A preview of Frank Rich in Sunday's NYT

(raw story has more...)

Each day brings slam-dunk evidence that the doomsday threats marshaled by the administration to sell the war weren't, in Cheney-speak, just dishonest and reprehensible but also corrupt and shameless. The more the president and vice president tell us that their mistakes were merely innocent byproducts of the same bad intelligence seen by everyone else in the world, the more we learn that this was not so. The web of half-truths and falsehoods used to sell the war did not happen by accident; it was woven by design and then foisted on the public by a PR operation built expressly for that purpose in the White House.

arrogant, shameless, incorrigible liars...

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Bushco's stock response to tough times: Never mind...!

thanks, arthur... truer words were never written, spoken, whatever...

Every aspect of the administration's "War on Terror" -- including the disastrous war on Iraq, with its non-existent WMD and its non-existent ties to Al Qaeda -- finally devolves into the Emily Litella Policy: Never mind.

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An inside look at the recent break-up of Baghdad terrorist cells

juan cole always offers fresh insight into iraq goings-on with bits and pieces of news that don't get covered by the msm... this particular bit of background, i agree, is far from comforting...

Iraqi authorities announced that they had busted up 3 terrorist cells operating in Baghdad. Two of them were being run by 2 officials of the Ministry of the Interior! The MoI in Iraq is equivalent to the US FBI, so this would be like having J. Edgar Hoover unwittingly employ at a high level members of the Weathermen bombers back in the 1960s. The third was being run by the head of an investment firm. You wonder if he was manipulating the market with his bombing targets. The cells were operating in the Ghazaliyah and al-Jihad districts of the capital. Although the announcement was probably made to show progress in identifying and breaking up terror cells, I don't find the news that the Baathists continue to penetrate the Iraqi government very hopeful.

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Speaking of Bush and tanking... [UPDATE]

[UPDATE]

(john can't find the link and neither can i... oh, well... it still looks nice in print even with the strikeout...!)

at least he doesn't have to bend over any more to tie his shoes...

FOX News: Bush approval now at 28%

(thanks to john at americablog... john didn't have the link... i will post it as soon as i find one...)

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Up close and personal: why Bush is tanking

the nyt in today's edition offers a series of personal glimpses into why bush's supporters are jumping ship... interestingly, those opposed to bush are also feeling the pain...

Even those who voted against Mr. Bush a year ago saw little satisfaction in his woes.

"Part of me enjoys watching him squirm," said Shirley Tobias, 46, sitting with a colleague from Netscape at a coffee shop in Grandview, a suburb of Columbus [Ohio]. "But he's squirming on our behalf. We're all in this together."

she's right... and we're all barely treading water...

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The long arm of Joseph RAT-zinger

you know this kind of thing wouldn't be happening if the pope and the vatican weren't solidly behind it... and, if o'malley had simply looked the other way and attended, he would have probably called vatican wrath down on him as stirred up by the conservative catholic action league of massachusetts who pressured him into not going... so, he's got to make a STATEMENT... i'm surprised he didn't order catholic charities to reconsider their decision to honor menino...

The controversy rests on the decision of Catholic Charities, an arm of the Archdiocese of Boston, to honor Mayor Menino at its annual dinner next month. He would seem a sensible choice. Menino, like other supporters of Catholic Charities, focuses often on job training, affordable child care, housing opportunities for the poor, feeding programs, and summer camps for needy youngsters. Yet in the opinion of the archbishop [Archbishop Sean O'Malley], the Catholic mayor's good works would seem to be negated by his support for abortion rights and same-sex marriage. A letter from Catholic Charities explaining O'Malley's decision [not to attend the annual Christmas dinner for Catholic Charities] cites the need for "accord with the US Catholic Bishops policy," which forbids Catholic institutions to honor individuals whose actions are inconsistent with the church's fundamental moral principles.

well, there goes every member of every catholic congregation around the world, all of whom have undoubtedly behaved "inconsistently with the church's moral principles" at some point in the past or who, heaven forbid, are still doing so... so much for christ's message of love, tolerance, and forgiveness... so much for the warmth of the holiday season... so much for good will toward men...

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Saturday Photoblogging: the San Juan and Colorado Rivers

last june, i was flying between reno and dallas and snapped this photo of the confluence of the san juan and colorado rivers from approximately 35,000 feet... meeting in southeastern utah in the glen canyon national recreation area, the rivers feed lake powell, the lake formed by glen canyon dam on the colorado river which lies just across the border in arizona...



The San Juan and
Colorado Rivers meet
(photo, alt. +/- 35000 ft)

the images below are, respectively, a satellite image and a usgs topographic map of the same area...



The San Juan and
Colorado Rivers meet
(Satellite image)



The San Juan and
Colorado Rivers meet
(USGS topographic map)

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The Coalition of the "Not-So-Willing-Any-More"

the coalition of the "not-so-willing-any-more" is slowly but surely revealing the bushco claim of international support for the iraq war to be the chimera that it has always been...

US and Iraqi leaders are pressing their military allies in Iraq to postpone withdrawing troops...

[...]

US and Iraqi officials also are hoping to persuade other nations in the 27-member international coalition to extend their commitments to Iraq.

[...]

"Militarily, the contingents that are there don't make an enormous amount of difference," said Charles Heyman, a former British infantry officer and a senior defense analyst at Jane's Information Group in London. "But from a political perspective, they make a huge amount of difference. The White House can point to a 'coalition of the willing.' Their departure chips away at the Americans' ability to project this as a major international effort in Iraq."

it was seen as a sham from the start, a fig leaf to justify a needless war of choice...

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A rarely considered angle to the immigration issue

as a regular "remitter," i can attest first-hand to the accuracy of the following... i can also attest to the usurious fees charged by the money transfer services... western union, for instance, charges me between 25 and 30% depending on the amount of the transaction and that doesn't reflect what they recoup on their below market currency exchange rate...

The money sent home by migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean amounted to 45 billion dollars last year, double the total from 10 years ago. Thanks to these remittances, an estimated 2.5 million people in the region have been able to escape poverty.

Although remittances do little to reduce poverty for the population at large, the impact is huge for those who directly receive the money from abroad. At least half of the people in households with ties to emigrants would be poor if they did not receive remittances, while others who are living in poverty would be extremely poor.

and those remittances would come primarily from where...?

The majority of the funds come from immigrants living in the United States. But significant amounts are also sent home from migrants in Canada, Spain and Japan, which is home to more than 254,000 Brazilians, according to a 2004 study by the Organisation of American States (OAS).

[...]

ECLAC [Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean] notes that the economies of Haiti, Nicaragua, Guyana and Jamaica are heavily dependent on migrant remittance flows, which represent between 29 and 16 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP).

In other countries, like Ecuador, Mexico and El Salvador, remittance flows outstrip foreign direct investment, and in some cases they are equivalent to over 50 percent of total export revenues.

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Strike at Aerolineas Argentinas

Aerolineas Argentinas
Airbus A340

this can't be good for aerolineas... lan chile, the largest latin american carrier, recently bought a moribund argentinian carrier and launched both domestic and international service in argentina... lan chile is also currently offering bargain basement fares of $430 round-trip between miami and buenos aires to promote its new service... aerolineas has been struggling as it is and this certainly won't help matters...

Aerolineas Argentinas canceled some international flights on Friday due to a strike by pilots and technicians, a company official said.

Employees walked off the job on Thursday to demand wage increases, causing delays and cancellations of domestic and international routes.

"All Aerolineas' flights were canceled up until 4 p.m. (1900 GMT)," an official at the airline said.

The airline flies to Miami, New York, Madrid and Rome as well as to 33 domestic destinations. It was not immediately clear which flights had been affected.

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Oh, and btw, in case you'd forgotten about John Bolton

i've run this photo-shopped pic before but i guess it's time to run it again...



the serial abuser, recess-appointed, son-of-a-bitch-and- damn-proud-of-it, u.s. ambassador to the u.n. unfortunately hasn't yet been consumed by his own obnoxiousness...

John Bolton, the abrasive U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who has been dubbed by one New York newspaper as "a human wrecking ball", is living up to every critic's gloomy expectations.

Last week, he threatened U.N. member states, specifically the 132 developing nations, that if they don't play ball with the United States, Washington may look elsewhere to settle international problems.

"It is obvious," Jim Paul of the New York-based Global Policy Forum told IPS, "that Washington has once again threatened the United Nations with its usual warning: 'Do what we say, or we will send you into oblivion"'. He said Bolton's message is clear, "If you don't, we will wreck you."

Addressing a gathering at Wingate University in North Carolina last week, Bolton said: "Being practical, Americans say that either we need to fix the institution (the United Nations), or we'll turn to some other mechanism to solve international problems."

what a horrible man... what a blight on the already sadly deteriorated u.s. image...

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Disarmament vs. regime change: Bush's bait-and-switch con of Tony Blair

joseph wilson, interviewed on bbc radio 4...

"Mr Blair came to the US when Mr Bush was talking about regime change, and when he left Mr Bush started talking about disarmament as the objective.

"Mr Bush went to the United Nations, I think that that had a lot to do with the influence of the British. I think that Mr Blair really thought that he was getting involved in a disarmament campaign, which was all to the good - I fully supported that.

"I think at the end of the day he was double-crossed by the regime change crowd in Washington."

hell, bush has conned everyone else, why not his closest ally, tony-the-poodle...?

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Iraq threat "systematically misrepresented" in lead-up to war

as bush starts yet another speechifying sales job on iraq to the american people, let's reflect on reality and truth, commodities not in evidence in the current presidential administration... scot lehigh's boston globe editorial discusses the difference between "lying" and "misleading..."

[S]ome of the best work on the use of prewar intelligence has been done by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a nonpartisan think tank. Its painstaking study, from January 2004, compared what the various intelligence agencies were estimating about Iraq in the runup to the war to what administration officials were saying.

The authors arrived at this conclusion: ''Administration officials systematically misrepresented the threat from Iraq's nuclear, chemical, and biological weapon programs and ballistic missile programs."

In his Monday speech, Cheney labeled ''dishonest and reprehensible" the suggestion ''that the president of the United States or any member of his administration purposely misled the American people on prewar intelligence."

But in a finding that speaks to that very point, the Carnegie Endowment report offered a detailed examination of the way the administration officials distorted intelligence by ''the wholesale dropping of caveats, probabilities, and expressions of uncertainty present in intelligence assessments" from their public statements.

[...]

No matter how many speeches Cheney and Bush give, no matter how hard they deflect or whom they try to blame or hide behind, that's a truth they can't escape.

"systematic misrepresentation" and "wholesale dropping" simply do not connote "misleading" to me... sorry, george... sorry, dick... ain't buyin' it...

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The CIA steps up to blogging...

so, now the cia has discovered blogging... they just aren't sure what to do with it...

"It's just hilarious how little these people know," said [an] outside expert, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because discussions with the agency were confidential.

they're finding out just how much information is out there in the public domain, easily accessible on the internet... but old habits die hard... the temptation to treat everything as classified is one of them...

Not long ago, recalled a former senior government terrorism analyst, he was teaching a class to future CIA intelligence analysts that included a PowerPoint presentation on al Qaeda's post-Sept. 11 evolution, with various images taken from the Internet.

Two men in the back of the class came up to the instructor after the presentation. Where, they asked, did he get a particular image from Iraq? It's classified, they insisted. The former analyst laughed. He had taken it from a gruesome Web site that compiles terrorist atrocity videos along with pornography.

another one is even believing that valuable information can be obtained in the public domain rather than from the stereotypical scenario of an agent and his mole meeting in the park by the statue of the man on a horse...

Perhaps the toughest challenge for the new Open Source Center is proving its mettle inside a skeptical intelligence community, in which the stolen secret has long been prized above the publicly available gem. Clearly there are skeptics. Although the center's Web site is unclassified and available across the government, at the moment it has just 6,500 users with active accounts, Naquin said.

such skepticism could only arise from a woeful lack of familiarity with what the internet can provide... two or three days of following kos, atrios, americablog, talkleft, or, dare i say, the blogs on the "other side" of the political spectrum, would quickly dispel any doubts about what serious bloggers can dig up, often with only a moment's notice...

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Highest levels of greenhouse gases in 650,000 years

before and after...



Upsala Glacier, Argentina
upper photo, 1928
lower photo, 2004

i wonder if all those recently eaten thanksgiving dinners replete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy have anything to do with it...?

Current levels of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere are higher now than at any time in the last 650,000 years.

That is the conclusion of new European studies looking at ice taken from 3km below the surface of Antarctica.

The scientists say their research shows present day warming to be exceptional.

Other research, also published in the journal Science, suggests that sea levels may be rising twice as fast now as in previous centuries.

[...]

"One of the most important things is we can put current levels of carbon dioxide and methane into a long-term context," said project leader Thomas Stocker from the University of Bern, Switzerland.

"We find that CO2 is about 30% higher than at any time, and methane 130% higher than at any time; and the rates of increase are absolutely exceptional: for CO2, 200 times faster than at any time in the last 650,000 years."

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A tragic death penalty milestone coming up

nearly 1000 executed and 3400 more waiting...

After a 10-year moratorium, [Gary] Gilmore in 1977 became the first person to be executed following a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision that validated state laws to reform the capital punishment system. Since then, 997 prisoners have been executed, and next week, the 998th, 999th and 1,000th are scheduled to die.

[...]

While his case was well-known, most today could probably not name even one of the more than 3,400 prisoners - including 118 foreign nationals - on death row in the U.S. In the last 28 years, the U.S. has executed on average one person every 10 days.

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Argentina cool to excess caffeine

along with france, denmark and norway...

(thanks to an nyt reader in buenos aires...)

Energy drinks, which have become a $3 billion business since their introduction in the United States eight years ago, are expected to accelerate profit growth for the beverage industry more than any other drink category in the next few years.

[...]

But that has scientists and nutritionists worried. Energy drinks have as much sugar and roughly three times the caffeine of soda, and some experts peg their popularity to their addictiveness. And with racy names like Full Throttle, Rockstar and Adrenaline Rush, critics say these drinks are fostering caffeine addiction among teenagers.

Caffeine can cause hyperactivity and restlessness among children and is known to increase the excretion of calcium, a mineral much needed while bones are still growing.

Energy drink manufacturers say they do not market to children and their products have no more caffeine than a typical cup of coffee. But the debate persists. Four countries have barred the sale of energy drinks with current levels of caffeine: France, Denmark, Norway and, two months ago, Argentina.

[...]

Critics contend that much of the skyrocketing growth of energy drinks comes because consumers are getting physically addicted, either by consuming the concoctions daily or guzzling several at a time to elevate their mood.

Roland Griffiths, a professor of behavioral biology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, says the amount of caffeine necessary to produce dependency and withdrawal symptoms is about 100 milligrams a day. A can of energy drink has 80 to 160 milligrams, depending on the size, though such information is not listed on any cans. An eight-ounce cup of coffee typically has 100 to 150 milligrams.

Some energy brands go so far as to promote their addictiveness as a selling point. "Meet your new addiction! 16 oz's of super charged energy with advanced components and a great berry-passion fruit flavor," reads the front page of Pepsi's SoBe No Fear Web site. Cans of Kronik Energy, made by an Arizona company, warn customers, "Caution: May Be Psychologically Addicting," meant as a daring come-on, not a serious warning.

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". . . right now I have a job to do."

Excellent AP article on Harry Reid

"I think he should be a commander in chief and not a campaigner in chief. This whole administration can't get out of the campaign mode," the Nevada Democrat said late Tuesday.

"Let them start governing a little bit. They are great at campaigns. Bush's brain, (White House chief of staff) Karl Rove, is a very good campaigner."

Reid, who has sharpened his criticism of Bush over the past month, said Bush's stubbornness is apparent not just in his refusal to budge on the war in Iraq "but on everything we do."

[. . . ]

"I made it as far as I have by not being a partisan, but right now I have a job to do," said Reid, who was elected to the Senate in 1987 after serving two terms in the House.

"It's hard for me to be always nagging ... I like to get along. As I've said, I'd rather dance than fight. But the American people have been pushed against a wall and I'm fighting for them," he said.

Reid recalls how Bush declared upon his first election in 2000 that he wanted to be "a uniter, not a divider."

"That's Orwellian because it has been just the opposite," the senator said.

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How NOT to support the troops on Thanksgiving

DON'T serve them a cardboard
cut-out turkey...!

i spent two thanksgiving and two christmas holidays eating in a mess hall in vietnam... the mess sergeants really tried to make it home-like and festive but, somehow, eating your holiday dinner in a war zone in a uniform just doesn't quite cut it... the best support we could possibly give those men and women serving in iraq is to make sure they get home without any more of them having to die...

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"If Bush is ever impeached, this charge [threatening to bomb Aljazeera] will certainly figure in the trial."

juan cole shares his insights into the lastest ugly revelation about our president...

The Mirror broke the story on Tuesday that a secret British memo demonstrates that George W. Bush wanted to bomb Aljazeera's offices in Doha, Qatar, in spring of 2004. The subject came up with Prime Minister Tony Blair of the UK, and Blair is said to have argued Bush out of it.

Despite attempts of British officials to muddy the waters by suggesting that Bush was joking, another official who had seen the memo insisted, "Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men."

The US military bombed the Kabul offices of Aljazeera in mid-November, 2001.

The US military hit the Aljazeerah offices in Baghdad on the 9th of April, 2004, not so long before Bush's conversation with Blair. That attack killed journalist Tarek Ayoub, who had a 3 year old daughter. He had said earlier, "We've told the Pentagon where all our offices are in Iraq and hung giant banners outside them saying `TV.''' Given what we now know about Bush's intentions, that may have been a mistake.

When the US and the UN shoe-horned old-time CIA asset Iyad Allawi into power as transitional prime minister, he promptly banned Aljazeera in Iraq. The channel still did fair reporting on Iraq, finding ways of buying video film and doing enlightening telephone interviews.

There have long been rumors that the Bush administration has pressured the government of Qatar to close the channel down.

so, it's not like there weren't precedents that tend to substantiate the charge that the administration has labeled absurd...just add it to the lengthy list of exhibits...

Plotting to assassinate civilian journalists in a friendly country is certainly against the law, and if Bush is ever impeached, this charge will certainly figure in the trial.

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"We are the ones we have been waiting for."

ah... james moore... a voice of clarity and sanity in a parched and barren landscape...

She was a rarity: a true public servant who saw a problem, got involved to solve it, worked hard for no glory beyond the joy of doing good, and went away when her service was fulfilled.

We have these people in our country. But no one is calling to them. They do not hear leaders who inspire them nor do they believe in our processes the way they used to. And maybe it is time for them to become the leaders. We are all sick from the same disease. It eats at both of our political parties and who we believe ourselves to be as Americans. The president takes us to war without asking us to make sacrifices. Congress cuts taxes for corporate interests while trying to convince us it will get us a raise or pay for our health care at our job in the Wal-Mart stock room. It doesn't.

A nation that has no heroes, we have been told, is sad. A nation that needs them is even sadder. We don't need heroes. Our country, its people and its culture, is our hero, and we are letting its honor be darkened.

[...]

I hear the words of a friend of mine rising over a fire in the clear night air of northern New Mexico.

"We are the ones we have been waiting for."

it's the converse of the pogo quote - "we have met the enemy and he is us..."

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Blessing protest with words; stifling protest with actions

[A]s Bush hunkers down in Crawford for an extended Thanksgiving vacation, protestors can be hauled off by the police:

A dozen war protesters were arrested Wednesday for setting up camp near President Bush’s ranch in defiance of new local bans on roadside camping and parking.

As Vice President Cheney reminded us this week “disagreement, argument, and debate are the essence of democracy.” Just don’t let your disagreement get too close to the ranch.

if bush was a REAL president, he would see that the protestors had what they needed to be comfortable and then send over thanksgiving dinner... it's honorable to honor disagreement...

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Antenna 5 Radio, Skopje, Macedonia

just for chuckles and grins, take a listen to Antenna 5 Radio's online service... i was a fairly regular listener when i was in macedonia...

Antenna 5 Radio
Skopje, Macedonia
(click image for link)

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Iraq to receive $1B from Iran

hmmmmm... mmmmm-hmmmmm...

Iran has pledged to give Iraq a $1 billion loan and help with tackling insecurity, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said at the end of a ground-breaking visit to the Islamic state.

Talabani stressed the improving political and commercial ties between two countries which fought a bitter 1980-1988 war in which hundreds of thousands died.

"All the officials I met said there are no limits to Iran's support for the Iraqi nation," he told reporters.

this seems to have slipped under the domestic msm radar...

(thanks to raw story...)

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Telesur: the Latin American CNN

w-a-a-a-ay back on may 27 (light years ago in blogosphere time), i posted on the new 24/7 latin american news channel, telesur, being set up in caracas as a joint venture of argentina, cuba, uruguay and venezuela... the brainchild of hugo chávez, there was some initial concern that telesur would be a propaganda conduit for chávez... so far, that doesn't seem to be the case...

Telesur has long been feared by the US government as pure Chávez propaganda. Before a single broadcast had aired, the House of Representatives passed legislation to transmit a counter, pro-US television channel into Venezuela, similar to Radio and TV Marti in Cuba.

Despite such fears, based on analysis of the first two weeks of live news programming and a week spent in its studios, Telesur is clearly run by professional journalists striving to provide balanced and independent coverage of Latin America to people who often learn about themselves from US or European-based media. Indeed, there are fewer questions about Telesur's ulterior motives than its ability to attract viewers in a region traditionally distrustful of state-run institutions.

An American journalist, who has written for leading US newspapers, and now works for Telesur, describes his colleagues as "absolutely serious journalists." He adds that, "I have not seen anything indicating that there is any element of propaganda here."

of course, the U.S. could never be accused of broadcasting propaganda...

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Porter Goss' CIA

CIA Director Porter J. Goss insists that his agency is innocent of torturing the prisoners it is holding in secret detention centers around the world. "This agency does not torture," he said in an interview this week with USA Today. "We use lawful capabilities to collect vital information, and we do it in a variety of unique and innovative ways, all of which are legal and none of which are torture."

[...]

But some of the people who work for him provided a description of six "enhanced interrogation techniques" to ABC News, because they believe "the public needs to know the direction their agency has chosen," the network reported.

the wapo article goes on to describe these "enhanced interrogation techniques" which i won't repeat here... (sorry, but i'm having trouble gagging down the euphemism of "enhanced interrogation techniques...") and here's the bogus justification...

[T]he administration also claims a technical loophole: Since the Constitution doesn't apply to foreigners outside the United States, the administration argues that by the Senate's standard, the CIA can use cruel and inhuman methods on foreign detainees held abroad.

[...]

No one beyond Mr. Goss and a handful of senior officials accepts that spin: not the agencies' professionals, or 90 members of the Senate, or the rest of the democratic world.

why is my country turning itself into a repressive regime, hated, feared and looked down upon not only by the rest of the world but by its own citizens...?

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Think Progress offers "20 Reasons to Give Thanks"

i'm doing the cooking for tomorrow's feed... here's some good reasons to be thankful on this day of gratitude...

This Thanksgiving, progressives have a lot to be thankful for. Here's our list:

We're thankful for our country's troops.

We're thankful for Rep. Jack Murtha for showing us it's patriotic to speak your mind.

We're thankful for 90 Senators who stood up to Vice President Cheney to say that torture is not an American value.

We're thankful for 79 Senators who demanded the Bush administration detail a plan for Iraq.

We're thankful that Sen. Bill Frist is not our physician.

We're thankful for the generosity of Americans, who raised some $2.3 billion to help victims on the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina.

We're thankful all Americans can still rely on Social Security.

We're thankful for American Airlines, Verizon, and Nissan, who all agreed to Drop the Hammer.

We're thankful for Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald for conducting a "very serious" and "very dignified" investigation.

We're thankful for good friends.

We're thankful for the success of progressive talk radio.

We're thankful to the voters of Colorado for putting priorities like education, health care, and fiscal sanity over right-wing ideology.

We're thankful for autumn. Out West, where some PR readers vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them.

We're thankful Judy Miller won't be reporting on Iran's WMD program for the New York Times.

We're thankful we don't live in Samuel Alito's America...yet.

We're thankful for HorsesAss.org, for exposing (in such ironic fashion) ex-FEMA chief Michael Brown's checkered past at the International Arabian Horse Association.

We're thankful for Tai Shan, the National Zoo's newest celebrity.

We're thankful we're not Scott McClellan.

We're thankful for the residents of Dover, Pennsylvania for doing the right thing for their kids' education. (Don't listen to Pat, we've got your back.)

And last but not least: We're thankful to the Progress Report readers for their tips, energy and support.

Happy Thanksgiving! – The Progress Report Team.

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Bush knew on 21 September 2001 there was no connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda

lies, lies and more lies...

murray waas, as usual, breaks some key information in an excellent article just released in the national journal online...

Ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda, according to government records and current and former officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter.

[...]

"You can't distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror," President Bush said on September 25, 2002.

The next day, Rumsfeld said, "We have what we consider to be credible evidence that Al Qaeda leaders have sought contacts with Iraq who could help them acquire … weapons-of-mass-destruction capabilities."

[...]

The administration has refused to provide the Sept. 21 President's Daily Brief, even on a classified basis, and won't say anything more about it other than to acknowledge that it exists.

slowly but surely, the walls are closing in...

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Cheney's "zeal to pursue the devil..."

an excellent post by steve clemons... this will give you the drift but go read the rest...

Cheney is a menace to this nation's security -- because in his zeal to pursue the devil -- he is undermining our nation's norms and very essence. He is handing our nation to the devil by engaging in terms of battle that are not constrained by law.

the laws are the only boundaries we have and they've been painstakingly crafted over many, many years... conventions, norms, agreements, policy, standards of conduct, laws - they're all we've got... without them, there's a bottomless black hole which, tragically, we have already been falling into since bush waived geneva in 2002...

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DeLay pushes for dismissal today [UPDATE]

he REALLY wants his seat of power back... REALLY, REALLY, REALLY...

Attorneys for Rep. Tom DeLay are hoping a judge will dismiss the conspiracy and money laundering charges against the former House majority leader so he can regain the powerful seat.

DeLay was to appear in court Tuesday before a judge who will decide whether the criminal case should continue to trial.

DeLay had to relinquish his leadership post in Congress after he was indicted in September. His attorneys are pushing for a December trial in hopes that DeLay is cleared so he can regain his title before Congress returns to session in January. Otherwise, lawmakers could elect a new majority leader.

meanwhile, back in washington, federal charges might be in the offing...

The likelihood of federal charges against members of Congress intensified on Monday when a key player in a broad corruption probe pleaded guilty to conspiracy and agreed to co-operate with investigators.

Under a plea agreement with the Department of Justice, Michael Scanlon, a former aide to Tom DeLay, the powerful Texas congressman, admitted that he had conspired to defraud four Native American Indian tribes that operated or hoped to operate casinos.

He faces up to five years in prison and agreed to pay nearly $20m in restitution.

[...]

Mr DeLay and his supporters have accused Travis County district attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat, of being on a political witchhunt.

It would be more difficult for Mr DeLay or other Republicans to make such claims about federal prosecutors.

no duh... happy turkey day, you arrogant crook...

[UPDATE]

guess delay's REALLY, REALLY, REALLY going to have to wait...

Pat Priest, the judge overseeing Rep. Tom DeLay's felony trial in Texas today said he won't decide whether to drop charges until December, and probably wouldn't convene a trial until at least January.

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The assassination of JFK

On Nov. 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. Texas Gov. John B. Connally was seriously wounded. A suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, was arrested. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson became the 36th president of the United States.

i was in high school geometry class when the word came... as it was a catholic high school, class was immediately dismissed and we all filed into the church next door... people were in shock for days... no one knew what to do or what to say... the tv set was left on, a rarity in our house... it seemed simply incomprehensible that this vital, dynamic, charismatic man was no longer with us... the mother of a friend of mine had come close to throwing me out of her house when i tried to convince her to support kennedy instead of nixon in the election and now, just like that, he was gone...

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Chávez on the move: cut-rate oil to the U.S., $4B pipeline to Argentina

i've posted twice on this in the past few days, here and here...

The plea came in a letter from a group of U.S. senators to nine big oil companies: With huge increases in winter heating bills expected, the letter read, we want you to donate some of your record profits to help low-income people cover those costs.

the one response...? venezuela and hugo chávez...

Citgo is planning to announce today that it will provide discounted heating oil this winter to many low-income residents of Massachusetts, Venezuelan officials said, adding that the plan was in the works before the senators sought help. The company also plans to offer similar aid in New York.

chávez has already been selling cut-rate oil in the caribbean - including cuba - and other countries in latin america... argentine president néstor kirchner met with chávez yesterday in venezuela to discuss building a $4B natural gas pipeline between the two countries and to strategize bringing venezuela into mercosur as a full member...



Chavez and Kirchner yesterday
in Venezuela

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Trickier Dick still lying

"Cheney's audience is people who care about substance, and when he talks they listen, and the base, who wants to see him fight, and when he fights they follow," said Mary Matalin, an informal Cheney adviser. She said what has hurt Bush is not Cheney but rather the president's failure to respond to allegations that he lied about Iraq's weapons.

it is completely astounding to me that someone can be so out of touch with what's going on in this country... cheney isn't hurting bush...? aw, c'mon... you must be kidding... half the country thinks cheney and rove have been running the white house all along and that bush is their willing dupe... and what has hurt bush isn't his FAILURE TO RESPOND to allegations of lying, it's the LYING and then the LYING ABOUT THE LYING and then sending the whole team of professional LIARS out to keep the LIES going...

A recent Newsweek poll found that only 29 percent of Americans regard him as honest and ethical. The same poll found that more than one in four Republicans agreed with that dim assessment of Cheney's integrity -- a finding that surprised some top White House aides, who were already concerned about how the public views the vice president.

and yet mary matalin can claim that cheney isn't hurting bush... cheney is the BIGGEST LIAR OF ALL... here's a perfect example from his speech yesterday...

"The terrorists . . . have contempt for our values, they doubt our strength, and they believe that America will lose its nerve and let down our guard," he said.

and he makes that claim in the face of u.s. intelligence statistics that clearly say otherwise...

U.S. intelligence agencies say foreign terrorists represent a minority of the insurgent forces; the vast majority are Iraqis. Classified findings by U.S. intelligence agencies are reflected in a study by Anthony H. Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, released yesterday, which estimates that at least 90 percent of the fighters are Iraqi.

what've we've managed to do in iraq is unleash a civil war that is being exacerbated by our presence... we grabbed that tiger by the tail and now god help us because no one else is going to...

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Under the radar, jockeying for control of Iraq's oil...

let's be sure to keep in mind why we're REALLY in iraq...

The Iraqi government has announced plans to seek foreign investment to exploit its oil reserves after the general election, which will be held next month. Iraq has 115 billion barrels of proved oil reserves, the third largest in the world.

According to the report, from groups including War on Want and the New Economics Foundation (NEF), the new Iraqi constitution opened the way for greater foreign investment. Negotiations with oil companies are already under way ahead of next month's election and before legislation is passed, it said.

[...]

Yesterday's report said the use of production sharing agreements (PSAs) was proposed by the US State Department before the invasion and adopted by the Coalition Provisional Authority. "The current government is fast-tracking the process. It is already negotiating contracts with oil companies in parallel with the constitutional process, elections and passage of a Petroleum Law," the report, Crude Designs, said.

Earlier this year a BBC Newsnight report claimed to have uncovered documents showing the Bush administration made plans to secure Iraqi oil even before the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US. Based on its analysis of PSAs in seven countries, it said multinationals would seek rates of return on their investment from 42 to 162 per cent, far in excess of typical 12 per cent rates.

the "old colonial trap..."

Andrew Simms, the NEF's policy director, said: "Over the last century, Britain and the US left a global trail of conflict, social upheaval and environmental damage as they sought to capture and control a disproportionate share of the world's oil reserves. Now it seems they are determined to increase their ecological debts at Iraq's expense. Instead of a new beginning, Iraq is caught in a very old colonial trap."

gee... how about that... it's about oil... and here, all along, i thought it was about democracy...

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"Liberals loathe the war because they loathe Bush..."

I believe that liberals loathe the war because they loathe Bush, rather than vice versa. What they want above all is for Bush to admit he made some huge mistakes in Iraq.

i believe that jonathan chait of the la times needs to see - and very soon - about having his head surgically detached from his ass... yes, he tries to make it sound a little nicer toward the end...

A simple admission of the obvious would sate his foes — or enough of them, anyway. That would also let Bush make the honest case for carrying on in Iraq. That case is that Iraq is in danger of becoming a failed state and terrorist haven, like Afghanistan. Yes, our invasion caused it to be so, but here we are. If terrorists gain access to Iraq's state power and oil wealth, we'll face dire consequences down the road. The liberals and moderates who supported the war in Afghanistan would support a campaign in Iraq that's based on similar grounds.

Of course, this strategy would also require the administration to care more about building support for the war than propping up the myth of Bush as courageous and indispensable war leader. I guess we know which one of those things this White House cares about more.

yes, i loathe bush... yes, i loathe the war... no, the two are not connected... we are embroiled in iraq because we were lied to by a criminal administration and led into a needless war of choice in an oil-rich country...

iraq and afghanistan are very likely headed to failed state status regardless of what the u.s. does or doesn't do... supporting a continuing campaign in either country will simply perpetuate the mess... both countries need multinational peace-keeping forces and as long as the u.s. continues to attempt to dominate the national life of either country, the mess isn't going to go away...

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A White House "deep throat" insider as a source for Fitzgerald...?

steve clemons, citing a wapo article of 28 September 2003 by dana priest and mike allen, offers some interesting speculations...

There is a high level official in the Bush administration who helped give the "inside scoop" on the earliest moves by the White House in the Valerie Plame investigation -- but who is it?

On September 28, 2003, Washington Post writers Dana Priest and Mike Allen clearly note the existence of a source with knowledge about the outing campaign conducted as "a vendetta" against Joe Wilson by senior officials in the Bush White House.

This source clearly had concerns about the behavior of these officials, and to some degree, this Washington Post source appears to be a key "counter-leaker" in the Valerie Plame investigation, i.e. someone attempting to make sure that the real story about the Plame leak and reasons for it were told.

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Where were our journalists when we needed them most...?

josh asks the right question...

How many of the stories coming out now under the very broad heading of botched or manipulated intelligence could have been reported and written at more or less any time over the last two years? I suspect the answer is, the great majority of them.

They're getting written now because the president's poor poll numbers make him a readier target.

i predict that the past 5 years will go on record as one of the most shameful periods in america's history, a time when the american people and their supposedly free media turned their backs on the responsibilities of good citizens to hold their government accountable...

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With Mercosur in mind, Venezuela and Argentina move closer...

hard on the heels of my post yesterday about venezuela and hugo chávez providing cut-rate heating oil to massachusetts for needy cases, it looks as though chávez is going to cut a deal or two with argentina and very likely join mercosur in the bargain... at the summit of the americas, chávez said he would be proposing an alternative to bush's ftaa and he seems to be following through...

President Néstor Kirchner will hold talks with Hugo Chávez in Venezuela today, hoping to expand energy supply agreements at a time when the leftwing Venezuelan leader is locked in a fierce verbal row with the US and Mexico. Prior to Kirchner’s arrival in Venezuela last night, Chávez said he was moving toward alternatives to a US-backed trade proposal and that the "Buenos Aires-Caracas axis" will dominate the region’s political future.

Chávez also said the talks would lead to a quick incorporation of Venezuela as a full member of the Mercosur trade bloc, formed by Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. "The talks were aimed at agreements for the strengthening of South American unity as well as Venezuela’s entrance to Mercosur," he said during his weekly television programme. He bluntly portrayed Mercosur as an alternative to the US-promoted Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA, a topic that led to unusually open squabbling during this month’s hemispheric summit in Mar del Plata.

Argentina’s close relationship with Venezuela reportedly irks Washington, who sees the populist Chávez as its main antagonist in the region along with Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

bush brought it on himself... the swaggering unilateralism, ignoring the value of traditional diplomacy and often neglecting simple courtesy are sure-fire recipes for pushing nations away from the u.s... it seems to be working quite well...

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Torture... It began at the top.... And, now, what the hell do we do...?

below are the introductory paragraphs of a memorandum dated 25 January 2002 from then white house counsel alberto gonzales to president bush... in it he reaffirms the department of justice legal opinion that geneva does not apply to al qaeda and acknowledges bush's decision to waive geneva... he also points out that the secretary of state, colin powell, had requested that the decision be reconsidered and that bush conclude that geneva does apply...

we must never, ever, ever lose sight of the fact that the chain of accountability began at the top...



and now we're dealing with the terrible consequences...

[I]t was a grave mistake for the Bush administration to deny Geneva Convention rights to detainees at Guantanamo and other prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan. That decision four years ago laid the groundwork for all the abuse of detainees, including the 31 deaths that the military has found were confirmed or suspected homicides. Now the administration has compounded the shame by denying access to prisoners by investigators from the UN Human Rights Commission. The decision will only strengthen the view of US critics that this country has placed itself above international law.

it's not a view... we have, plain and simple...

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It needs to be said... The Dems hands are dirty too...

the democrats have been complicit in a lot of things... that said, they still look pretty good next to the horrors of bushco...

None of the horrors playing out in Iraq today would be possible without the Democratic Party. And no matter how hard some party leaders try to deny it, this is their war too and will remain so until every troop is withdrawn. There is no question that the Bush administration is one of the most corrupt, violent and brutal in the history of this country but that doesn't erase the serious responsibility the Democrats bears for the bloodletting in Iraq.

Jeremy Scahill is a correspondent for the national radio and TV program Democracy Now!. He has spent extensive time reporting from Iraq and the former Yugoslavia, where he covered the 1999 NATO bombing.

and, let's face it... we, the american people, are complicit right along with everybody else... we stood by and allowed our country to get to its current state... we are the willing victims of bread and circus... perhaps even more of a factor is our childlike eagerness to believe in our government and our leaders... thomas jefferson, no fool he, was very clear...

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."

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Wham, bam... Thank you, Mongolia...

In the wake of congressional unrest over his war policies, President Bush thanked Mongolia on Monday for standing with him in Iraq and compared the struggle against Islamic radicalism to this country's battle against communism.

[...]

Bush's four-hour stop in Mongolia was the first ever by an American president. The brief visit was a reward for Mongolia's pursuit of democracy and support for the U.S. fight against terrorism.

in my post the other day, i wondered whether or not bush was going to spend the night in ulan bator (the correct anglicization is ulaanbaatar)... guess not... 4 hours is barely enough time to refuel and use the bathroom...

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Whaddaya know... China has a better image internationally than the U.S....

well, after stepping all over our collective you-know-what for nearly 5 years of the bush administration, why would we be surprised...?

The United States’ image is so tattered overseas two years after the Iraq invasion that China, which is ruled by a communist dictatorship, is viewed more favorably than the U.S. in many countries, an international poll found.

it isn't just the iraq invasion... it started before that...

Eleven of the 16 countries surveyed by the Pew Research Center — Britain, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Russia, Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, Jordan and Indonesia — had a more favorable view of China than the United States.

and it's virtually all about bush...

The survey found that a majority in most countries say the United States doesn’t take the interests of other countries into account when making international policy decisions. It also found most would like to see another country get as much military power as the United States, though few want China to play that role. People in most countries were more inclined to say the war in Iraq has made the world a more dangerous place.

People in other countries who had unfavorable views of the United States were most likely to cite Bush as the reason rather than a general problem with America.

that confirms the experience i've had time after time on my foreign travels... after a polite period of get-acquainted conversation, the question invariably comes: "what do you think about boooosh...?"

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Mexico's Vicente Fox - 7 months to go and nothing is going right

i posted about this last week...

Bush got on famously with fellow conservative and rancher Fox at the start of his first term, but the friendship cooled when Washington's focus switched to the Middle East and security after September 11, 2001.

ever since then and particularly after mexico refused to support the u.s. invasion of iraq, george has left vicente to swing slowly in the wind...

Branded a "lap dog" of imperialism, Mexican President Vicente Fox has earned contempt from leftist Latin American leaders for his close ties to the United States, and little in return from Washington.

A plan to let more immigrants work legally in the United States -- Mexico's headline foreign policy goal -- has become bogged down in Congress after five years of lobbying from Fox.

That is despite Fox taking flak from critics of the United States in the region for defending U.S. proposals for regional free trade. Mexico also feels let down by U.S. criticism of its fight against drug gangs on the border.

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Nestor Kirchner of Argentina this month harangued Fox for promoting a planned Americas-wide trade pact known as the FTAA which left-wing leaders complain will be slanted to benefit the United States.

Mexico and Venezuela withdrew ambassadors last week as Chavez refused to apologize for calling Fox a U.S. lap dog and warned, "Don't mess with me, mister, or you'll get stung."

The dispute was similar to a fight Fox had with Cuba last year about human rights and Mexico's good relations with its northern neighbor.

fox's six year term comes to an end in july next year... you can bet he's looking forward to bein' outta there...

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I'm no fan of Bush, god knows...

the captured stills and the related video of george bush trying to go through a locked door in china are flooding the internet, complete with sarcastic and demeaning comments... having done the very same thing on occasion and having made the same dumb face, i can totally empathize... he was poking fun at himself as much as anything else and, in so doing, revealed at least a trace of his humanity... even george deserves a break now and then... i think we demean ourselves when we spite someone for being human...

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Since nothing else is working, Bush tries moderation: nothing unpatriotic about opposition

and he says he doesn't pay any attention to polls...

After fiercely defending his Iraq policy across Asia, President Bush abruptly toned down his attack on war critics Sunday and said there was nothing unpatriotic about opposing his strategy.

"People should feel comfortable about expressing their opinions about Iraq," Bush said, three days after agreeing with Vice President Dick Cheney that the critics were "reprehensible."

The president also praised Rep. John Murtha as "a fine man" and a strong supporter of the military despite the congressman's call for troop withdrawal as soon as possible.

then why have you kept calling your critics unpatriotic for so long...? you're a fool, george...

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Judy Miller and Bob Woodward: fouling your own nest

Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald indicted I. Lewis ''Scooter" Libby Jr. on criminal charges, including obstruction of justice, making a false statement and perjury in the CIA leak investigation. The press indicted itself on grounds of coziness, self-interest, and dishonesty.

i've never doubted the coziness, self-interest, and dishonesty... what i had retained some small amount of faith in was that, WITHIN the media establishment, journalists would, in order to not foul their own nest, respect the need for their superiors to know what they were up to... judy and bob have shown that the need to maintain insider status trumps the integrity of the masthead that provides the ability to gain that status in the first place...

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Not everybody's down on Venezuela and Hugo Chávez

with the greatly increased energy prices and the winter already here for many in the northern states, this is really good news and puts our domestic oil companies to shame...

A subsidiary of the Venezuelan national oil company will ship 12 million gallons of discounted home-heating oil to local charities and 45,000 low-income families in Massachusetts next month under a deal arranged by US Representative William D. Delahunt, a local nonprofit energy corporation, and Venezuela's president, White House critic Hugo Chávez.

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Iraq, the cancer in the body of our society...

the welshman at kos...

We must bring our troops home. Not just because of the number that are being killed and injured, not just for what we are doing to Iraq, not just because so many of our young men and women are being traumatised and not just because of what we are doing to our own societies. But also for what we are doing to ourselves as individuals.

This Iraq war is like a cancer that is in the body of our society. Its decay spreads its tentacles over every organ of our endeavours. What beauty, magic, and creativity remains with us is being corrupted. It is not a distant event, kept away from our shores and from which we are insulated. It is here, inside our society and inside each an every one of us. It is terminal if it is not cut out as quickly as possible. We must be our own surgeons.

meanwhile, bushco continues to work to eviscerate its critics, providing a clear demonstration of what has happened to our society and ourselves...

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