An Online Magazine
Would they ask real questions?
DES MOINES -- Three student newspapers were not allowed to cover President Bush's visit to Des Moines on Thursday.
The Iowa State Daily; the Daily Iowan, the student newspaper at the University of Iowa; and the DMACC Chronicle, the student newspaper of the Ankeny campus of Des Moines Area Community College, were all left off the approved list to cover the presidential visit.
...
Allsup [a student reporter] said he was later contacted by the White House press office and told the president didn't want students covering the event in Des Moines.
COWARDS!!!
How many bloodied battle fatigues...
equal one stained blue dress?
Atrios points us to one more potentially criminal act by BushCo revealed in Woodward's book. It appears that the war on Iraq may have been planned using the money allocated for humanitarian relief for Afghanistan. Yikes!
George the Crusader
In
today's Washington Post, Bob Woodward's latest book gets a preview.
"I believe we have a duty to free people," Bush told Woodward. " I would hope we wouldn't have to do it militarily, but we have a duty."
The president described praying as he walked outside the Oval Office after giving the order to begin combat operations against Iraq on March, 19, 2003, and the powerful role his religious belief played throughout that time.
"Going into this period, I was praying for strength to do the Lord's will. . . . I'm surely not going to justify war based upon God. Understand that. Nevertheless, in my case I pray that I be as good a messenger of His will as possible. And then, of course, I pray for personal strength and for forgiveness."
OK, Forget that he ordered the invasion if Iraq to "pre-empt" the threat of WMDs. Forget that this was 'another battle in the War on Terror'. Nope. We put hundreds of thousands of our soldiers on the line because we have "a duty to free people". OK then, when do we invade North Korea, Syria, Iran, Congo, {fill in random brutal dictatorial society}, etc...
And since Junior is not stupid and knows that historians can and will actually read his words from prior to the invasion (unlike most of today's journalists and dittoheads) he stumbles in his classic idiotic style:
Asked by Woodward how history would judge the war, Bush replied: "History. We don't know. We'll all be dead."
Will somebody just kick him in the nuts when speaks like this... please?!?!
I've added David Neiwert...
to my list of favorite bloggers. For that matter I'm not sure how I left him off the list in the first place.
He is a truly gifted writer and investigative journalist from my old stomping grounds in Seattle. He became a stay-at-home dad a few years back and mostly does freelance work an blogging these days. ...and we are grateful for it.
His work on right wing extremist groups is top notch. Check him out!
Iraqi Nuclear Sites
This is simply so stupifying, I don't really ahve a comment other than
what-in-the-hell was the military thinking when they failed to protect these sites after the first round of looting?
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Some Iraqi nuclear facilities appear to be unguarded, and radioactive materials are being taken out of the country, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency reported after reviewing satellite images and equipment that has turned up in European scrapyards.
The International Atomic Energy Agency sent a letter to U.S. officials three weeks ago informing them of the findings. The information was also sent to the U.N. Security Council in a letter from its director, Mohamed ElBaradei, that was circulated yesterday.
...
The United States has virtually cut off information-sharing with the IAEA since invading Iraq in March 2003 on the premise that the country was hiding weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons have been found, and arms control officials now worry the war and its chaotic aftermath may have increased chances that terrorists could get their hands on materials used for unconventional weapons or that civilians may be unknowingly exposed to radioactive materials.
Check out that last paragraph. I think it gives a few clues as why the Axis-of-Wolfowitz is so incredibly incompetent.
Verizon still pisses me off...
but they appear to have fixed the problem. Posting will begin after I finish my taxes. The computer has been absolutely useless since Sunday evening.
It only took 2 1/2 hours for the online tech support people to finally figure out that I was not going to go away. They insisted that I try new phone cords and all sorts of silly stuff that obviously had nothing to do with an intermitent problem.
Finally, the THIRD tech of the night admitted he had no clue and filed a "trouble ticket". Lo and behold the "real" techies fixed the problem and left a nice message on my answering machine. Gee.... it really was a network problem.
IDIOTS!
Verizon is losing my business
When you start writing and researching a post it can take you over an hour. After you have laid it all out and sourced all your links you can put it into Blogger.com and hit "Publish"...
.... unless, of course, during that hour your Verizon DSL decided to slow down to less than 1kps. Which is exactly what happened. And in the process, all of the composition and links disappeared when I clicked on "Publish". And when I tried to back up...... Nothing!
I don't like doing things twice.
Adelphia may be a lousy cable company, but hopefully their internet connects are consistent.
Adolescent Rationalization
The 8/6/01 PDF says:
"[There are] patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York...The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives."
But check out today's quotes from the AP:
Bush thought U.S. was secure
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - President Bush said Sunday that he was satisfied that federal agents were on top of the threat from terrorists when he read an Aug. 6, 2001, memo that detailed Osama bin Laden's intentions on U.S. soil.
"I was satisfied that some of the matters were being looked into" and had any specific intelligence pointed to threats of attacks on New York and Washington, "I would have moved mountains" to prevent it, Bush said during an Easter visit to Fort Hood, Texas.
I guess it all lies in the meaning of "Specific". He was asleep at the wheel. Condi was stuck in 1988. Cheney was stuck in '92.
Further down in the article, Junior goes on:
"...Bush said Sunday that the document contained "nothing about an attack on America. It talked about intentions, about somebody who hated America - well, we knew that."
BULLSHIT! (I guess it all depends on the meaning of "nothing".)
And take a look again at this little phrase from that quote:
the document contained "nothing about an attack on America. It talked about intentions, about somebody who hated America"
Let's
jump back to February when W finally figured out there were no WMD's in Iraq:
"We do know that Saddam Hussein had the intent and capabilities to cause great harm. We know he was a danger … "
I would expect better lies from a 6th grader.
Not a Good Sign
The head of the Iraqi Red Crescent, the Islamic verison of the Red Cross,
has been killed along with his wife in Karbil. I can think of three or four scenarios as to why this happened. Not one of them is good.
I understand the twisted logic of Islamic Jihadists who target Western NGOs. But when they start killing non-partisan Muslims.... [sigh]
