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Sweeping It Under The Rug
Once again, President Bush and his administration is busy trying to sweep their incompetent, immoral behavior under the rug. However, this time, Richard A. Clarke, Gen. Richard B. Myers, and Terry Moran have grabbed the broom and refused to let the White House hide the dirt.
From Richard A. Clarke in the New York Times:
"In Washington, people in government often communicate with one another and with the public in guarded, even coded statements. The mass media seldom detect, note or explain these messages. Lately one of those messages has been coming from senior American military officials, both on and off the record. Their message, decrypted, is that things in Iraq are not going well and may not do so for a while. Their corollary charge is that the American military has been seriously damaged."
Gen. Richard B. Myers, who will soon be retiring, has been lifting the rug recently to reveal more of the dirt underneath. First, he noted that the insurgency is about as strong now as it was a year ago. Additionally, he revealed that insurgencies like the one in Iraq have lasted 7 to 12 years--clearly showing we may still be fighting in Iraq in 2012!
Although White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has been frantically sweeping the discrepancies between the White House's rosy pronouncements about the state of the insurgency in Iraq, and statements from people on the ground in Iraq under the rug, Terry Moran has been focusing on asking questions about what is under the rug. From the White House Press Briefing with Moran and McClellan:
MORAN: Scott, is the insurgency in Iraq in its "last throes"?
McCLELLAN: Terry, you have a desperate group of terrorists in Iraq that are doing everything they can to try to derail the transition to democracy. The Iraqi people have made it clear that they want a free and democratic and peaceful future. And that's why we're doing everything we can, along with other countries, to support the Iraqi people as they move forward ...
MORAN: But the insurgency is in its last throes?
McCLELLAN: The Vice President talked about that the other day -- you have a desperate group of terrorists who recognize how high the stakes are in Iraq. A free Iraq will be a significant blow to their ambitions.
MORAN: But they're killing more Americans, they're killing more Iraqis. That's the last throes?
McCLELLAN: Innocent -- I say innocent civilians. And it doesn't take a lot of people to cause mass damage when you're willing to strap a bomb onto yourself, get in a car and go and attack innocent civilians. That's the kind of people that we're dealing with. That's what I say when we're talking about a determined enemy.
MORAN: Right. What is the evidence that the insurgency is in its last throes?
McCLELLAN: I think I just explained to you the desperation of terrorists and their tactics.
MORAN: What's the evidence on the ground that it's being extinguished?
McCLELLAN: Terry, we're making great progress to defeat the terrorist and regime elements. You're seeing Iraqis now playing more of a role in addressing the security threats that they face. They're working side by side with our coalition forces. They're working on their own. There are a lot of special forces in Iraq that are taking the battle to the enemy in Iraq. And so this is a period when they are in a desperate mode.
MORAN: Well, I'm just wondering what the metric is for measuring the defeat of the insurgency.
McCLELLAN: Well, you can go back and look at the Vice President's remarks. I think he talked about it.
MORAN: Yes. Is there any idea how long a "last throe" lasts for?
McCLELLAN: Go ahead, Steve.... [Uhhhh.... next question... I don't want to talk with this guy anymore]
The thing about evidence though, is that it tough to keep it hidden. Especially when there are about 150,000 troops who know better, when it comes to phrases like, "The insurgency is in, if you will, the last throes." When at least 150,000 people know that statement to be factually and demonstrably false, chances are, somebody is going to stand up and lift up the rug and show others the real truth that can be found in the evidence.
Evidence such as the following:
--Despite the brief silence that followed the Iraqi election, the quiet has been broken by a sustained round of insurgent attacks and whispers of a civil war.
--Iraqi civilian casualties in May were up by 33 percent over April, while Iraqi police deaths were up 75 percent over the same period.
--American military dead in Iraq more than doubled last month over the lull in March.
--Because the need for large numbers of troops there has remained much longer than originally planned (some reports suggest that Pentagon civilian planners anticipated a force of only 30,000 by 2004; we now have more than four times that number in Iraq), many of the active-duty Army units in Iraq are on their second deployments.
--Our American military is in shreds and weakened as a result of the haphazzard planning. Across America, the National Guard, designed to assist civil authorities in domestic crises (like the pandemic of a lethal avian flu that some public-health planners fear), is practically non-existent.
--Re-enlistments are down, training for domestic support missions is spotty at best, equipment is battered and many units are either in Iraq or on their way to or from it.
--Now the regular Army is facing the grim task of trying to recruit for this illegal war. Recruiters are coming up dry, and some, under pressure to produce new troops, have reportedly been complicit in suspect applications. The army is the smallest it's been since WWII and hints of reinstating the draft is more than an internets rumor.
--Our Army is so weakened (with almost every unit in the Army shuffling into and out of Iraq), few units are really combat-ready for other missions. Richard A. Clarke states, "If the North Korean regime that is often called crazy were to roll its huge army the few kilometers into South Korea, significant American reinforcements would be a long time coming. This raises the possibility that the United States may have to resort to nuclear weapons to stop the North Koreans, as has been contemplated with increasing seriousness since the last Nuclear Posture Review in 2002."
--By the end of President Bush's term, the war in Iraq could end up costing $600 billion, more than six times what some administration officials had projected.
How many more acts of corruption can this administration continue to sweep under the rug before the American people get angry?
How much longer is it until more and more of us grab the broom and sweep these truths with all of their profane implications and in such quantities, that the American people can no longer put their hands over their eyes to avoid seeing the ugly truths?
And what will it take before the American people understand that brooms belong in a broom closet, not in the Oval Office!
I understand the funding bill for CPB/PBS is on the House agenda today???
Public Broadcasters Face 'The Fight of Our Lives'
WASHINGTON-On the eve of a vote crucial to its financial health, the public television system is being buffeted by political and economic forces that have pushed it into a situation many say is one of the most precarious in its 38-year history.
By Matea Gold.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/eqGm0Ka4WM0G2B0Gha80ER
Outcry Grows over Public TV, Radio
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/062205L.shtml
[Three stories on this link, including Amy Goodman's (democracy NOW) interview with Bill Moyers.]
DISSERVICE TO THE PUBLIC BROADCASTING SYSTEM
Rory O'Connor, AlterNet.
Claiming a need for 'fresh faces,' the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's new Crossroads initiative funds former CPB and PBS heads.
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/22276/
[Note: Tucker Carlson's father, Richard Carlson, is an ex-CPB chief, and will gain from this new Crossroads program funding.... although, reading what the Crossroads in America is all about, I have to ask "why yet another program on terrorism" - except to keep the sheeples in line and afraid of voting for anything but another neoCon administration??? We certainly don't need it, IMHO; the biggest recruiter for terrorism is pResident Dumbya.]
DESTROYING PBS
Molly Ivins, AlterNet.
A Bush-appointed political operative says he'll erase bias at PBS ... by inserting bias.
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/22262/
Public Broadcasting Body Stalls Vote on President
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0622-02.htm
Steve Weissman | Kill the Messenger, Hide the News
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/062205B.shtml
Sen. Durbin's Regret for Remarks Not Enough for GOP:
Durbin said that had he read from the report without disclosing that it was about an American-run prison, "you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9237.htm
Excerpt:
"He should certainly apologize," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "There's no comparison whatsoever."
[McCain spent time as a POW in Vietnam, and was tortured. Why can he not see that what is happening in Guantanamo is the same kind of torture he went through???????? Torture by any other name is still torture, whether it's now in Guantanamo or secret locations throughout the world because of the Bu$hCo administration, or in the past in Viet Nam or Germany or wherever in the world it happens or what decade or century it happens. McCain is denying the truth to himself. For not seeing the facts that are before his very eyes, McCain is a coward.]
Excerpt:
"You cannot … have a public official quoted throughout the world by our enemies describing the U.S. in these terms," Gingrich said. "It puts every young American in uniform at risk."
[Gingrich is conveniently forgetting that it is Bu$h/Cheney and Gonzales and Rummy who signed off on the torture orders; they are ultimately responsible for the deaths of Americans and Iraqis and coalition forces, and they are the ones who set the ball in motion to put our people at risk of being tortured, even before that cockamamie scheme to "redefine torture," by invading Iraq in the first place!!! Gingrich hasn't been lurking on any blogs; Bu$hCo has been compared to Hitler for the simple reason that he's used the same techniques to make America a fascist corporate nation. It's Bu$hCo and his administration who have damaged our reputation abroad, not anyone else, that's for sure!!! People in foreign countries have always despised him since the Selection of 2000 as an uneducated boob, a man with no morals, and as a "leader."]
How does Guantanamo compare to the Soviet Gulag?:
From Solzhenitsyn's Gulag: The Simplest Methods which Break the Will :
An excerpt on interrogation methods from Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9236.htm
[Descriptions of torture..... Sounds familiar... like what we've all read about happening in Gitmo and Abu Ghraib and elsewhere....]
Brilliant analysis. Send this column to David Brooks, in response to his latest apologia in today's Times.
What is Bush's Agenda in Iraq?
By Paul Craig Roberts
In his June 18 weekly radio address last Saturday, Bush again lied to the American people when he told them that the US was forced into invading Iraq because of the September 11 attack on the WTC. Bush, the greatest disgrace that America has ever had to suffer, actually repeated at this late date the monstrous lie for which he is infamous throughout the world:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9230.htm
[What is more incredible is that Bu$h is still telling that lie!!!]
Bush Administration Psychological Warfare Against the U.S.?
An Interview with (ret.) Colonel Sam Gardiner
By Kevin Zeese
I find it amazing that there is now a growing interest in the marketing the war. There is absolutely no question that the White House and the Pentagon participated in an effort to market the military option. The truth did not make any difference to that campaign.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9239.htm
David Michael Green | HC-9: Where the Case for Impeachment Slipped into Gear
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0622-33.htm
Americans inching closer to a reckoning
Do you want to know?
By Robert Steinback
Either you want to know if you've been lied to, or you don't.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9232.htm
U.S. was big spender in days before Iraq handover:
Cash was loaded onto giant pallets for shipment by plane to Iraq, and paid out to contractors who carried it away in duffel ags.
http://snipurl.com/frn6
US 'concealing' Saddam's secrets :
"There should be transparency and there should be frankness, but there are secrets that, if revealed, won't be in the interest of many countries," Mr Shandal said. "Who was helping Saddam all those years?"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4115976.stm
Court Backs Soldier's Anti-Iraq War Stance :
A German court ruled Wednesday that a soldier, who refused to follow orders because he did not want to support the US-led war in Iraq, had every right to do so.
http://snipurl.com/frnd
Tami Drake | Something's Fishy about U.S. Silence on Japan's Whaling
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0622-20.htm
love the graphics Suz!
Wrote my letter to Penguin & am of to work.
Keep up the good work folks
June 23, 2005
Senators Hear of a Wink-Wink Lobbyist Move
By ANNE E. KORNBLUT
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/23/politics/23indian.html
From the story:
"Mr. Abramoff betrayed a longstanding client, betrayed his colleagues, betrayed his friend," Mr. McCain said.
The notes, many dashed off on BlackBerry devices, showed examples of greed and deceit "that even by Washington standards are breathtaking," said Senator Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota, the leading Democrat on the committee.
"I'm past anger and bitterness," Nell Rogers, the administrative planner for the Choctaws, said in her testimony on Wednesday. "It's an extraordinary story of betrayal."
Rumsfeld Faces Questions on Troops in Iraq
By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer Thu Jun 23,
WASHINGTON - Congressional Democrats are demanding answers about the future presence of U.S. troops in Iraq as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld heads to Capitol Hill to testify on progress in training Iraq's own security forces.
The Bush administration contends Iraqis must be able to defend their own country against a lethal insurgency before a timeline for bringing home troops can be considered.
But progress has been slower than expected. In recent weeks, insurgents have increasingly targeted Iraqi security forces. And U.S. casualties, war spending and public skepticism continue to climb, ruffling both Republicans and Democrats.
Rumsfeld, Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and top U.S. military commanders in Iraq were scheduled to testify Thursday before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees.
continue~ http://tinyurl.com/clln7
C-SPAN 1, call-in show regarding Public Broadcasting on now.
[The Pentagon is rapidly running out of enough volunteers to go to Iraq.
..Question....are there enough young NASCAR fans to make an army? ]
Recruiters Reach New Lows
By Katrina vanden Heuvel,
The Nation. Posted June 23, 2005.
While the alarming list of recruiting abuses has received some needed media attention, it's worth reviewing the extremes to which the military has gone to fill its ranks.
snip~
Our US military is spending millions of dollars a year recruiting young men at NASCAR races. As the Air Force's superintendent of motorsports said (according to the AP, that's actually his job?superintendent of motorsports), NASCAR is the military's "target market." The Army alone is spending $16 million a year at NASCAR events.
Each branch of the Armed Forces sponsors NASCAR race drivers and they set up recruiting booths outside of NASCAR events. This "belly-to-belly selling," the superintendent of motorsports explained, enables the military to woo potential recruits "face to face."
Recruiters are paying a high price, suffering from depression, headaches and stomach problems brought on by the tremendous pressure of having to find two new recruits per month to meet their quotas, avoid their commanders' wrath and fulfill their mission. One Texas recruiter told the New York Times' Damien Cave that he'd rather be fighting on the front lines of the war in Iraq than recruiting weary teenagers and coping with anxious parents in the states.
"The evidence is overwhelming that the Army is slowly being worn down by its commitment in Iraq," a Pentagon adviser and military analyst at the Lexington Institute told Newsday. The handwriting is on the wall: This is a failed war, and the American people are refusing in their wisdom to fight it.
continue~
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/22286/
from salon.com... reporting about a new highly confidential report from the CIA about what invading Iraq has actually done to improve the conditions for training new terrorists...
The ominous truth about Iraq
Earlier this week, CIA chief Porter Goss mostly agreed with Vice President Dick Cheney's recent declaration that the insurgency in Iraq was in its "last throes" -- if it isn't quite in the last throes, Goss said, then it's at least "very close to it."
Goss knows otherwise. And that doesn't require being the head of the CIA: Anyone who follows the news from Iraq with any regularity can see plainly that these assessments are absurd, predictable as they may be coming through the gritted teeth of President Bush's loyal wartime lieutenants. For anyone still susceptible to the cheerleading, even after months of bad news, the latest account to lay bare the truth about the war front appears in the June 27 issue of Newsweek -- and it's ominous indeed. "Ghost soldiers," a new breed of better-trained terrorists, and an insurgent support network nearly a half million strong: These are the faces of America's ongoing and increasingly dire Iraq problem.
For starters, enemy infiltration of new Iraqi security forces appears to have grown to chilling proportions. "According to intelligence officials in Baghdad, whose clearances bar them from speaking publicly, Iraq's security services have hundreds of 'ghost soldiers' -- members who vanish, sometimes for months on end, but continue to draw their pay," the magazine reports. "The fear is that they are working for the insurgency while keeping up their ties in uniform. ... Over dinner last week in a fashionable Baghdad neighborhood, Iraqi officials were shaking their heads over news that 176 Iraqi police officers were found to have terrorist connections in the past two weeks."
As top U.S officials have begun talking up the number of enemy killed -- even when the numbers don't add up -- they haven't addressed the insurgency's reportedly vast support network: "According to a U.S. Special Ops source," the Newsweek report continues, "the insurgents include an estimated 1,000 foreign jihadists, 500 homegrown Iraqi jihadists, between 15,000 and 30,000 former regime elements and as many as 400,000 auxiliaries and support personnel. Those figures don't count gangster organizations operating 'in at least 12 of the 18 provinces.' All told, the insurgency is believed to include upwards of 40 reasonably distinct groups that sometimes join forces for particular operations."
But maybe most grim is what the Central Intelligence Agency determined in a recent, highly classified report about the current situation in Iraq -- a report that is completely at odds with Goss' own stated view. There was much debate during last year's presidential race whether the war would ultimately reduce or deepen the terrorist threat; per the CIA's latest assessment, you be the judge:
"The CIA produced a study this May on a topic so sensitive that even the title is classified," says Newsweek. "Jihadists in Iraq are getting direct, on-the-job training in a real-life insurgency, with hands-on experience in bombing, sniping and all the skills of urban warfare, unlike the essentially artificial training that was given at Al Qaeda's rural Afghan camps. One of the paper's main points is that America's Iraqi troubles will not end with the insurgency. In effect, Iraq is producing a new corps of master terrorists with an incandescent hatred for the United States."
-- Mark Follman
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/archive.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/06/22/goss_iraq/index.html
OTV...
As far as I'm concerned recruiting at NASCAR should be downright illegal--unless there's been a DRASTIC change since the last time I was there.
Because, when I was there before 9-11, NASCAR was nothing but a bunch of people getting roaring drunk and doing some pretty lewd things. I was there with a troop of kids to earn money and I felt it was absolutely inappropriate to have boy scouts or girl scouts witnessing this drunken orgy.
Now, I 've heard things have changed since 9-11 since people are only allowed to take in small packages and not these big coolers of beer and that they must go back to the car for more brewsky.
BUT, if they are not cold-stone sober, then the military has no business getting a signature on the line.
dw...
I saw that on yahoo too.
A new meaning to the phrase, "Support the troops"
Is this how we support the troops?
Memo to supporters of George W. Bush: Before you slap another red, white and blue magnetic ribbon on the rear end of your SUV, why not take a moment to read a new report from the Marine Corps' inspector general? It might give you a whole new sense of what it means to "support the troops" -- and how the current administration isn't doing so.
According to today's Boston Globe, the inspector general finds that U.S. Marines assigned to fight in some of the most dangerous parts of Iraq haven't been provided the weapons, communications gear or vehicles they need. The inspector general says that "all" Marine units currently fighting in Iraq "require ground equipment that exceeds" what they've got, "particularly in mobility, engineering, communications and heavy weapons."
The Humvee problem is apparently particularly acute. According to the Globe, the inspector general found that a quarter of the Humvees assigned to the Second Marine Expeditionary Force lack the armor needed to protect against roadside bombs. And the Humvees that have been retrofitted with armor are wearing out faster than they should because they weren't designed to carry so much weight.
But it's not just Humvees. The Globe says that the inspector general found that all -- all -- of the tanks the Marines are using in Iraq have "passed the normal criteria for replacing them." The Marines need more .50-caliber machine guns, more M240G machine guns, more MK19 machine guns and more and better communications equipment, too, the inspector general found.
The report will be the subject of a House Armed Services Committee hearing today, but its contents are probably old news for parents of some Marines -- people who have come to understand that "supporting the troops" sometimes means ponying up the money themselves for military equipment their kids will need in Iraq.
The Arizona Republic told the story of one such Marine family over the weekend: As Marine Pfc. Jeremy Tod prepared to ship out to Iraq recently, he called home to tell his folks that his superiors were urging him and his fellow Marines to buy their own armor-plated flak jackets, knee and elbow pads, special ballistic goggles, a "drop pouch" to hold ammunition, a load-bearing vest and a Camelbak water carrier. "We're supposed to have a professional army, the best in the world," Tod's father told the newspaper. "And we're not providing them with the type of gear they need to protect themselves as they do their jobs."
-- Tim Grieve
[08:54 EDT, June 21, 2005]
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/archive.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/06/21/marines/index.html
There is an important business story today about the Chinese National Oil Company attempting to purchase Unocal away from a bid by Chevron. I am generally against foreign governments controlling our corporations and espceially our energy business; especially when our economy is so fragile, seemingly moving on every uptick of oil prices. Are there others here interested in discussing what I believe to be an important national security issue.
O'Reily said that the FBI should be sent over to Air America and arrest their whole staff b/c they are undermining the war on terrorism. While I generally had a problem with Durbin's linkage to fascism, it is these kinds of comments from the right that make me want to pause and think that maybe he (Durbin) was correct.
Casey is there someway we can start cataloging these right wing comments including Rove's comments to the New York Republican party last night calling Dems traitors? While Lakoff warned us not to repeat the other side's message it is impt that I report these insane comments here to give us verbal amunition to the over the line comments by the right. Hopefully others here understand why I am doing that, including you Suz.
A sniper school? And the right accuses us of undermining the war on terrorism. Since when is it OK for our Republican politicans like DeLay to be supporting sniper schools anywhere? That is truly disgusting.
Panel Says Abramoff Laundered Tribal Funds
Lobbyist Jack Abramoff used money from a Mississippi tribal client to set up bogus Christian anti-gambling groups and to fund pet projects including gear for a "sniper school" in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to documents released by Senate investigators.
Chafee in lockstep with the Bush political machine. Its music to my ears and hopefully will be used by the Rhode Island Democratic party against Chafee in the next elections cycle. I hope that their cameras are rolling at this Bush fund raising dinner for Chafee.
"Some of President Bush's biggest donors are hosting an event next week for Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), a centrist Republican who has frequently opposed Bush's top priorities," reports The Hill's Jonathan Kaplan.
"Signaling that the White House is solidly behind Chafee's candidacy, Andrew Card, Bush's chief of staff, also will be on hand at the Charlie Palmer steakhouse Monday evening to help raise $50,000."
Just an FYI from the IRC on possible resignation of Rehnquist from Supreme Court
[11:45] (v***): I just wanted to come back in today and talk somemore about the statment that I made in here yesterday
[11:46] (v***): Yesterday I said that dembloggers.com was reporting that it was being reported on the web that Rehnquist has resigned
[11:46] (dwahzon): yes?
[11:46] (v***): Well folks it appears that it is beginning to get confirmed that Rehnquist has indeed resigned
[11:46] (dwahzon): who's confirming
[11:47] (v***): But it will not be announced until the end of the session which ends next week
[11:47] (v***): It's not for sure yet
[11:47] (v***): But it appears to be so
[11:48] (v***): I was watching the Senate debate and all of a sudden ALL of the Senators are talking about the need for this president to talk to the Senate before making a recommendation
[11:49] (v***): Also the Supreme Court is also on the news more and that is always a sign that something is about to happen
[11:49] (v***): I am not sure but it appears that we are about to have a fight over the Courts that we have not seen in more than 20 years
[11:50] (v***): Anywho I really do have to go but I wanted to stop in and let you all know what is being reported on cites like dembloggers.com
Our family values Governor Goodhair's comment yesterday to the Houston media, "Adios Mo Fo", received absolutely no additional media coverage by our newpapers or tv stations. Ah, Republican family values.
Tami Drake | Something's Fishy about U.S. Silence on Japan's Whaling
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0622-20.htm
Posted by: NonnyO at June 23, 2005 08:24 AM
Nonny, Japan under Junichiro Koizumi has been getting too many free rides from BushCo lately. They see eye-to-eye; Japan's rising conservatism and militarism, as evidenced by Koizumi's honoring of the Japanese WWII criminals as heroes, goes hand in hand with the American neocon ideology. Militarism and imperialism are in the future for both BushCo and Koizumi. They are allies made for each other.
Japan's neighbors, especially China, are not going to sit still over this. Especially when the Japanese militarists are rewriting the history textbooks to glorify Japan's harsh colonial rule of much of Asia.
This is so out of line that even the Japanese-Americans are up in arms. Strangely, the Korean-American neocons are supporting this Bush-Koizumi alliance even though their home country was probably the worst victim of Japanese imperialism.
O'Reily said that the FBI should be sent over to Air America and arrest their whole staff b/c they are undermining the war on terrorism.
Posted by: Ira at June 23, 2005 11:08 AM
I hope O'Reilly and BushCo realize that it is THEY, not Osama, who are the worst terrorists on the face of the earth. And we should not be afraid to say it.
Harry Reid's statement on Rove's Speech:
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/06/senator-reid-says-karl-rove-must.html
[Communist China owns more & more of our treasury bonds, financing our national debt....now they're making bold moves to buy American corporations....a couple of months ago it was IBM, then Maytag, now its Big Oil, no less....China wants, needs those oil pipelines....when will the sheeple wake up & smell the coffee, America's future is for sale:
China Oil Company Bids $18.5B for Unocal
By JOE McDONALD, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 57 minutes ago
BEIJING - China's third-largest oil producer made a hostile $18.5 billion bid Thursday for U.S. oil company Unocal Corp., marking the communist nation's most ambitious attempt yet to acquire a Western corporation and setting up a possible showdown with American politicians over national security issues.
The purchase by state-owned CNOOC Ltd., if completed, would be the biggest yet in a multibillion-dollar wave of foreign acquisitions by Chinese companies trying to secure a place as global competitors.
It comes amid a flurry of foreign oil and gas deals by China as its government, facing stagnant production at home, tries to secure energy abroad for its booming economy, already the world's third-biggest oil importer behind Japan and the United States.
The offer sets the stage for a possible takeover battle with Chevron Corp., reflecting China's new willingness to adopt Wall Street's more aggressive tactics. Chevron had offered to buy Unocal for a lower price of $16.6 billion — a proposal that Unocal's board already had accepted. Until recently, hostile takeovers by Chinese companies abroad were almost unheard of.
continue~ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050623/ap_on_bi_ge/unocal
Ira,
I saw a list going on Democratic Underground. (A list of all right winged nazi references.)
Vic:
Love this part!
"When it comes to standing up to terrorists, there are no Republicans or Democrats, only Americans. The Administration should be focused on uniting Americans behind our troops and providing them a strategy for success in the war on terror and the conflict in Iraq. I hope the president will join me in repudiating these remarks and urge Mr. Rove to take appropriate action to right this terrible wrong.'”
Absolutely...
Rove can pretend all day that it's somebody else's fault that the war in Iraq is a complete failure...
But the reality is that the "leadership" of Rove and Shrub has led to what is now being flat out called a disaster.
Good work, Karl. Genius my ass...
suz: I think that folks here know that I think all of those references should be out of bounds by both sides and don't help persuade those folks we want to reach of the honesty of our positions.Those references just cause white noise.
My earlier post deals with O'Reily's latest rant about using the FBI to arrest Air America broadcast and Rove' ugly comments to the New York Republican party last night. They need a strong response b/c their references are dangerous and unAmerican.
My feeling Suz is that we need to immediately attack those types of comments and that we should come to the table with the legal concept of Clean Hands, i.e. show that we are above such comments.
I think that the electorate would be glad to rid the political discourse of O'Riley, Rove, Frist's, DeLay's and Santorum's incidiary comments b/c Americans are just sick to death of that garbage. It is my view that the other side wants to use that language to avoid dealing with issues that effect our day to day lives. Issues like healthcare instead of flag burning and calling the other side nazis. I just think we are better served by staying out of the gutter and appealing to the better angels in us. Not shying away from a response. But responding clearly, effectively, but with class.
A better response might be to just call their comments unAmerican and reminding folks that the days of Joe McCarthy were supposed to be behind us 46 years ago.
from CBS news:
Rove Slammed For 9/11 Comments
WASHINGTON, June 23, 2005
"Karl Rove should immediately and fully apologize for his remarks or he should resign. I hope the president will join me in repudiating these remarks."
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
(AP) White House adviser Karl Rove should either apologize or resign for saying liberals responded to the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes by wanting to "prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers," Democrats said Thursday.
Adding to the rancor, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., suggested that Republican charges that Democrats were undermining the war on terror with their criticism of administration policies amounted to an act of desperation.
"The president wanted to go to Iraq in the worst possible way and he did," Pelosi said. "The president is on the ropes."
President Bush's chief political adviser, Rove said in a speech Wednesday that "liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." Conservatives, he told the New York state Conservative Party just a few miles north of Ground Zero, "saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war."
Rove said the Democratic Party made the mistake of calling for "moderation and restraint" after the terrorist attacks.
Democrats were quick to respond — and in growing numbers.
"Karl Rove should immediately and fully apologize for his remarks or he should resign," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a statement. "I hope the president will join me in repudiating these remarks."
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean called on Mr. Bush to "show some leadership and unequivocally repudiate Rove's divisive and damaging political rhetoric."
The White House defended Rove's remarks and accused Democrats of engaging in partisan attacks. Rove, said spokesman Scott McClellan, "was talking about the different philosophies and our different approaches when it comes to winning the war on terrorism."
snip~
During a Senate hearing on Iraq in which Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other military leaders testified, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., read Rove's statement and urged them to reject the remarks.
"I would hope that you and other members of the administration would immediately repudiate such an insulting comment from a high-ranking official in the president's inner circle," Clinton said.
Earlier in the day, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said New York has had unity since Sept. 11. "To inject politics into this and to defame a large number of people" is outrageous, he said. "It's not what New York and America is all about."
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said nearly 3,000 Americans died on Sept. 11 and "we should not dishonor their memory by using that tragic day for political trash talk."
continue~
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/06/23/politics/main703771.shtml
Ira,
I'm sorry. I must have misunderstood your comment. To excuse myself, my head is fuzzy and I'm on pain meds. But your list sounds like a good idea. But I prefer it be for both parties because there are certain comments that hurt all of us--as Americans.
also on CNN:
Democrats: Rove should apologize or resign
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/06/23/rove.speech.ap/index.html
Ira,
I think you're thinking we need to be the firm, strict father figure above the tawdry dramatic language being used.
And you're trying to say we can be firm but still try to unite all of us as Americans, instead of escalating the vile angry words.
Am I misunderstanding?
Dems need to keep making noise!! Lots of it! grab the pots and pans.
How bout this to Mr. McClellan: Is this the administration's idea of 'winning' the war on terror?
Here's one for Bush: If your administration spent half the time on Iraq that you spend bashing your political opponents, the war might be going a lot better than it is.
And one for Herr Karl: The only time 'liberals' have advocated therapy is in the case of Mr. Rove...
Is Iraq becoming 'Terrorism U'?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8330229/
Vic,
That's funny! Grab the pots and pans! I can one up you on that.
Take all the children who no longer will be watching educational shows and give them all pots and pans outside the White House and Congress. Let the children be heard!
Does Karl Rove speak for you? A question to ask your representatives who are Karl's team:
http://www.first-draft.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3540&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
GEE...anybody else noticing the media suddenly agreeing with the "tin foil liberals" who pointed out (in between the excess use of the media's word flip..) exactly that same thing.
EVERYTHING progressives said during the campaign is now "suddenly" true. As if it wasn't true a year ago.
Paaaleeeaaaaase!
Faux is running the same AP story as CBS, with a different header:
Dems Want Retraction From Rove on Sept. 11 Remarks
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,160495,00.html
Suz: hope you didn't eat any of that giant popsicle you reported the other day in New York. When I heard you post that story I thought you might be on meds til I saw it on the evening news.
Hope you feel better but I am glad that you agree that the political discourse right now is in the gutter and hurts us all.My intent was not to raise the nazi discussions here again b/c I am convinced that we step on our own message when we bring it up. The O'Riley and Rove comments need to be put in their place b/c frankly they are truly UnAmerican, which I think is a stronger indictment.
I am focused on '06 and don't want voters to say paux on both sides they are both rotten and just stay home. We know that Santorum and here locally DeLay and Perry will be in the gutter with their campaigns b/c that is the only way they know how to campaign. Heck our governor called the media mo fo and got virtually no attention here by the media. I am just going to start calling it UnAmerican and UnTexans like.
Josh Marshall on Rove's remarks:
"The president and his partner are more concerned with going to war with half the country than they are with war against the country's enemies abroad."
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Just another day trying to avoid the smell of failure that clings to Bush and Co....
Nice try Karl.
just wanted to mention that Zell Miller started the hate speech at the Republican convention, and he has become the star of the right. Then you can throw in the rantings of Ann Coulter on college campuses; she knows who her audience is.
from ThinkProgress:
Does Karl Rove Speak For Bush?
George Bush, 10/26/01:
The elected branches of our government, and both political parties, are united in our resolve to fight and stop and punish those who would do harm to the American people.
Karl Rove, 6/22/05:
Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers. Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war.
Bush should be asked to explain this difference in opinion.
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/06/23/does-karl-rove-speak-for-bush/
http://news.yahoo.com/s/washpost/20050623/tc_washpost/pentagon_creating_student_database
Pentagon Creating Student Database
suz you put it better than me saying we should be the strict father figure and not escalate the war of words. The question is whether this country really wants to be united. I truly thought that until Nov.
Perhaps today's discussion of language needs to bring us bank to framing and Lakoff. We remember him and hopefully we learned how we can better win the language war. But starting by not being seen as the one's intent on escalalting the war of words is exactly what I meant suz.
Again right now the polling says voters and especailly women voters are leaning 15 months out towards returning Congress to Dems. It would be easy for those folks to just say the heck with both parties and either stay home or vote the status quo b/c they don't see a dime's worth of difference in language. Its early on but lets keep our eyes on the prize like Tom DeLay and Rick Santorum the kings of hate speech.
Supreme Court Rules Cities May Seize Homes
AP - 20 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - A divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses against their will for private development in a decision anxiously awaited in communities where economic growth often is at war with individual property rights. The 5-4 ruling — assailed by dissenting Justice Sanday Day O'Connor as handing "disproportionate influence and power" to the well-heeled in America — was a defeat for some Connecticut residents whose homes are slated for destruction to make room for an office complex.
Marjorie Cohn | Bush & Bolton: The Bully Twins
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/062305Y.shtml
Excerpts:
"George Bush and John Bolton have a symbiotic relationship. They need each other to nail shut the coffin of the United Nations, to make the world safe for US domination."
"If former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter is right about US designs on Iran - the way he called George W. Bush's Iraq charade early on - Bolton as UN ambassador can be expected to pave the way for a US attack on Iran.
Unocal, Maytag, IBM in China's Crosshairs
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/062305Z.shtml
Question: why do Americans vote against their own best interests?
Bush's Empathy Squeeze
Arlie Hochschild
June 23, 2005
Let's consider our political moment through a story. Suppose a chauffeur drives a sleek limousine through the streets of New York, a millionaire in the back seat. Through the window, the millionaire spots a homeless woman and her two children huddling in the cold, sharing a loaf of bread. He orders the chauffeur to stop the car. The chauffeur opens the passenger door for the millionaire, who walks over to the mother and snatches the loaf. He slips back into the car and they drive on, leaving behind an even poorer family and a baffled crowd of sidewalk witnesses. For his part, the chauffeur feels real qualms about what his master has done, because unlike his employer, he has recently known hard times himself. But he drives on nonetheless. Let's call this the Chauffeur's Dilemma.
Absurd as it seems, we are actually witnessing this scene right now. At first blush, we might imagine that this story exaggerates our situation, but let us take a moment to count the loaves of bread that have recently changed hands and those that soon will. Then, let's ask why so many people are letting this happen.
snip~
It's not hard to understand why the millionaire, with the power to satisfy so many desires, might want to claim another's bread. But why does the chauffeur open the door? Why do about half of lower- and middle-income Americans approve of tax cuts that favor the rich and budget cuts that deprive the poor?
snip~
We often hear two explanations for this. First, George W. Bush has deflected public attention from the bread transfer at home to political enemies abroad. Second, Americans have been repeatedly told over the last three decades that the government—military spending aside—is grossly wasteful and hopelessly inefficient. So why not pocket a little money yourself, no matter who gets the lion's share, if it's being wasted anyway?
snip~
In a sense, Bush is exploiting the common man twice over—once by ignoring his own plight and that of the poor and twice by covering it over with military drums and tin-man morality. We really need to turn both things around. But to do that, we need to remind the chauffeur, wherever he is, that it's within his power to stop the car—tax the millionaire, help the homeless and offer new hope to those in between. Otherwise, the deal Bush is brokering between millionaire and chauffeur will impoverish the chauffeur—in his pocketbook and in his soul.
continue here~
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050623/bushs_empathy_squeeze.php
[well worth reading in its entirety]