriate for the U.S. to be using such munitions in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq, where we are supposedly there to help the people of the country against alleged "terrorist" forces within their borders. Killing the people of the country you are "helping" would seem to be operating at cross-purposes. But it does explain why every time there is some "mistake" reported, where the U.S. bombs a wedding or an innocent town square, the death toll is so astoundingly high.

It also helps explain why the resistance forces in both countries seem to keep getting stronger, even as we keep killing them at a prodigious rate. Cluster weapons, besides killing lots of civilians, also inevitably make lots of enemies.

http://www.thiscantbehappening.net

IF Plame was `covert' as David discloses, then why did this little "fact" did NOT surface earlier?

Posted by: Happy post-Labor Day at September 5, 2006 02:31 PM

You cannot be serious.

The issue of Plame's status at the agency has been debated by the dissemblers in BushCo and right wing media outlets as well as left wing journalists AND by people on this blog for years.

BushCo, Byron York, LBH, Factchcker, ETC and everyone else on the right has said for YEARS now that Plame was not covert. People on the left reported and argued that her status was CLASSIFIED and that she was under non-official cover (NOC), also known as undercover or covert agent.

It amazes me that you challenge the fact David reports in today's thread as being incredible because no one asserted it before now. What's wrong with you?

September 4, 2006 at 11:19:42

George W. Bush's lies cost lives

by Kirk Muse

http://www.opednews.com

Guest Column: George W. Bush's lies cost lives

By Kirk Muse Back

Just over 10 years ago, Adm. Jeremy Michael Boorda, then the Chief of
Naval Operations and our nation's highest-ranking naval officer, died of
an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. He began his career in the
Navy as a seaman recruit and was the only enlisted man in the history of
the U.S. Navy to work his way through the ranks to become the Chief of
Naval Operations.

Mike, as he was known to his close friends, committed suicide because a
reporter for Newsweek magazine accused the Admiral of wearing a valor
award that he had not earned on the battlefield.

Admiral Boorda, along with every other U.S. military officer, was taught
the code of conduct that says, "I will not lie, cheat or steal nor
tolerate anyone who does."

Obviously, Adm. Boorda lived by this code. Obviously, Adm. Boorda lived
and died by another code: Death before dishonor.

Yet, what Boorda was accused of doing, wearing a valor award that was
not earned on the battlefield, is a very trivial, picayune matter
compared with what President George W. Bush has done.

Nobody died because Adm. Boorda may have worn some ribbon that he was
not entitled to wear. On the other hand, thousands of American soldiers
have died because of the lies of George W. Bush. Thousands of innocent
Iraqi civilians, perhaps more than 100,000 innocent civilians, including
women, children and even babies, have died because of the lies of George
W. Bush.

Because of the lies of George W. Bush and his administration, we have
lost the respect of the world community.

George W. Bush seems to take no personal responsibility for any of his
actions. Psychopathic personalities assume no personal responsibility
for any of their actions; they blame others instead.

I suggest the readers do a Google search for: "Bush and psychopath." Or
go to this Web site: www.portland.indymedia.org/en/2001/10/4188.shtml

I highly recommend the book Bush on the Couch by Justin Frank, M.D., a
clinical professor of psychiatry at George Washington University Medical
Center. If you don't have the time to read this outstanding book, a
Google search for Bush on the Couch will produce several reviews and
brief summaries of this outstanding book.

America's grandmother, Barbara Bush, the mother of George W. Bush, is
also the woman who did not attend the funeral of her own mother, nor the
funeral of her then 3-year-old daughter Robin, who died of leukemia.

The day after Robin Bush died of leukemia at the age of 3, George H. W.
Bush and Barbara Bush played a round of golf. There was no funeral for
Robin Bush, and she was buried in New York-not transported back to
Texas, where the Bushes lived at the time.

Then-7-year-old George W. Bush didn't even know that his sister was sick
until after she had died. George W. was not allowed to grieve for his
sister. Those who cannot grieve cannot feel compassion. The compassion
that George W. Bush pretends to feel and show seems rehearsed and acted.

The only true friend George W. Bush appears to have is Karl Rove. Karl
Rove experienced a very similar childhood background emotionally. The
person Karl Rove called his father turned out not to be his father. And
his mother committed suicide.

This is the type of background that you would expect of a serial killer,
serial rapist or mass murderer. And this is the background of our
President and his closest adviser.

America: We have a problem.

24 A good example of how BushCo's media operation and lack of ethics regarding honesty can create great confusion among a less than nimble populace.

Nope, the US never uses cluster munitions prior to a ground assault. Can't have our boys walking over their own mines can we? After wards to deny access to the territory that little GI Joe has walked over and then abandoned is quite possible, it is just that we don't have too many of them bullet stoppers to waste with submunitions.

People on the left reported and argued that her status was CLASSIFIED and that she was under non-official cover (NOC), also known as undercover or covert agent.

This is true, but it wasn't just "people on the left," either. Larry Johnson, a counter-terrorism expert formerly of the CIA and State Department, came to Plame's defense early in the game and scoffed at claims that she wasn't a NOC agent.

This whole wingnut charade of pretending that Joe Wilson is some kind of rabid lefty is asinine. The man is a center-right realist diplomat. He and his wife were attacked because he realized the lunatics had taken over the asylum and he said so, no more, no less.

By the way, Johnson has his own blog, No Quarter.

Just Peace by Mattie Stepanek, February, 1998

If I could change
One thing in this world,
It would be war.
Instead of war - peace.
But I especially don't want
World War Three,
Because we would
Blow up the earth.
If I could change
One thing in this world
We would have no weapons.
No knives or swords.
No guns or bombs.
Just peace.
Just peace.

DAVID CORN's piece in The Nation -- What Valerie Plame Really Did at the CIA -- is at truthout.org

Every bit of publicity can boost book sales...

Be amazed, Cornuts! Gas prices can actually GO DOWN despite those evil oil companies that control but a pittance of the global oil supply! Ain't it something! Those waiting to buy oil stocks, be alert for my `Buy' signal!

U.S. Retail Gas Prices Hit 5-Month Low
Tuesday, September 05, 2006

WASHINGTON, Calif. - U.S. retail gasoline prices hit a five-month low, with the cost at the pump falling 11.8 cents over the last week to an average $2.73 a gallon, the government said on Tuesday.

The national price for regular unleaded gasoline is down 34 cents from a year ago, according to the federal Energy Information Administration 's weekly survey of 800 service stations

In TomDispatch today, Tom suggests changing the name from 'Republicans' to 'Republicants'. His guests details some public health reasons why...

Isn't it great that Ahmadinejad did NOT call for a purge of non-Muslims, non-Persians, Gays, Lesbians, the old, and the handicapped Teachers? Furthermore, this terrorist didn't say "Convert to Islam or Die"!

Iran's Ahmadinejad Calls for Purge of Liberal Teachers
Tuesday, September 05, 2006

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Tuesday for a purge of liberal and secular teachers from the country's universities, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported in another step back to 1980s-style radicalism.

"Today, students should shout at the president and ask why liberal and secular university lecturers are present in the universities," the agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying during a meeting with a group of students.

Ahmadinejad complained that changes in the country's universities were difficult to accomplish, but said, "The job for such a change has begun."

David Corn has Valerie working out of the Athens embassy where every foreign intelligence service would assume she was CIA. THEN LATER, she becomes a deep cover NOC!

No wonder the CIA never gets anything right; they do things backwards. Such as letting Valerie rise to head the Iraq secret operations group where she'd know all the plans, and then letting her travel to Jordan (as a Brewster-Jennings energy analyst?) where she would be vulnerable to being captured by hostiles. Tortured, drugged, made to reveal everything she knows.

Sure, David.

Yes, Patrick, it is actually the AIC, which stand for...

'Come the spring of 2001, she was in the CPD's modest Iraq branch. But that summer--before 9/11--word came down from the brass: We're ramping up on Iraq. Her unit was expanded and renamed the Joint Task Force on Iraq. Within months of 9/11, the JTFI grew to fifty or so employees. Valerie Wilson was placed in charge of its operations group.'

The above would seem to contradict Joe Wilson's claim that Valerie had nothing to do with his being sent to Niger. If she headed the group, wouldn't she be the one to authorize such a mission.

IF Plame was `covert' as David discloses, then why did this little "fact" did NOT surface earlier?
Posted by: Happy post-Labor Day at September 5, 2006

IF Plame was covert? You cannot be serious. It amazes me you challenge the fact David reports today as being incredible because no one asserted it before now. What's wrong with you?
Posted by: O'Reilly at September 5, 2006 04:40 PM

it wasn't just "people on the left," either. Larry Johnson, a counter-terrorism expert formerly of the CIA and State Department, came to Plame's defense early in the game and scoffed at claims that she wasn't a NOC agent. This whole wingnut charade of pretending that Joe Wilson is some kind of rabid lefty is asinine. The man is a center-right realist diplomat. He and his wife were attacked because he realized the lunatics had taken over the asylum and he said so, no more, no less.
Posted by: Don at September 5, 2006 05:17 PM

We'll wait Happy. We'll wait for your considered response.

Somehow I knew many weeks ago that V. Plame was NOC. Also other details of her career. Don't remember where I read it, but it was somewhere that publishes credible stuff...

Wow! Tough crowd. Hard to believe even one of them can read, much less construct a coherent sentence! What is it about these Christian Supremacist, Neofascist, right-wing war criminals that allows them to discount only the facts, and to cleave only to the spin and the lies? What is it? Perhaps they smell the slow erosion of personal freedoms and the corporate takeover of government as a fresh opportunity to make money, and no number of intellectuals, social progressives, gays, women, or Special Prosecutors are going to get in their way. These people live and breath the 14 pillars of NeoFascism: a powerful and continuing nationalism, disdain for the recognition of human rights, identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause, supremacy of the military, rampant sexism, controlled mass media, obsession with national security, religion and government intertwined, corporate power protected, labor power suppressed, disdain for intellectuals and the arts, obsession with crime and punishment, rampant cronyism and corruption, and fraudulent elections. These are the "traditional family values" that the Buscists and their ilk would live by. And these are the same values that buoyed Hitler, and Mussolini and Marcos and Suharto in their rise to absolute power. Don't worry about the terrorists; the real enemy are the NeoFascists like Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Feith, Hadley, Rove and, yes, Bush (who like to be called NeoConservatives) and the police state that they're fashioning out of the good ol' US of A. Good night, and Good luck.
PS. sorry about the rant. It's just that the odor from Washington, DC is getting so disgusting and nauseating that a person with even a smattering of conscience gets madder and madder.

Another Scoop from 'Hubris':
Plame Was Working on WMD
By E&P Staff

Published: September 05, 2006 2:25 PM ET

NEW YORK Two weeks ago it was an excerpt from the just-published book "Hubris" in Newsweek that outed Richard Armitrage as the key source for columnist Robert Novak in the Plame/CIA leak case. Now another scoop from the book, this time at the Web site for The Nation magazine, posted this afternoon, unravels the surprising mystery of exactly what Valerie Plame Wilson was working on at the CIA before she was outed by Novak.

By revealing her identity, Armitage, Karl Rove and Scooter Libby harmed her career and put vital intelligence at risk, suggests co-author David Corn of The Nation. The book is also written by Newsweek's Michael Isikoff.

Here is how Corn describes the latest revelation in an e-mail:

"She was operations chief of the Joint Task Force on Iraq, a unit of the Counterproliferation Division of the clandestine Directorate of Operations. For the two years prior to her outing, Valerie Wilson worked to gather intelligence that would support the Bush White House's assertion that Saddam Hussein's Iraq was loaded with WMDs.

"This means that Armitage--as well as Karl Rove and Scooter Libby--leaked classified information about a CIA officer whose job it had been to look for evidence of Saddam's WMD programs. During this part of her career, Valerie Wilson traveled overseas to monitor operations she and her staff at JTFI were mounting. She was no analyst, no desk-jockey, no paper-pusher. She was in charge of running critical covert operations.

"Some Bush-backers have dismissed the CIA/Plame leak as unimportant and claimed that Valerie Wilson was an analyst and not truly an undercover CIA officer. In an October 1, 2003 column, Novak reported she was 'an analyst, not in covert operations.'

"'Hubris' and The Nation article, citing CIA sources, disclose that she was in covert operations and that--ironically--she had spent two years trying to find proof of the administration's claims that Iraq posed a WMD threat. She and the Joint Task Force on Iraq, of course, came up empty-handed. 'Hubris' and The Nation piece also report new revelations that undermine the charge that Valerie Wilson sent her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, on his trip to Niger."

In the article, Corn writes, concerning that latter point: "In an interview with the authors, Douglas Rohn, a State Department officer who wrote a crucial memo related to the trip, acknowledges he may have inadvertently created a misimpression that her involvement was more significant than it had been."

The Nation site is at www.thenation.com.

(link)

Isikoff Continues His Lies, This Time In League With David Corn
PipelineNews.Org
no byline

August 31, 2006 - anyone at this point in time thinks that Michael Isikoff is anything but a pathological liar and a hack is beyond us, but his latest attempt to resuscitate what's left of his image certainly will fail, that is if we can assume his latest piece in Newsweek accurately represents his and David Corns' new book which we are not going to plug here.

Since giving Isikoff any more than a rudimentary amount of ink offends our sensibilities, let's just concentrate on one small point by way of unraveling Isikoff's latest fantasy in his most recent installment, "The Man Who Said Too Much, " where Isikoff continues the ruse that Plame was covert [not to mention the ever more ridiculous appearing assertion that "officials at the White House also told reporters about Wilson's wife in an effort to discredit Wilson.." when it has been determined by the Senate Intelligence Committe that Wilson lied - something Isikoff will not touch - and as a result it was incumbent upon the adminstration to present the factual basis for Wilson's otherwise inexplicable trip to Niger].

"...Armitage himself was aggressively investigated by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, but was never charged. Fitzgerald found no evidence that Armitage knew of Plame's covert CIA status when he talked to Novak and Woodward..."
No Mike, Joe the Liar's wife Valerie Plame was not covert and you know it, had that been the case, Armitage and everyone else suspected of "outing" Plame would have been prosecuted under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982.

Of course that didn't happen, even at the hands of the left's favorite overzealous prosecutor.

In a Feb 13 piece in Newsweek you went to the extraordinary length of attempting to establish that case, but of course failed miserably because that fable is untrue.

"But special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald found that Plame had indeed done "covert work overseas" on counterproliferation matters in the past five years, and the CIA "was making specific efforts to conceal" her identity, according to newly released portions of a judge's opinion. (A CIA spokesman at the time is quoted as saying Plame was "unlikely" to take further trips overseas, though.)
On July 15 AP reported:

"Wilson acknowledged his wife was no longer in an undercover job at the time Novak's column first identified her. "My wife was not a clandestine officer the day that Bob Novak blew her identity," he said."
AP's source for this information is none other than the - usually lying lips of Joe Wilson - in this case as broadcast by the liberal's news source of choice, CNN:

"In an interview on CNN yesterday before the latest revelation, Wilson acknowledged his wife was no longer in an undercover job at the time Novak's column first identified her. "My wife was not a clandestine officer the day that Bob Novak blew her identity," he said." - July 15, 2005, Seattle Times, "Report Says Rove Got Name Of Agent from Journalist"
Isikoff is a reprehensible liar, he has used the Plame affair to tar the administration from the inception of the case.

In a piece he authored for the April 17, 2006 edition of Newsweek, "Leaker in Chief" he defames both Libby and his boss, Mr. Bush mischaracterizing the administrations legitimate right to factually correct the record while suggesting that because Libby was doing Mr. Bush's bidding in this matter that the assumption that he leaked Plame's identity to Bob Novak was not out of character. Of course Mr. Isikoff never told his readers that the President of the United States has the authority to declassify documents, hence airing a portion of this "intelligence document" is eminently legal and defensible.

"According to a filing from the prosecutor in the Valerie Plame leak investigation, Lewis (Scooter) Libby, who has been indicted for lying in the case, told a grand jury that President Bush specifically authorized him to leak from an intelligence document on WMD in Iraq..."
Since books a plenty are coming out of DC these days we are not going to write one here, regardless it's important to note that Isikoff is emblematic of the MSM, he is a partisan hatchet man who pretty much used up what remained of his rep with his infamous Koran-flusher expose, which inflamed the easily inflammable, stuck in the 7th century Muslim fanatics to the point of getting people killed, not to mention materially harming the United States during war time.

Isikoff is a character assassin who uses innuendo, half-truths, mischaracterizations and outright falsehoods to pillory people he disagrees with politically. He has consistently been wrong on the so-called Plame affair and now is trying to convince whomever will still listen to him that he is relevant.

Isikoff is the face of today's journalism, that he continues to represent Newsweek says much about both, none of it very flattering.

?1999-2006 PipeLineNews.org, all rights reserved.

(link)

The Plamegate Hall of Shame
Yahoo! News - 1 hour ago
... Wilson's harrumphing, bought the line that the White House "leaked" Plame's name to ... doing so violated a federal law against unmasking a covert operative." The ...

The Plame Blame Game's Real Culprits
CBS News, New York - 4 hours ago
... Wilson's harrumphing, bought the line that the White House "leaked" Plame's name to ... doing so violated a federal law against unmasking a covert operative." The ...

(links)

What Valerie Plame Really Did at the CIA
The Nation., NY - 6 hours ago
... Valerie Plame was recruited into the CIA in 1985, straight out of Pennsylvania State University. After two years of training to be a covert case officer, she ...

(link)

Should We Appoint A Special Prosecutor? Never Again
The Conservative Voice, NC - Sep 4, 2006
... now everyone remotely connected with the investigation knew who outed Valerie Plame, if in fact she was outed. Thereís no evidence she was a covert agent of ...

------
Well, at least not until there's a Democrat in the Oval Office or (s)he lies about sex. Seriosly, Clinton was impeached for lying about sex, felatio to be specific.

Most recent news coverage of HUBRIS (link)

PRS: If she headed the group, wouldn't she be the one to authorize such a mission.

File that one under Wildly Desperate Speculation.

I will give you wrong-wingers credit for persistence, but it just gets really tiresome after a while.

Face it: On everything from Iraq to Katrina to trickle-down "economics," you were wrong and have always been wrong. You bet big on Snakeoil at Pimlico and you lost your shirt. Do the right thing and admit it. All these gassy protestations just make you look even sillier.

It's going to be fun watching the spin cycle as revelations from the book about the run-up to the war in Iraq hit the news.

...meanwhile as bush ratchets up another snake-oil tour, Pakistan surprises the bejeezes out of the WH...

By Haji Mujtaba

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Pro-Taliban militants and the Pakistani government reached a peace deal on Tuesday under which the militants agreed to stop attacks in both Pakistan and across the border in Afghanistan, negotiators said.

Hundreds of Pakistani troops and militants have been killed in the Waziristan region as the government has attempted to push its authority into semi-autonomous tribal lands on the Afghan border as part of efforts in the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

"The agreement will pave the way for permanent peace in the region," said Malik Shahzada, a member of a tribal council that has been overseeing the negotiations with the rebels.

The agreement was signed on a dusty football ground at a college in Miranshah, the main town of the North Waziristan region.

Scores of members of the tribal council, most in turbans and with long beards, watched as a Pakistani army commander, Major General Azhar Ali Shah, embraced representatives of the militants after the pact was signed.

Many members of the al Qaeda network and the Taliban fled to Waziristan after U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in Afghanistan in late 2001.

President Pervez Musharraf, who is due to visit Afghanistan soon, has said no group could use Pakistan as a springboard to launch attacks on other countries. He has also vowed to clear foreign militants from the Pakistani side of the border.

But Tuesday's agreement said foreigners could stay in Waziristan, as long as they kept the peace.

According to a copy of the agreement obtained by Reuters, the militants agreed that all foreigners would have to leave but those unable to do so would have to respect the peace deal.

Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding out somewhere along the Afghan-Pakistani border but security analysts doubt he is in Waziristan, given the security forces' focus on the area.

Several of bin Laden's Arab lieutenants have been killed in North Waziristan and U.S. drone aircraft have carried out missile strikes on al Qaeda targets from across the border in Afghanistan.

Security officials say some central Asian militants are also in the area.

Republican Campaign Strategy Revisited:

MUSHROOM CLOUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yet another 9/11 hijack 'suspect' is alive and well

good thing that we attacked afghanistan in retaliation for 9/11 thus increasing the opium production to record levels!

"This means that Armitage--as well as Karl Rove and Scooter Libby--leaked classified information about a CIA officer whose job it had been to look for evidence of Saddam's WMD programs. During this part of her career, Valerie Wilson traveled overseas to monitor operations she and her staff at JTFI were mounting. She was no analyst, no desk-jockey, no paper-pusher. She was in charge of running critical covert operations."-DAVID CORN

A couple of questions for the Corn-nutters:
1-If she was running covert operations, why would she allow her husband to write and OP-ED about the things that were directy involeved with what she was working on?
2-If in her professional capasity she found out that, "There was no intelligence to find on Saddam's WMDs because the weapons did not exist."
why would she allow her husband to speak openly about what she had to go "undercover" for.
3-Why did all of these DEMOCRATS lie to the American people about Saddam and his WMD programs in 1998?!

"As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I am keenly aware that the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons is an issue of grave importance to all nations. Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." -- Nancy Pelosi, December 16, 1998
"Iraq is not the only nation in the world to possess weapons of mass destruction, but it is the only nation with a leader who has used them against his own people." -- Tom Daschle in 1998
"The community of nations may see more and more of the very kind of threat Iraq poses now: a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them or provide them to terrorists. If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow." -- Bill Clinton in 1998

"(Saddam) will rebuild his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and some day, some way, I am certain he will use that arsenal again, as he has 10 times since 1983" -- National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, Feb 18, 1998
"Saddam's goal ... is to achieve the lifting of U.N. sanctions while retaining and enhancing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. We cannot, we must not and we will not let him succeed." -- Madeline Albright, 1998
CORN-NUTTERS CANT STAND THE TRUTH!!!!!!!!!!

A couple years ago I proposed to a few on-line authors an alternative to the task of trying to find out who exposed Plame. Eventually we would find the culprit(s), I suggested, and they would pay a price. People talk, you know.

I also suggested that the usual suspects (Rove, Libby, Cheney) were not stupid, that they would not casually flirt with possible federal prosecution by exposing a CIA operative.

UNLESS there was information held by Plame considered by the Bush Gang to be potentially so damaging that the risk was worth it.

Now we know, thank you Mr. Corn and Mr. Isikoff, what that information was: no WMDs. It was worth the risk to expose her in an effort to protect that information. Expose her, discredit both Wilsons to plant the seeds of doubt, and keep the secret. Knowing that the Wilsons could not disclose her CIA involvement and that the fear of further exposures would keep her fellow agents silent, the Gang probably thought they had, to use a term familiar to them, a slam dunk.

Excellent, critical work, Mr. Corn and Mr. Isikoff. Thank you, again.

53-"no WMDs"

If there were not WMD's did all of the DEMOCRATS-Nancy Pelosi, Tom Daschle, Bill Clinton,Sandy Berger, Madeline Albright lie in 1998?

"As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I am keenly aware that the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons is an issue of grave importance to all nations. Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." -- Nancy Pelosi, December 16, 1998

"Iraq is not the only nation in the world to possess weapons of mass destruction, but it is the only nation with a leader who has used them against his own people." -- Tom Daschle in 1998

"The community of nations may see more and more of the very kind of threat Iraq poses now: a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them or provide them to terrorists. If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow." -- Bill Clinton in 1998

"(Saddam) will rebuild his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and some day, some way, I am certain he will use that arsenal again, as he has 10 times since 1983" -- National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, Feb 18, 1998

"Saddam's goal ... is to achieve the lifting of U.N. sanctions while retaining and enhancing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. We cannot, we must not and we will not let him succeed." -- Madeline Albright, 1998

38

We'll wait Happy. We'll wait for your considered response.

Posted by: O'Reilly at September 5, 2006 07:20 PM
===============================================
Ms. Plame's `Covertness', or lack of, is a paler version of the arguments over whether Saddam had WMD. The Left insists no WMD in Iraq despite actual physical WMDs found (since 2003). The Right, at the very, very least, is correct in Ms. Plame's not being Covert at the time of Novak's article. The undeniable fact, like Saddam's having WMD (old they maybe), is that no indictment came out of almost 3 years of pussyfooting by Fitz.

For the hell of it, let's suppose Ms. Plame was officially and continuously `Covert', and such status is a life-and-death issue. What does that say about Joe Wilson very Overtly mouthing off in a NYT Op-Ed? Either the most devious or the most insanely stupid person our our time!

While I am at, can anyone argue the also the indisputable fact that for almost 5 years (knock on wood), there has been no attacks in the USA; yet somehow, the Left insists we are no safer! Sorry, your position on `Less Safe', don't compute!

55
minor clarification: The undeniable fact, like Saddam's having WMD (old they maybe), is that no indictment for `outing' Ms. Plame came out of almost 3 years of pussyfooting by Fitz.

The earth is flat, Val Plame was not a covert agent in the CIA, Joe Wilson lied, and da Nile is only a river in Egypt.

Posted by: Tre Beloc at September 5, 2006 09:48 PM

Tre. Call your mother.

"As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I am keenly aware that the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons is an issue of grave importance to all nations. Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." -- Nancy Pelosi, December 16, 1998

"Iraq is not the only nation in the world to possess weapons of mass destruction, but it is the only nation with a leader who has used them against his own people." -- Tom Daschle in 1998

"The community of nations may see more and more of the very kind of threat Iraq poses now: a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them or provide them to terrorists. If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow." -- Bill Clinton in 1998

"(Saddam) will rebuild his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and some day, some way, I am certain he will use that arsenal again, as he has 10 times since 1983" -- National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, Feb 18, 1998

"Saddam's goal ... is to achieve the lifting of U.N. sanctions while retaining and enhancing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. We cannot, we must not and we will not let him succeed." -- Madeline Albright, 1998

Good to see that you are still an ignorat coward Happy!

Ignorance is a CORN-HOLE named Happy, and that is a whole lot of Bliss!

You can slander my mother as much as you want but, i bet you wouldnt say it to my face, the internet was made for cowards like you,BE-ITCH!

The Right, at the very, very least, is correct in Ms. Plame's not being Covert at the time of Novak's article.

Posted by: Happy to be Right at September 5, 2006 10:41 PM

Huh? Please site a source, any source and try to square it with what David Corn reported.

You cannot wrap your brain around the fact that you've been misled by your president, George Bush, the RNC apparatus and the conservative media.

And know, you choose to be misled. There's a name for people who choose to believe what is not true rather than face overwhelming facts to the contrary. Delusional.

I don't think you're delusional. I think you're happily ignorant.

53
.....
UNLESS there was information held by Plame considered by the Bush Gang to be potentially so damaging that the risk was worth it.

Now we know, thank you Mr. Corn and Mr. Isikoff, what that information was: no WMDs. It was worth the risk to expose her in an effort to protect that information. Expose her, discredit both Wilsons to plant the seeds of doubt, and keep the secret. Knowing that the Wilsons could not disclose her CIA involvement and that the fear of further exposures would keep her fellow agents silent, the Gang probably thought they had, to use a term familiar to them, a slam dunk.

Posted by: Bob at September 5, 2006 10:28 PM
==============================================
Bob, I'm so sorry that your logic left you sometime ago! Yep, `exposing' Ms. Plame will keep the Wilsons' `Quiet'! Way to go with critical thinking! Or, maybe you just forgot about Joe's rather LOUD Op-Ed piece that started this Made-in-the-CIA-Gate .....

i bet you wouldnt say it to my face

Posted by: Tre Beloc at September 5, 2006 10:53 PM

Tre. Call your mother.

As the most spoofed name on the Corn blog this year, I'll share some thoughts on this phenomenon. At first, it did annoy/bother me, as Regular posters know. Guess what? I've `grown' and adapted; life traits I've been blessed with to have achieved above-average success in all life endeavors.

Spoofing IS an interesting & complicated blog phenomenon! I believe it reveals/represents many personal/psychological traits of the spoofer; none are positive.

What kind of person would resort to this subterfuge and repress/hide-from his own identity? Is this type of a person you would look up to or want on your team for serious above-board work?
(I know who the the current dimwit Happy is, he misspelled the same words in his original identity...but I'll keep this to myself for now.)

Isn't spoofing a rather crude attempt to Discredit your opposition whose superior arguments have bloodied the spoofer's original handle? (Hint: Who has been `beaten up' by me recently?)

Isn't spoofing also meant to confuse the casual audiences in order to further the spoofer's agenda?

Isn't the spoofer's threshold for fun rather low-class and juvenile?

Boiled down, spoofing is just one of the Dirty Tricks such spoofer has picked up, latched on and almost certainly, used such Dirty tactics over and over in his personal & business life? If such spoofer had the big-name diplomas, he would be the Jeff Skillings and Andrew Fastows of the world.

To the Cornuts: I suspect many of you, like me, know who the spoofer is....since among you, you exchange off-blog emails, photos, visit each other, etc...Your silence, other than Panty's warning, tells me, my fellow Conservative posters and regular Readers, all we need to know about the hypocrisies of the Extreme Left.

Some may not believe me, but I'm amused to see my spoofed self acting like a jackass and at times, like my 21-yr old son who has been in liberal Austin, TX too long! The only folks I hope will not confuse me w/my spoofers, are my fellow Conservative posters and Mr. Corn himself! I'm a Conservative and I DON'T FLIP-FLOP!

64- don't think you're delusional. I think you're happily ignorant

That is a funny line comming from you,Nappy!
I think you are DELUSIONAL and HAPPILY IGNORANT, NAPPY!

Bob, it's a interesting theory. You have to wonder why they'd do it.

I hope David's book reports on the motives of Libby and Rove, and maybe Armitage too.

What were they doing calling calling six reporters and trying to discredit Joe Wilson for his op-ed, which called into question war rationale, and discolosing CLASSIFIFIED information by identifying a COVERT CIA NOC, Valerie Plame? These things don't happen by accident. There was a motive.

Maybe HUBRIS offers some insight.

Well,
Well,
Well,
All this information is a kick in the rear for the Bush administration.
So what's happening in the upper mississippi valley? Gas prices are down and expected to go down further. Bush is telling us that we are safer now than before.

I predict that gas prices will go up to about 4 dollars a gallon after the election. I suspect businesses as well as the average person just said we're done. The oil companies can go to hell.

Bush needs to tell New Orleans that we are safer. Bush couldn't protect the nation from a drizzle. He needs to tell the cities where crime is up because the poverty rates are up that it is safer. Bush needs to tell the soldier in Iraq and the mothers of Iraq that we are safer.
Bush needs to tell the unemployed and underemployed and those without insurance that they are safer. There is nothing safe about bankruptcy or medical catastrophe.

66-Thanks for the reminderI already did, NAPPY. She told me to tell you hello.

The fact remains that you have no answer for what the DEMOCRATS had to say in 1998. Funny how after the 2000 elections all of the WMD's disappeared and then an investigation was needed to see if Hussen had WMD's

67 Can't you come up with a new diatribe about spoof posting Happy 1? You posted that exact post before.

George Bush was against leaks until he authorized them.

69-What were they doing calling calling six reporters and trying to discredit Joe Wilson for his op-ed,

I think it was the reporters calling the White House not the other way around.

Hope all of the CORN-NUTTERS hide all of the knives when "Path to 9/11" comes on next week.

So Valerie Plame and her group were trying to find WMDs, probably, maybe, risking their life to do it and finding none. The Bush administration exposed her and put her life at risk. Still was no WMDs. They started a war in Iraq anyway and risked soldiers lives for what?

All for what?

How can anyone justify these actions?

# 70 Jeanne, I think the American people are getting pretty damned tired of the bushevik scare tactics and are pissed that bush has paid no attention to issues that have an effect on their everyday lives.

Safety? The chance of losing their lives from a terrorist attack is pretty remote. But, the chances of losing their "livelihood" are a clear and present danger under the bush regime.

bush's scare tactics have worn thin, down to a nub. General Rove must have a BIG ONE in mind.

There was less than a 1% chance Saddam had a nuclear weapon. There was a 0% chance Saddam could deliver it to the USA. Why then did the US initiate an aggressive war against Iraq, when even under Cheney's new policy, the 1% solution, the criteria was not met?

The president's approval rating is the same percentage as the percentage of people that do not believe we went to war on false pretenses.

Jeanne,

What do you have to say about #58 - #62?

Any expination for those quotes?

The busheviks are having "planning" stratergy meetings on "determining the right balance of scare tactics" -- they say, "we want to keep the American people scared, but we don't want to scare them so much that they think we're not doing enough to keep them safe."

Kitchen tables issues? Fergitaboutit!

I think it was the reporters calling the White House not the other way around.

Posted by: Tre Beloc at September 5, 2006 11:19 PM

Who initited the phone call is immaterial. Who raised the subject and offered the classified information (about a covert CIA employee who states was a NOC) is what counts. Libby told Judy Miller. Rove told Matt Cooper and confirmed it when Bob Novak called and asked for confirmation.

Tre, your Mom called her. I told her I'm too tired tonight. She said she hasn't heard from you.

"A couple of questions for the Corn-nutters:"

Tre Beloc-

A couple is two, not three. Your questions about Ms. Plame-Wilson's control of her hasband are totally pointless and inconsequential.

Mr Wilson did what he did - he cast doubt on Bush's integrity while selling the war. You do realize Bush admitted that the Niger claim should NOT have made it into the SOTU speech don't you? What does it matter if your spin on what Ms Plame-Wilson would have "allowed" him to do seems even totally illogical, it's a plain fact he did it right? It was in the New York Times.

His wife was what she was -- an under cover CIA employee whose status as such was classified. You do realize that her status as a CIA operative was classified, don't you?

Your third question is a ridiculous excursion into the past. Let's for a moment assume all of your quotes were absolutely meant exactly as you wish them to be percieved -- They are quotes from people whose opinions you have absolutely no regard for right?

Why do you need the thoughts and ideas of people you think are unworthy of governing to bolster your argument? What if Bush the first told you the reason he broke his "read my lips" pledge to not raise taxes was because Carter agreed with him? Would that alone have made him right to raise taxes in your eyes? If not then you would have no reason to think Democrat's agreement with Bush's Iraq assesment alone would make it a "good" asessment. Can you give us just one fact aside from some random Democrats corroboration that made you believe Bush's Iraq WMD assesment was sound at some point before it was proven totally baseless?

A policy takes on orders of magnitude more importance when a leader acts on it by putting US armed forces in harms way, wouldn't you agree? Your man is the one that ultimately pulled the trigger, can't you defend that decision based on actual facts and results rather than old Democrat quotes that you yourself know had no actual sway in the Republican Comander in Chief's decision?

BTW, are you going through some kind of self doubt anxiety period? Lurking on the message boards of people you disagree with politically and quoting their own parties leaders back to us in some kind of "gotcha" game seems a bit desperate. Get into a program.

Another fatal day

The real reason of the increasing violence in the Middle East is the return to imperial control and foreign occupation half a century after the European colonial empires were broken up. This is the fuel for Islamic militancy. This is why fanatical but isolated Islamic groups can suddenly win broader support. Governments allied to the US and Britain have no legitimacy. The attempts by America and Britain to crush Islamic militancy across the Middle East are making sure it will become stronger.

#58-62

Yup. They said those things (even though some of those quotes are taken out of context). Then they did what was necessary to try to ensure the worst scenario didn't happen -- with no assistance from the Repugs in Congress, who thwarted Clinton at every opportunity.

Thank goodness that in 1998 they were cognizant of what Saddam would like to have accomplished -- at least on Clinton's watch they were not asleep at the wheel as happened on bush's watch.

bush and his boyfriends are total failures.

Lurking on the message boards of people you disagree with politically and quoting their own parties leaders back to us in some kind of "gotcha" game seems a bit desperate. Get into a program.
Posted by: johnd at September 5, 2006 11:30 PM

Bwaaaa haaaaa haaaaaa

yet another 9/11 hijack 'suspect' is alive and well

Here we go again. Why are you bringing up 5 year old articles that have been debunked a looooooong time ago? That's worse than the 'Israelis' story your fellow wacko brought up yesterday!

Also, unfortunately for the "still alive" stories, there are reports that the BBCs Waleed is indeed an entirely different person called Waleed A Al Shehri.

to worse

Bob got summoned for jury duty and he's PISSED. Big editorial spread in the Detroit Free Press about jury duty and what they're trying to do to make it better for jurors. NOT ONE MENTION ABOUT LOSING YOUR PAY CHECK! Nada, nothing. All the out of touch people in charge think about is making it more interesting. Not ONE word about leaning on employers to pay employee's salaries while they're "doing their civic duty". If you get chosen for a trial in Michigan you get a whopping $40 a day and 10¢ a mile. Off topic, but I just HAD to complain.

81-Mr Wilson did what he did - he cast doubt on Bush's integrity while selling the war. You do realize Bush admitted that the Niger claim should NOT have made it into the SOTU speech don't you? What does it matter if your spin on what Ms Plame-Wilson would have "allowed" him to do seems even totally illogical, it's a plain fact he did it right? It was in the New York Times.

Firs of all since we are nit picking, Husband is spelled so, not "hasband".

Well I beg to differ that the question is "pointless and inconsequential" . I think if my wife was a "under cover CIA employee" I would be worried that my Op-ed piece could lead to my wife's cover being blow, in the first place the fact that my "under cover CIA employee" wife would suggest me to do some of her dirty work is questionable, what was the Demorcatic catch phrase after Katrina hit "nepotism" ring a bell.

You got one thing right Mr and Mrs Wilson had one goal in mind,"cast doubt on Bush's integrity ", no matter how many lies they had to tell.

81-"Why do you need the thoughts and ideas of people you think are unworthy of governing to bolster your argument?

FYI I did think that the above people were "worthy of governing" as I voted for Billy Cinton, and I belived them when they said those things about Saddam!

The fact remains that you have no answer for what the DEMOCRATS had to say in 1998. Funny how after the 2000 elections all of the WMD's disappeared and then an investigation was needed to see if Hussen had WMD's

Watch "Path to 9/11" and you will see who is telling the truth and who is a CORN-LIAR

From bad

I faliled to link the first time.

"to worse" did not link. I found the article on buzzflash.com, "OBL gets a free pass."

I misspelled failed. FAILED!

It would be so obnoxious that Tre corrects everyone's spelling mistakes if he wasn't so wrong about the substantive issues. . . but he is and it is.

On a personal note, Tre your mom called back and asked me to tell you to call her.

BTW, are you going through some kind of self doubt anxiety period? Lurking on the message boards of people you disagree with politically and quoting their own parties leaders back to us in some kind of "gotcha" game seems a bit desperate.

Good post at #81 John. And you didn't even have to bring up the 'box' that Saddam was contained in. He wasn't a threat to anybody, much less us so far away. There were weapons inspections since all those quotes too, but that's wayyyy too much info for a bushbot.

#87 carol, I know someone who told the judge that if he is selected for jury duty, he probably find the person not guilty. He no longer trusts law enforcement and the judicial system. The judge excluded him from jury duty.

Watch "Path to 9/11" and you will see who is telling the truth
Posted by: Tre Beloc at September 5, 2006 11:44 PM

What makes you think it'll tell a story favorable to your position?

81-Can you give us just one fact aside from some random Democrats corroboration that made you believe Bush's Iraq WMD assesment was sound at some point before it was proven totally baseless?

"random Democrats corroboration"?

Bill Clinton- was the President
Sandy Berger- was National Security Adviser
This was not some ruty-poot random Democrats corroboration these were the leaders of the UNITED STATES and They were the ones who officaly adopted the platform of "Regime change in IRAQ" as the US policy, and I agreed with them at the time!

I didnt change my mind with the changing of the Presidency in 2000, although i believe some Corn-nutters did!

9/11 Miniseries Is Criticized as Inaccurate and Biased (link)

By JESSE McKINLEY
Published: September 6, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 5 ? Days before its scheduled debut, the first major television miniseries about the Sept. 11 attacks was being criticized on Tuesday as biased and inaccurate by bloggers, terrorism experts and a member of the Sept. 11 commission, whose report makes up much of the film?s source material.

The six-hour miniseries, ?The Path to 9/11,? is to be shown on ABC on Sunday and Monday. The network has been advertising the program as a ?historic broadcast,? which uses the commission?s report on the 2001 attacks as its ?primary foundation.?

On Tuesday, several liberal blogs were questioning whether ABC?s version was overly critical of the Clinton administration while allowing the Bush administration off easy.

In particular, some critics ? including Richard A. Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar ? questioned a scene that depicted several American military officers on the ground in Afghanistan. In it, the officers, working with leaders of the Northern Alliance, the Afghan rebel group, move in to capture Osama bin Laden, only to allow him to escape after the mission is canceled by Clinton officials in Washington.

In a posting on ThinkProgress.org, and in a phone interview, Mr. Clarke said no military personnel or C.I.A. agents were ever in position to capture Mr. bin Laden in Afghanistan, nor did the leader of the Northern Alliance get that near to his camp.

?It didn?t happen,? Mr. Clarke said. ?There were no troops in Afghanistan about to snatch bin Laden. There were no C.I.A. personnel about to snatch bin Laden. It?s utterly invented.?

94-

Watch and learn. The truth and facts are on my side. I was and am a political junkie who voted democrat untill 2000, and I know what was going on in the 90's because I was paying attention!

Yeah, Gerald, when I posted early this evening @ #49 I was referring to this development, but the Reuters story wasn't as "finely tuned" as ABC News' take on this.

"What this means is that the Taliban and al Qaeda leadership have effectively carved out a sanctuary inside Pakistan," said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, the former White House counter-terrorism director.

The agreement was signed on the same day President Bush said the United States was working with its allies "to deny terrorists the enclaves they seek to establish in ungoverned areas across the world."
++++++
bush looks more foolish and inept everyday....

from Gerald's article at #86...

"What this means is that the Taliban and al Qaeda leadership have effectively carved out a sanctuary inside Pakistan," said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, the former White House counter-terrorism director.

96-It didn?t happen,? Mr. Clarke said. ?There were no troops in Afghanistan about to snatch bin Laden. There were no C.I.A. personnel about to snatch bin Laden. It?s utterly invented.?

Oh,is it? "Path to 9/11" uses the 9/11 Pannel Report as its script!

You are such a liar, I talked with my mom,and she said that she does not accept collect calls from conviced pedophiles!

That's worse than the....story your fellow wacko brought up

are you starting in with the name calling again?
blow me you bitch

97 The truth and facts are on my side.
Posted by Tre Beloc at September 5, 2006

Tre, I'm embarrased for you.

ABC said it planned to run a disclaimer with the broadcast, reminding viewers that the movie was not a documentary.

"As we were watching, we were trying to think how they could have misinterpreted the 9/11 commission?s finding the way that they had," Mr. Ben-Veniste said. "They gave the impression that Clinton had not given the green light to an operation that had been cleared by the C.I.A. to kill bin Laden," when, in fact, the Sept. 11 commission concluded that Mr. Clinton had.

No wonder Tre likes it.

I think if my wife was a "under cover CIA employee" I would be worried that my Op-ed piece could lead to my wife's cover being blow(sic),

Better watch the picking at people for misspelling. You don't get an "A" in that catagory either. I'd guess none of us do, so why mention mistakes??
Now mr. bushbot, Joe Wilson's article had not a thing to do with his wife's work. It was totally about his mission to Niger. That Dumya's mention of those 16 words in the SOTU speech shouldn't have been allowed was admitted by this misadministration should be a wake-up call for you bots. They lied to you dude, and they are still lying to you.

Tre,

Come to grips with reality - you keep saying stuff like > when the fact that she was is not in dispute.

And you say "Funny how after the 2000 elections all of the WMD's disappeared" When it's now a proven fact that there never were any WMD's in Iraq since the early '90's.

How can it be funny that things that were proven to have never been there disappeared? How does Democrats saying 8 years ago they thought there were WMDs in Iraq make the always non-existent WMDs something that Democrats need to explain and not the guy who took us to war over them have to answer for?

You agree that Wilson was casting doubt on Bush's integrity selling of the war, then you quickly disparage him as a liar but offer no examples of any premeditated falsehoods. (And what lies did Valerie tell earned her your liar title?). Well if it takes a "liar" to release facts that get a President to admit an otherwise uncorrected mistake in his State of the Union speech, then we need more of those kind of liars.

They lied to you dude, and they are still lying to you.
Posted by: Alan at September 6, 2006 12:15 AM

Yep.

If it takes a "liar" to release facts that get a President to admit an otherwise uncorrected mistake in his State of the Union speech, then we need more of those kind of liars.

Posted by: johnd at September 6, 2006 12:16 AM

Yep.

Tre,

Come to grips with reality - you keep saying stuff like "if my wife was a under cover CIA employee" when the fact that she was is not in dispute.

And you say "Funny how after the 2000 elections all of the WMD's disappeared" When it's now a proven fact that there never were any WMD's in Iraq since the early '90's.

How can it be funny that things that were proven to have never been there disappeared? How does Democrats saying 8 years ago they thought there were WMDs in Iraq make the always non-existent WMDs something that Democrats need to explain and not the guy who took us to war over them have to answer for?

You agree that Wilson was casting doubt on Bush's integrity selling of the war, then you quickly disparage him as a liar but offer no examples of any premeditated falsehoods. (And what lies did Valerie tell earned her your liar title?). Well if it takes a "liar" to release facts that get a President to admit an otherwise uncorrected mistake in his State of the Union speech, then we need more of those kind of liars.

Hey folks! Remember The Path to 9/11 is a DOCUDRAMA -- by definition and genre, it is NOT routinely an accurate historical depiction of known facts, but is usually a mix of facts and speculation. Docudramas do not mark the distinctions between established facts and hypotheses! Docudramas are entertainment!

Also, docudramas tend towards demonization or hagiography, depending on the writer/producer/$$$$/politics POV and are often simplistic to the point of being insulting to thinking people .

Docudramas should be viewed cum grano salis! (If viewed at all.)