"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in
order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for
patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both
emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind . . .
And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch
and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed,
the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the
citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and
blinded with patriotism, will offer up all of their rights
unto the leader, and gladly so. How do I know?
For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."
- W. Shakespeare
"Naturally, the common people don't want war, but after all, it is the leaders of the country
who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether
it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy.
All you have to do is tell them that they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack
of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."
- Hermann Goering, speaking at the Nuremburg trials after World War II
Politics and War | Atomic Pollution in the SF Bay Area
Welcome to 2005.
Do you know what your government is doing?
A biased reading list.
One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. - Bill Moyers
Administration's Offenses Impeachable - Robert Shetterly; Bangor Daily News; Thursday, 02 June 2005
Web of Cold-Blooded Lies - Eric Margolis, Toronto Sun; Sunday, June 12, 2005
Ministers were told of need for Gulf war ‘excuse’ - Michael Smith; The Sunday Times (UK); Sunday, June 12, 2005
Memo: U.S. Lacked Full Postwar Iraq Plan : Advisers to Blair Predicted Instability - Walter Pincus; Washington Post; Sunday, June 12, 2005
The Downing Street Memo Story Won't Die - Jefferson Morley; The Washington Post; Tuesday, 07 June 2005
WORLD VIEWS: New 'Downing Street Memo' says Bush, Blair agreed on 'regime change' in 2002; Iraq seen to 'slide into civil war'; and more. - Edward M. Gomez, special to SF Gate; Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Bush Lied about War? Nope, No News There! - Eric Boehlert; Salon.com; Thursday, 09 June 2005
After Downing Street - William Rivers Pitt; truthout | Perspective; Thursday, 09 June 2005
'Downing Street Memo' Gets Fresh Attention - Mark Memmott; USA Today; Wednesday, 08 June 2005
The 'Downing Street Memo' - The Sunday Times (UK); Sunday, May 1, 2005
The second 'Downing Street Memo' : Cabinet Office paper: Conditions for military action - The Sunday Times (UK); Sunday, June 12, 2005
Here's where you can take action on what you've just read:
Congressman John Conyers, Jr., House Judiciary Committee
Global Warmin' Is Fer Idjuts : Exxon writes America's energy policy, BushCo chops up emissions reports. Is there any hope at all? - by Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist; 10 June 2005
Official altered reports on links to global warming : U.S. climate research edited to downplay effects of greenhouse gases on environment - Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times - Wednesday, June 8, 2005
G-8 bows to U.S. on climate change - Action plan weaker after Bush team exerts pressure - Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post; Friday, June 17, 2005
New US move to spoil climate accord - Mark Townsend in New York; Sunday June 19, 2005; The Observer
Revealed: how oil giant influenced Bush : White House sought advice from Exxon on Kyoto stance - John Vidal, environment editor; UK Guardian; Wednesday June 8, 2005
Bush, Cheney Attack Amnesty International - Jim Lobe; Inter Press Service; Wednesday, June 1, 2005
30-Year Mortgage Rates Hit 14-Month Low - 9 June 2005
Shacking Up - 'Shantytowns' are a practical response to a world ruled by speculative real estate. - by Carol Lloyd, special to SF Gate; Friday, June 17, 2005
My Tower of Bubble - Deciphering the babble about imminent collapse - Carol Lloyd, special to SF Gate; Friday, June 24, 2005
Our Cities, Our Selves: The greening of San Francisco includes our cars and sewer system - Carol Lloyd, special to SF Gate; Friday, November 4, 2005
India: Calls to Ban GM Crops Intensify After Rats Suffer - Ranjit Devraj; Inter Press Service; Monday, June 6, 2005
Tapes reveal Enron's secret role in California's power blackouts : by Julian Borger for the Guardian; Saturday February 5, 2005
Enron : Special Report by the UK Guardian
How Bush firm used accounting scam by Paul Krugman; Tuesday July 9, 2002
Annals of National Security: The Coming Wars : What the Pentagon can now do in secret. by Seymour M. Hersh for 'the New Yorker'; posted January 17, 2005
Spot the differences : On Sunday, George Bush arrives in Europe, seeking to build bridges after the Iraq conflict. But despite the charm offensive, several other issues divide the US and Europeans. Mark Tran explains Friday February 18, 2005
Iran and Syria confront US with defence pact by Ewen MacAskill in Beirut and Duncan Campbell; Thursday February 17, 2005
'Great Satan' warned of a burning hell : The US is making threatening noises towards Iran, but, says Ian Black, any military action would have dire consequences by Ian Black; UK Guardian; Wednesday February 16, 2005
Bush's Iran warning, speech get cool reception globally - by John Daniszewski / Los Angeles Times; Saturday, January 22, 2005
Now US ponders attack on Iran : Hardliners in Pentagon ready to neutralise 'nuclear threat' posed by Tehran by Julian Borger in Washington and Ian Traynor; Tuesday January 18, 2005
US jets 'flying over Iran to spot potential targets' by Julian Borger in Washington, for the UK Guardian; Saturday January 29, 2005
The Rapture by Jon Carroll; SF Chronicle; Thursday, February 10, 2005
There Is No Tomorrow by Bill Moyers; The Star Tribune; Sunday 30 January 2005 - see also Battlefield Earth
The Godly Must Be Crazy : Christian-right views are swaying politicians and threatening the environment by Glenn Scherer; 27 Oct 2004
Red-Heifer Days : Religion takes the lead. by Ron Dreher, National Review Online; April 11, 2002
The Christian Coalition And George Bush
Bush : God told me to strike at al-Qaida - The Moscow Times by Chris Floyd; published: June 27, 2003
Apocalypse Bush! - Why care for the planet when the End Times are almost here? Vote Bush and hop on the salvation train! by Mark Morford, for SF Gate
Guardian Unlimited : Special reports : Bush says God chose him to lead his nation
Regretting Rumsfeld - The defense secretary has a record to run from - David Sarasohn; Portland Oregonion; Friday, June 10, 2005
Bush's Iraq Coalition Shrinking by Deb Riechmann; Friday February 18, 2005
Come See Our Brutal Democracy : Freedom rings in Iraq! Bush was right all along! American wins! Or, you know, not by Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist; Wednesday, February 2, 2005
Audit reveals abuse of $9bn works funds by Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington for the Guardian UK; Tuesday February 1, 2005
Fraud and corruption : Forget the UN. The US occupation regime helped itself to $8.8 bn of mostly Iraqi money in just 14 months by George Monbiot; Tuesday February 8, 2005
What I Heard about Iraq : a timeline in notable quotes by Eliot Weinberger; London Review of Books; 3 February 2005
Condi's Not So Candid - Harley Sorensen, special to SF Gate; Monday, January 31, 2005
'Nobody is talking' : The evidence of two new books demonstrates that 9/11 created the will for new, harsher interrogation techniques of foreign suspects by the US and led to the abuses in Guantánamo, Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond. In a special report, James Meek reveals that it is the British who refined these methods, and who have provided the precedent for legalised torture by James Meek - UK Guardian; Friday February 18, 2005
A fantasy of freedom : If Bush wanted to tackle tyranny, he could start with regimes under US control. But liberty clearly has limits, says Gary Younge, UK Guardian ; Monday, January 24, 2005
Pentagon spy network revealed by Dan Glaister in Los Angeles, UK Guardian; Monday January 24, 2005
'Military options look sterile' : Washington should employ more of the carrot and less of the stick the UK Guardian; Saturday January 29, 2005
Imposing Democracy on the World : The imperial burden of freedom by Charles V. Peña; SF Chronicle - Sunday, January 30, 2005
Stakes are high for Bush : There are better ways to spend the $5 billion a month it costs to keep on fighting in Iraq by George McGovern; SF Chronicle - Sunday, January 30, 2005
Smiles for the family, a fiery warning for the world by Julian Borger, for the UK Guardian; Friday January 21, 2005
Fireworks in Washington, despair around the world : The Bush administration is in denial about its disastrous failure in Iraq by Robin Cook, for the UK Guardian; Friday January 21, 2005
Ho Hum, More War And Death : What happens when habitual warmongering and BushCo lies become part of our daily diet? by Mark Morford, for SF Gate
Move to euro hits US finances - Mark Tran, for the UK Guardian
CIA probe finds secret Pentagon group manipulated intelligence on Iraqi threat by Jason Leopold, for Online Journal
U.S. intelligence found no evidence WMD moved from Iraq : U.S. intelligence found no evidence WMD moved from Iraq by Katherine Pfleger Shrader, Associated Press
BushCo Reams Nation Good - No WMDs after all, no excuse for war, too late for anyone to care anymore. Ha-ha, suckers by Mark Morford, for SF Gate
The Incredible Lying BushCo - This just in : More irrefutable proof that Dubya's is the slimiest administration in 100 years by Mark Morford, for SF Gate
Time To Get Out The Bush - How do you know it's time for a major change in American leadership? Let us count the signs by Mark Morford, for SF Gate
Sentient Non-Idiots For Kerry - Repubs pick a fight about Vietnam while Bush ruins America right now? Is the nation drunk? by Mark Morford, for SF Gate
Why Does No One Like Bush? - How can the global community so fear and despise us, when we're so honest and good? by Mark Morford, for SF Gate
Why Don't Americans Care - Do you know who Halliburton is? Dick Cheney? How about Karl Rove? Alas, most Americans don't by Mark Morford, for SF Gate
Write More About Skull and Bones : Secret societies? UFOs? The truth about what *really* happened on 9/11? The media cowers by Mark Morford, for SF Gate
Lawmakers ask U.N. to monitor elections - Florida's contested vote prompts call for oversight in U.S
Thirty states ready to ban abortion if Roe overturned
US ready to put weapons in space : Defence expert says America is likely to ignore treaty ban
Paul Wolfowitz (Deputy Defense Secretary, USA) : widely seen as one of the most hawkish members of the Bush administration. From 1989 to 1993, during the administration of George W Bush's father, he served as under-secretary for defence policy under the then defence secretary, Dick Cheney.
Elliot Abrams (National Security Council, USA) : first came to national prominence as a controversial political appointee in the Reagan administration who later pleaded guilty to lying to Congress regarding the Iran-Contra scandal, has also opposed the Oslo peace process and called for Washington to "stand by Israel," rather than act as a neutral mediator between Israel and the Palestinians.
What's the Real Story Behind the 9/11 Attacks?
Enron and it's links to the Bush administration. Back before the whole 9/11 thing this was a big deal as electricity bills rose by 400% or more in San Diego. Arnold became governor of California largely due to this. Remember that?
"OK, so we're just comin' down for some maintenance, like a forced outage type thing?" Rich replies, according to transcripts published yesterday.
"I think that's a good plan, Rich," Bill says. "... I knew I could count on you."
A series of articles on the Enron story.
... for a time it concealed its failure - sustaining its stock price, as it turned out, just long enough for Mr Bush to sell most of his stake at a large profit - with an accounting trick identical to one of the main ploys used by Enron a decade later. (Yes, Andersen was the accountant.)
A group of insiders, using money borrowed from Harken itself, paid an exorbitant price for a Harken subsidiary, Aloha Petroleum. That created a $10m phantom profit, which hid three-quarters of the company's losses in 1989. White House aides have played down the significance of this manoeuvre, saying $10m isn't much, compared with recent scandals. Indeed, it's a small fraction of the apparent profits Halliburton created through a sudden change in accounting procedures during Dick Cheney's tenure as chief executive. But for Harken's stock price - and hence for Mr Bush's personal wealth - this accounting trickery made all the difference.
Mr Bush was on the company's audit committee, as well as on a special restructuring committee; back in 1994, another member of both committees, Stuart Watson, assured reporters that he and Mr Bush were constantly made aware of the company's finances. If Mr Bush didn't know about the Aloha manoeuvre, he was a very negligent director.
In any case, Mr Bush certainly found out what his company had been up to when the securities and exchange commission ordered it to restate its earnings. So he can't really be shocked over recent corporate scams. His own company pulled exactly the same tricks, to his considerable benefit.
While it's always heartwarming to see a brutalized and disheartened people flex their newfound freedom for the first time, the costs of this teetering, fragile, force-fed, implode-at-any-moment democracy are nauseating and appalling. You already know the numbers: $300 billion, over 1,400 dead U.S. soldiers and over 10,000 permanently wounded and countless thousands of dead innocent Iraqi civilians -- and many, many more to come.
And let us not forget the biggest disclaimer of all: Not a single one of BushCo's alleged reasons for dragging our fractured and bankrupt nation into one of the most brutal wars since Vietnam has actually proved valid or justifiable. The disgusting array of WMD/nuclear/biotoxin lies and deceptions are not suddenly erased because we set up some polling places.
How quickly we forget: A democratic Iraq was never the reason Bush forced us into this war. Iraq's fledgling democracy is a pleasant side effect, a bonus PR move, a heartstring-tugging and patriotic patina of bogus humanitarianism BushCo is now trying to slather over one of the most disastrous and inept military efforts in recent history. It makes for terrific photo ops. It makes for miserable and debilitating foreign policy.
Bush's inaugural address was directed to a world community that remains largely disenchanted with the U.S. president. A BBC World Service Poll issued this week of 22,000 people in 21 countries showed that 58 percent of respondents, and a majority in 16 out of 21 countries, considered the world more dangerous because of Bush's re-election.
Let us consider the Rapture Index. This is a real thing prepared by serious people. If it makes you laugh, you have not gotten the memo. You probably have not read any of the 12 volumes of the "Left Behind" series, the best-selling books in America today.
So read the Rapture Index. Consider its implications: One of George Bush's core constituencies is actively praying for environmental degradation. Its members are in fact praying for the end of the world, because the end of the world is the beginning of the fun part of salvation.
Let's look at the new budget through this lens, which is (I emphasize) neither fanciful nor satirical. Money for clean water: down. Money for the cleanup of old nuclear sites, including the massive job at the Hanford (Wash.) Nuclear Reservation: way down. Number of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management acres open for logging: up. Amount of territory in Alaska declared OK for oil drilling: way up.
You might even consider the impact of the Rapture on deficit financing. Who cares how much debt we accrue? Christ will come and forgive it all. Why not borrow against the future to pay for the present? The future is gonna be a whole different deal. We're just placeholders for God's own totalitarian state.
One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington.
Abortion. Same-sex marriage. Stem-cell research.
U.S. legislators backed by the Christian right vote against these issues with near-perfect consistency. That probably doesn't surprise you, but this might: Those same legislators are equally united and unswerving in their opposition to environmental protection.
We are not talking about a handful of fringe lawmakers who hold or are beholden to these beliefs. The 231 legislators (all but five of them Republicans) who received an average 80 percent approval rating or higher from the leading religious-right organizations make up more than 40 percent of the U.S. Congress.
In the past, it was not deemed politically correct to ask probing questions about a lawmaker's intimate religious beliefs. But when those beliefs play a crucial role in shaping public policy, it becomes necessary for the people to know and understand them. It sounds startling, but the great unasked questions that need to be posed to the 231 U.S. legislators backed by the Christian right, and to President Bush himself, are not the kind of softballs about faith lobbed at the candidates during the recent presidential debates. They are, instead, tough, specific inquiries about the details of that faith: Do you believe we are in the End Time? Are the governmental policies you support based on your faith in the imminent Second Coming of Christ?
So weird have the attempts to hasten the End Time become that a group of ultra-Christian Texas ranchers recently helped fundamentalist Israeli Jews breed a pure red heifer, a genetically rare beast that must be sacrificed to fulfill an apocalyptic prophecy found in the biblical Book of Numbers. (The beast will be ready for sacrifice by 2005, according to The National Review.)
An official US audit provided evidence yesterday of widespread corruption in postwar Iraq, finding that America's occupation authority failed to keep track of nearly $9bn (£4.8bn) in reconstruction funds.
The government of the US, in other words, though it had been informed about a smuggling operation which brought Saddam Hussein's regime some $4.6bn, decided to let it continue. It did so because it deemed the smuggling to be in its national interest, as it helped friendly countries (Turkey and Jordan) evade the sanctions on Iraq.
Contracts to US companies were awarded by the CPA without any financial safeguards. They were issued without competition, in the form of "cost-plus" deals. This means that the companies were paid for the expenses they incurred, plus a percentage of those expenses in the form of profit. They had a powerful incentive, in other words, to spend as much money as possible.
What makes all this so serious is that more than half the money the CPA was giving away did not belong to the US government but to the people of Iraq. Most of it was generated by the coalition's sales of oil. If you think the UN's oil-for-food programme was leaky, take a look at the CPA's oil-for-reconstruction scheme. Throughout the entire period of CPA rule, there was no metering of the oil passing through Iraq's pipelines, which means that there was no way of telling how much of the country's wealth the authority was extracting, or whether it was paying a fair price for it.
I heard ‘I’m absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We’re just getting it now.’
‘We’ll find them. It’ll be a matter of time to do so.’
‘We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad, and east, west, south and north, somewhat.’
‘If they did not have WMDs, why did they pose an immediate threat to this country?’
I heard Rumsfeld answer: ‘You and a few other critics are the only people I’ve heard use the phrase “immediate threat”. It’s become a kind of folklore that that’s what happened. If you have any citations, I’d like to see them.’
And I heard the reporter read: ‘No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people.’
Rumsfeld replied: ‘It – my view of – of the situation was that he – he had – we – we believe, the best intelligence that we had and other countries had and that – that we believed and we still do not know – we will know.’
President Bush's second inauguration on Thursday will provide the signal for an intense and urgent debate in Washington over whether or when to extend the "global war on terror" to Iran, according to officials and foreign policy analysts in Washington.
That debate is being driven by "neo-conservatives" at the Pentagon who emerged from the post-election Bush reshuffle unscathed, despite their involvement in collecting misleading intelligence on Iraq's weapons in the run-up to the 2003 invasion.
"It is not a straightforward problem but at some point the costs of doing nothing may just become too high. In Iran you have the intersection of nuclear weapons and proven ties to terrorism. That is what we are looking at now."
The New Yorker reported this week that the Pentagon has already sent special operations teams into Iran to locate possible nuclear weapons sites.
My concern at the moment, however, is Rice. Why are we getting a new secretary of state with a proven history of lying to the American people?
Rice lied to support the administration's buildup to the war. She indicated with great certainty that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. She suggested that if we didn't invade Iraq, there would be mushroom clouds over our cities.
That was then. Now, with the absence of Saddam's weapons a proven fact, Rice claims she was given false information by our intelligence agencies. Interestingly, no one has been singled out as the purveyor of that false info.
Under this philosophy, the Bush administration understands the words "tyranny" and "freedom" in much the same way as it understands international law. They mean whatever the White House wants them to mean. Bush is happy to support democracy when democracy supports America, just as he is happy to dispense with it when it does not. Likewise, when tyranny is inconvenient, he will excoriate it; when it is expedient, he will excuse it.
Take Uzbekistan, one of the most repressive regimes in central Asia. In April 2002, a special UN rapporteur concluded that torture in the country was "systematic" and "pervasive and persistent... throughout the investigation process". In the same year, Muzafar Avazov, an opposition leader, was boiled alive for refusing to abandon his religious convictions and attempting to practise religious rites in prison. In 2003, Bush granted a waiver to Uzbekistan when its failure to improve its human rights record should have led to its aid being slashed. In February 2004 the US secretary of defence, Donald Rumsfeld, visited the country's dictator, Islam Karimov, and said: "The relationship [between our countries] is strong and growing stronger. We look forward to strengthening our political and economic relations."
Yet the US continues to shower the country with aid, docking a mere $18m last year (around 20% of the total) after expressing its "disappointment" that Mr Karimov had not made greater strides towards democracy. Pan down the shopping list of tyrannical states in Ms Rice's in-tray (Iran, Burma, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Belarus and Cuba) and you will find no mention of Uzbekistan. Why? Because Uzbekistan, with an estimated 10,000 political prisoners, hosts a US military base that offers easy access to Afghanistan and the rest of the region.
Providing further evidence of the centralisation of power around Donald Rumsfeld, the Strategic Support Branch was created to give the defence secretary the "full spectrum of humint [human intelligence] operations," according to Pentagon documents quoted by the paper.
The deployment of the unit further muddies the issue of accountability for covert and clandestine intelligence operations in the "war on terror". The programme was established by diverting existing Pentagon funds, thus freeing it from any congressional oversight.
Recent administration guidelines suggest that the Pentagon need not report all "deployment orders" to Congress, as it did previously. Pentagon lawyers argue that by defining the "war on terror" as indefinite, global and ongoing, the defence secretary's war powers are extended beyond times of imminent combat.
A running total of the amount of money spent by the US Government to finance the war in Iraq. This total is based on estimates from Congressional appropriations.
These hawkish rumblings eerily recall the months before the American invasion of Iraq ... Given that experience, it would be foolhardy to dismiss the current rhetorical build-up. New York Times editorial, Jan 27
'A whiff of war' is how one German newspaper has described the drumbeat of threats against Iran emanating from Washington over the past week ... Irish Times editorial, Jan 26
The background noise about Iran is getting ominous - and has an eerie resemblance to the noises off that grew in volume throughout 2002 as the [Bush] administration ... prepared to invade Iraq ... Financial Times editorial, Jan 28
It is now costing us $5 billion a month to keep our troops fighting (and last week the Bush administration asked for an additional $80 billion this year for Iraq and Afghanistan). Why not, in the most orderly and responsible way possible, bring our troops home from a country where they are increasingly unwanted? We could then utilize the $5 billion-a-month cost of the war for more hopeful and constructive purposes.
The US is increasing the pressure on Iran by sending military planes into its airspace to test the country's defences and spot potential targets, according to an intelligence source in Washington.
“This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq is just one campaign. The Bush Administration is looking at this as a huge war zone,” the former high-level intelligence official told me. “Next, we’re going to have the Iranian campaign. We’ve declared war and the bad guys, wherever they are, are the enemy. This is the last hurrah—we’ve got four years, and want to come out of this saying we won the war on terrorism.”
In arguably the most combative inauguration speech for 50 years, Mr Bush made clear that the Afghan and Iraqi wars had not diminished his determination to take the counter-terrorism campaign to America's enemies. He depicted those conflicts as part of a much broader mission, which he phrased in almost messianic terms.
He also suggested the struggle against oppression was ordained by God, exporting the ideas enshrined in the US constitution that all people have God-given rights.
"History has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction set by liberty and the author of liberty," the president said. The deliberate use of language familiar to evangelical Christians won more cheers from the crowd than any other phrase.
Inauguration does not do justice to the exuberant celebrations of this week. Coronation would come closer.
Then there is the sharp contrast between the self-indulgent hubris of the festivity and the fragile political victory which it celebrated. Bush was re-elected by the smallest margin in 100 years of those presidents who won a second term. His approval ratings this week are the lowest ever plumbed by any president at the date of his inauguration.
Lastly there is the biggest contrast of all between the smug complacency of the administration over its electoral victory and the disastrous military failure of its adventure in Iraq. Since George Bush was re-elected over 200 more US soldiers have been killed in Iraq. Each new day brings another 70 attacks on the occupation forces as the territory dominated by the insurgents expands and the area which the occupiers can safely patrol shrinks. This week a senior Kurdish leader, although a supporter of the occupation, admitted that for a lot of its citizens, "the Iraqi government exists only on television".
The lawless background to the forthcoming elections has imposed whole new dimensions to the concept of a secret ballot. Most of the candidates will remain a secret lest they are assassinated. Polling stations are kept secret by the authorities lest they are blown up before election day in a week's time.
Iraq was the flagship project of the Bush administration and has turned into its greatest disaster. Yesterday's jollities cannot conceal the brutal truth that they neither know how to make the occupation succeed nor how to end it without leaving an even worse position behind.
...don't forget the part about how Congress allotted hundreds of millions of dollars for the futile WMD search, with no public accounting of the money, and the entire budget and the expenditures are to remain classified, by order of the Defense Intelligence Agency
Central banks are moving out of dollars and into euros, a shift that will make it harder for the US to finance its huge current account deficit
...a secret Pentagon committee, set up by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in October 2001, manipulated reams of intelligence information prepared by the spy agency on the so-called Iraqi threat and then delivered it to top White House officials who used it to win support for a war in Iraq.
The ad hoc committee, called the Office of Special Plans, headed by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith and other Pentagon hawks, described the worst-case scenarios in terms of Iraq's alleged stockpile of chemical and biological weapons and claimed the country was close to acquiring nuclear weapons.
President Bush and top-raking officials in his administration used the existence of WMD in Iraq as the main justification for the March 2003 invasion...
...top Bush administration officials speculated publicly that the banned armaments may have been smuggled out of the country before the war started.
...intelligence and congressional officials say they have not seen any information -- never "a piece," said one -- indicating that WMD or significant amounts of components and equipment were transferred from Iraq to neighboring Syria, Jordan or elsewhere.
Should we care that Osama, the actual perp of 9/11, is still running around free? That terrorism hasn't been quelled in the slightest? That the Mideast is more of a U.S.-hating powder keg than ever, thanks to BushCo? That the economy is in the worst shape it's been in decades?
Should we care that we just massacred tens of thousands of Iraqi (and Afghan) civilians and soldiers and suffered a little more than 100 U.S. casualties and have absolutely nothing to show for it except bogus force-fed pride and this weird, sickening sense that we just executed something irreparable and ungodly and karmically poisonous?
"This is a man that we know has had connections with al Qaeda. This is a man who, in my judgment, would like to use al Qaeda as a forward army." -- President Bush, Oct. 14, 2002
"Yes, there is a linkage between al Qaeda and Iraq." -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Sept. 26, 2002
"There have been contacts between senior Iraqi officials and members of al Qaeda going back for actually quite a long time." -- National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice, Sept. 25, 2002
Isn't that cute? Not a single one of those statements was true. And not a single one of those people is being accused of treason or malfeasance or of being a soulless anti-American warmongering drone, despite how their words were dripping with lies when they exited their mouths.
From Clarke's "Against All Enemies," Woodward's "Plan of Attack," Suskind's "The Price of Loyalty," Phillips' "American Dynasty," Dean's "Worse Than Watergate," Unger's "House of Bush, House of Saud" and "Imperial Hubris," by 'Anonymous,' to "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "Outfoxed" and "The Hunting of the President." Go ahead, Google any one (or all) of those titles. The list is endless and stunning in its depth and in the heat of its unanimous BushCo condemnation.
And isn't it funny how at least 13 members of Congress have actually requested that the United Nations monitor this year's U.S. presidential election, just because, just in case, just to ensure there's no voter rolling and election rigging and chad hanging and outright shameless Florida reaming like last time?
Why Does No One Like Bush? - How can the global community so fear and despise us, when we're so honest and good? by Mark Morford, for SF Gate
Why Don't Americans Care - Do you know who Halliburton is? Dick Cheney? How about Karl Rove? Alas, most Americans don't by Mark Morford, for SF Gate
"Look. There are plenty of strangely unanswered questions about 9/11, about the stunning inaction of NORAD and Bush's stupefying nonreaction upon hearing of the attack, not to mention his administration's incredible attempts to halt any independent 9/11 investigations, and have you ever read a fully satisfying account of how this whole atrocity could have happened, one that answered all your questions and quelled your lingering doubts and squashed, once and for all, any hints of dread you had about our government's potential role in the tragedy? Neither have I. Neither has anyone.
Of course, no one in any major media will touch this stuff. It is professional suicide to dare suggest an alternate truth to the one supplied by the Pentagon and regurgitated by the media, despite the fact that most every journalist, trained as they are to be suspicious and wary and fully cognizant of the fact that there is always more to a given apocalypse than meets the eye, every journalist knows that buried just beneath the slippery surface of any good conspiracy theory is a gem or three of real truth, a question that begs to be solved or at least researched and, yet, most likely never will, because it has been cast into the madhouse of "outrageous" impossibility and is therefore rendered impotent and hopeless."
It was no secret that Pat Robertson supported President George Bush in his re-election race in 1992.
In April 1992, Robertson sent the Bush campaign chairman a 10-page list of "persons I would like to see as Bush campaign co-chairmen."
Bush strategist Mary Matalin got right on it. By convention time, Robertson's hand-picked people were nearly all in place.
A memo to Matalin: "39 names were submitted by the Christian Coalition ... 31 have been included. ... it should be completed by the end of next week."
Bush : God told me to strike at al-Qaida - The Moscow Times by Chris Floyd; published: June 27, 2003
After all the mountains of commentary and speculation, we finally know: George W. Bush waged war on Iraq because, in his own words, God "instructed me to strike at Saddam."
Guardian Unlimited : Special reports : Bush says God chose him to lead his nation
US ready to put weapons in space : Defence expert says America is likely to ignore treaty ban
New American Century
...conservatives have not confidently advanced a strategic vision of America's role in the world. They have not set forth guiding principles for American foreign policy. They have allowed differences over tactics to obscure potential agreement on strategic objectives. And they have not fought for a defense budget that would maintain American security and advance American interests in the new century.
We aim to change this. We aim to make the case and rally support for American global leadership.
As the 20th century draws to a close, the United States stands as the world's preeminent power. Having led the West to victory in the Cold War, America faces an opportunity and a challenge: Does the United States have the vision to build upon the achievements of past decades? Does the United States have the resolve to shape a new century favorable to American principles and interests?
The New American Century is brought to you by: links added to a few, Google the names for more info on who these guys are:
Dick Cheney (Vice President, USA)
Donald Rumsfeld (Secretary of Defense, USA)
Paul Wolfowitz (Deputy Defense Secretary, USA) : widely seen as one of the most hawkish members of the Bush administration. From 1989 to 1993, during the administration of George W Bush's father, he served as under-secretary for defence policy under the then defence secretary, Dick Cheney.
Elliot Abrams (National Security Council, USA) : first came to national prominence as a controversial political appointee in the Reagan administration who later pleaded guilty to lying to Congress regarding the Iran-Contra scandal, has also opposed the Oslo peace process and called for Washington to "stand by Israel," rather than act as a neutral mediator between Israel and the Palestinians.
Gary Bauer
Finally, a little taste of conspiracy theory sites (because they're fun to read)... :)
What's the Real Story Behind the 9/11 Attacks?
Issues that are closer to home....
SF Weekly : Fallout (Part 1) : How nuclear researchers handled -- and grossly mishandled -- the Cold War's most dangerous radioactive substances at a top-secret lab inside the Hunters Point Shipyard. The same shipyard the city wants to remake as San Francisco's newest neighborhood. - by LISA DAVIS (May 2, 2001)
SF Weekly : Fallout (Part 2) : Newly released documents indicate the Navy dumped far more nuclear waste than it's ever acknowledged in a major commercial fishery just 30 miles west of San Francisco. Why won't the government even study the Farallon Islands Nuclear Waste Site? - by LISA DAVIS (May 9, 2001)
SF Weekly : Fallout : The Documentation : Databases of the original materials used in writing this story - by LISA DAVIS (May 2, 2001)
SF Weekly : Fallout : The Path of Inquiry : How research for this story was conducted - by LISA DAVIS (May 2, 2001)
SF Weekly : Fallout : Chlorine, Benzene, Vinyl Chloride, Trichloroethylene, Beryllium, Nickel, PCBs ... Even if radioactivity were ignored, Hunters Point Shipyard would be one of the planet's most polluted properties - by LISA DAVIS (May 2, 2001)
SF Weekly : Fallout : Radioactive and other industrial waste in San Francisco
SF Weekly : Shame and Courage : The Navy's unconscionable nuclear recklessness and dissembling at Hunters Point should draw the attention of Congress - by JOHN MECKLIN (May 9, 2001)
SF Weekly : Pointed Queries : Three California members of Congress are demanding information from the Navy about radioactive materials at Hunters Point Shipyard - by JOHN MECKLIN (May 23, 2001)
SF Weekly : Arrested Development : Mayor Brown is pushing for quick approval of a Hunters Point Shipyard redevelopment plan that gives a lot to homebuilding giant Lennar, and not nearly enough to the city or the shipyard's neighbors - by LISA DAVIS (November 19, 2003)
Disposal of Radioactive Nuclear Waste - by Ayaz Ahmed Khan
SAN FRANCISCO: Former shipyard site development gets OK
EDITORIAL: A plan for Hunters Point
SAN FRANCISCO: Protest against PG+E plant: Hunters Point residents say it's sickening their kids
The Bay Area's Nuclear Legacy - by Gregory Dicum
Too Young to Die: Part One: Life's Toll - by Erin McCormick and Reynolds Holding
Farallon Island Radioactive Waste Dump
It's much too late to sweat global warming : Time to prepare for inevitable effects of our ill-fated future by Mark Hertsgaard; SF Chronicle; Sunday, February 13, 2005
At the core of the global warming dilemma is a fact neither side of the debate likes to talk about: It is already too late to prevent global warming and the climate change it sets off.
Such a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity may not be fashionable today. But it is necessary if the United States is to build on the successes of this past century and to ensure our security and our greatness in the next.
William J. Bennett
Jeb Bush
Eliot A. Cohen
Midge Decter
Paula Dobriansky
Steve Forbes
Aaron Friedberg
Francis Fukuyama
Frank Gaffney
Fred C. Ikle
Donald Kagan
Zalmay Khalilzad
I. Lewis Libby
Norman Podhoretz
Dan Quayle
Peter W. Rodman
Stephen P. Rosen
Henry S. Rowen
Vin Weber
George Weigel