RESOLUTIONS!

1. PRAY MORE (TO AN UNKNOWN GOD said Steinbeck).
2. BUY MOST OF THE MUSIC OF JETHRO TULL, THE BEATLES & THE ROLLING STONES (Of course with the LYRICS).
3. GET AN EYE EXAMINATION!
4. GET A PHYSICAL (BEFORE THE BIG ONE)!
5. STOP THINKING ABOUT SEX EVERY 30 SECONDS!
6. SAVE MONEY!
7. READ MORE!
8. WRITE MORE!
9. SWEAR LESS!
10. BUY A NEW BED (With Space-Age Comfort!).

IMPEACH! IMPEACH!

Oust top two

"It is time to hold impeachment hearings. How much more should we endure? The top two, Bush and Cheney, need to go."
"First, intelligence was manipulated to win approval to go to war in Iraq. There were no weapons of mass destruction. No link to al-Qaida was confirmed. Uranium sales to Iraq from Africa did not occur. Why? Because it was fabricated by the top two and their associates."
"And now the most egregious act of all is occurring, spying on U.S. citizens without authorization from the court. This is the ultimate of crimes the top two have committed."
"They are certainly setting a bad example to the rest of the world in terms of manifesting ethical democratic principles. Instead, they are exemplifying dictator-like behavior."
Olivia Chavez, El Paso Times, December 28, 2005


Bush was denied wiretaps, bypassed them

WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush decided to skip seeking warrants for international wiretaps because the court was challenging him at an unprecedented rate.

A review of Justice Department reports to Congress by Hearst newspapers shows the 26-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court modified more wiretap requests from the Bush administration than the four previous presidential administrations combined.

The 11-judge court that authorizes FISA wiretaps modified only two search warrant orders out of the 13,102 applications approved over the first 22 years of the court's operation.

But since 2001, the judges have modified 179 of the 5,645 requests for surveillance by the Bush administration, the report said. A total of 173 of those court-ordered "substantive modifications" took place in 2003 and 2004. And, the judges also rejected or deferred at least six requests for warrants during those two years -- the first outright rejection of a wiretap request in the court's history.



"The precedent for Alberto Gonzales' declaration that Bush is the law was Reich Minister of Justice Franz Gurtner, who agreed in a cabinet meeting on 3 July 1934 that "Hitler was the law." Bush's claim that extraordinary powers are necessary for him to be able to defend our country under extraordinary circumstances is identical to Hitler's claim that he was entitled to ignore the rule of law because he was "responsible for the fate of the German nation and thereby the supreme judge of the German people." What is the difference between HItler's claim and the US Department of Defense's claim that President Bush has the right to violate domestic and international laws?"
"America's Moral Crisis, a History of Hitler's Secret Prisons and a Brief on the Illegality of Bush's War", Paul Craig Roberts, CounterPunch, December 28, 2005


"With ruthless logic Higgs (Resurgence of the Warfare State) shreds every claim of the Bush administration and its apologists. Reading Higgs leaves no doubt that the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq was an illegal act based in deception. Under the Nuremberg standard established by the US itself, Bush's invasion is a war crime. Widespread slaughter of the civilian Iraqi population and torture of detainees are also war crimes. In one of his best chapters Higgs destroys the claim that US "smart weapons" are expressions of our morality in warfare because they target only enemy combatants."

"Higgs explains that the accuracy within a few yards of smart weapons is meaningless. The blast, heat, and pressures from the weapons destroys everything within 120 yards of the hit. No one within 365 yards can expect to remain unharmed. Injuries can extend to persons 1000 yards away from the blast. The odds are zero, Higgs writes, that the use of such weapons on towns and cities will not kill and maim large numbers of civilians."

"And they have done so. American forces in Iraq have killed far more Iraqi civilians than they have insurgents. It is safe to say that Iraqis never experienced such terror from Saddam Hussein as they have experienced from the American invasion and occupation."

"Bush claims that his war crimes are justified because they are committed in the name of "freedom and democracy." The entire world rejects this excuse. Sooner or later even Bush's remaining Republican supporters will turn away in shame from the dishonor Bush has brought to America."
"America's Moral Crisis, a History of Hitler's Secret Prisons and A Brief on the Illegality of Bush's War", Paul Craig Roberts, CounterPunch, December 28, 2005



"The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $685 million loan for Iraq on December 24."
" Iraq will not be sovereign or independent in the near future, even if President Bush says so. The country's financial future will instead be dictated by a new colossal economic occupation, complete with ground forces, tanks, foreign military bases and the like-all thanks to the United States, Britain and the IMF."
And of course democracy will never be truly attainable or even really wished for by the IMF and their wealthy investors-the country will just become another playing ground for imperial endeavors and capitalist greed. So much for independence, for no country is truly free and democratic when placed under the boot of the industrialized world. Markets consistently undermine democracy when motivated by self-interests, and Iraqi citizens are not likely to benefit in any real terms under the IMF's new loan package, which will be divvied out over the next 15 months."
"Don't believe for a minute that Iraq will be able to shake off globalism's ravenous greed anytime soon-even if US troops are redeployed. Capitalism's tentacles are now fully attached to Babylon, as if they weren't already, and the oil will be flowing shortly. Even if US troops are redeployed, or god forbid, brought home, the occupation of Iraq will nonetheless continue."
"Let the Drilling Begin: Iraq's IMF Loan", Joshua Frank, CounterPunch, December 28, 2005

CHRISTMAS AT CRAWFORD

"Come on in Dick & Rummy.
Got a fire going, and Laura's cooking the turkey.
It's time for some down-time away from Comealot."
"Our war in Iraq is still a good bet to secure Congress for the GOP in 2006. And if we can just get a stalemate by 2008 we may be able to hold on to the White House."
"Laura, how much longer is that turkey going to cook? It feels like it's been over a week since you put that thing in the oven."

"Well, Dick how's the old ticker these days?"

"Rummy, how's the production of your Tamiflu coming for the pandumic?"

"Oh, hold on fellows. I've got an incoming phone call." (The president picks up an unbugged phone.)
"Hello. Yes, this is Dubya. Who is this? The NSA. Right. Keep the surveillance going. Christmas is no time to take a vacation or let any calls slip by us.
I'll worry about what's legal and what's not legal at a later date."
"All of these liberals are squealing like poked pigs about this war, its torture, the wrong Intel...and now all of this hollering about my electronic surveillance.

I've got this job to protect Americans.
I can't help it if the Consitution gets a little trampled on. I have to protect this country from the terrorists who are fighting to take away our Freedom and kill us all.

It's not popular, but I'm doing all of this for the good of the nation."

"I hear it's time for some turkey, gentlemen. Come on, let's go dig in before the food gets cold."

NOTABLE QUOTES

"In two-and-a-half years Bush has succeeded in creating two new Talibans in Iraq."
Ghassan Attiyah, an Iraqi commentator.


"...There has been nothing in our time like the Bush Administration's obsession with secrecy. It's an old story: the greater the secrecy, the deeper the corruption."
Bill Moyers

"We're seeing clearly now that Bush thought 9/11 gave him license to act like a dictator, or in his own mind, no doubt, like Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War."
Jonathan Alter, Newsweek, 12/19/05

"Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a
court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution."
George W. Bush, April 2004, At a Town Hall meeting in Buffalo

"It is true that [Hussein] systematically concealed those [WMD] programs, and blocked the work of U.N. weapons inspectors. He was given an ultimatum - and he made his choice for war."
George W. Bush

"But it is not true that Hussein blocked the work of U.N. weapons inspectors. In fact, he acquiesced to a U.N. ultimatum and let them back into Iraq in November 2002. Chief inspector Hans Blix said his team was finally given free rein to examine suspected WMD sites, but Bush forced the inspectors to leave so the invasion could proceed."
And...
"Bush continues to discuss al-Qaeda as if it is a powerful international force on par with Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia, when many analysts see it as a fringe organization that was driven out of most Islamic countries, almost to the ends of the earth - or in this case to the mountains of Afghanistan."

"Without doubt, al-Qaeda-inspired terrorists exploited a letdown in U.S. security in 2001 to conduct an extraordinary attack on New York and Washington, but a realistic assessment of its actual clout is important in calibrating a response."

"If al-Qaeda is actually a marginal organization that can be isolated even more by the West adopting a respectful approach to the Muslim world, then Bush's approach of invading Arab countries - and curtailing American liberties - makes no sense, unless Bush's real motives are something else: say, controlling Middle East resources and transforming the United States into a modern one-party state with him or his allies in permanent control."
Robert Parry, The New Madness Of King George, 12/19/05, rense.com

"H.Res.635, asks that the Congress establish a select committee to investigate whether members of the administration made moves to invade Iraq before receiving congressional authorization, manipulated pre-war intelligence, encouraged the use of torture in Iraq and elsewhere, and used their positions to retaliate against critics of the war."
"The select committee would be asked to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment of Bush and Cheney."

"The second resolution, H.Res.636, asks that the Congress to censure the president "for failing to respond to requests for information concerning allegations that he and others in his Administration misled Congress and the American people regarding the decision to go to war in Iraq, misstated and manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification for the war, countenanced torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of persons in Iraq, and permitted inappropriate retaliation against critics of his Administration, for failing to adequately account for specific misstatements he made regarding the war, and for failing to comply with Executive Order 12958." (Executive Order 12958, issued in 1995 by former President Bill Clinton, seeks to promote openness in government by prescribing a uniform system for classifying, safeguarding, and declassifying national security information.)"

"A third resolution, H.Res.637, would censure Cheney for a similar set of complaints."
"The people of this country are waking up to the severity of the lies, crimes, and abuses of power committed by this president and his administration," says Jon Bonifaz, a co-founder of the AfterDowningStreet.org coalition, an alliance of more than100 grassroots groups that has detailed Bush administration wrongdoing and encouraged a Congressional response. Bonifaz, an attorney and the author of the book, Warrior King: The Case for Impeaching George Bush (Nation Books), argues that, "Now is the time to return to the rule of law and to hold those who have defied the Constitution accountable for their actions."

"Bonifaz is right. But it is unlikely that the effort to censure Bush and Cheney, let alone impeach them, will get far without significant organizing around the country. After all, the House is controlled by allies of the president who have displayed no inclination to hold him to account. Indeed, only a few Democrats, such as Conyers, have taken seriously the Constitutional issues raised by the administration's misdeeds."
"Members of Congress in both parties will need to feel a lot of heat if these improtant measures are going to get much traction in this Congress."
John Nichols, Raising the Issue of Impeachment, The Nation [THE ONLINE BEAT], 12/20/05

Stop throwing the Constitution in my face! IT'S JUST A GODDAMNED PIECE OF PAPER!

HE KNOWS WHEN YOU ARE SLEEPING!
HE KNOWS WHEN YOU ARE DREAMING!
HE KNOWS WHEN YOU ARE PEEPING!
HE KNOWS WHEN YOU ARE SCHEMING!
HE KNOWS WHEN YOU ARE EATING!
HE KNOWS WHEN YOU ARE LEAKING!
HE KNOWS WHEN YOU ARE SPEAKING!
HE KNOWS WHAT YOU ARE THINKING!
WHO IS HE?
WRONG!
NOT SANTA CLAUS!
IT'S GEORGE W. BUSH!

BUSH ABSOLUTELY HAS OUR NUMBER

"The NSA has been spying on Americans for decades and Echelon has had the capability to track every communication in real time for at least ten years."

Alex Jones & Paul Joseph Watson, 12/20/05, prisonplanet.com



Mad Plato has just learned that Homeland Security's TIA (or
Terrorist Information Awareness) has been monitoring some recent phone
calls made by Mad Plato.
Words that are inside of TIA's computer database, which indicate
some type of potential terrorist activity, will trigger the computers to
cherry-pick such words out of the air from telephone conversations, and
then store them inside of TIA computers for review and analysis.
Here are some pieces of conversations that have been intercepted by TIA:

"Hi Mad Plato. Boy, the party at Sharon's last week was a real bomb!"

"By the way, Bill, were you planning to fire any rockets this Fourth
of July?"

"Yes, Bill, I'll be heading with Aziz, Mark, and Robin to the retreat
next week."

"Wow! I bet you had a blast in Spain last weekend."

So, citizens, be careful what you say on the telephone. Homeland
Security is listening to you. What you say may reward you with a visit
by an agent of Homeland Security. Wait, I hear a knock at my door right
now...and the phone is ringing. I must go. Goodbye.

THE UNPATRIOTIC ACT

"Yes, we are with Homeland Security and we are going to review your library records.

As an American, you will cooperate with us.

The Patriot Act is now a mighty and holy law.

Nobody is immune to its powers.

Let's see.

Here we have a 12 year-old patron who is reading about Osama bin Laden. She is now under suspicion for supporting terrorism.

Ah ha! Here is a seven-year old reading about camels. She definitely is on our terrorism list!

We will also need a printout of all of your patrons and the books that they have read since 9-11.

If you resist, and say no, we will have to arrest you, and close your library.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Protect the Homeland! VICTORY!"

READING BETWEEN THE LINES

"I see some of the political leaders who are here, and I presume you've invited me to uphold the scholars' end." (This sure beats holdin' up the end of my horse's member.)

"In the war on terror, Iraq is now the central front.." (Gee, that word front makes it sound like I'm hiding something.)

"And as millions of Iraqis prepare to cast their ballots..." (Many more soldiers will prepare to be put into casts.).

"I want to talk today about why we went into Iraq, why we stayed in Iraq, and why we cannot - and will not - leave Iraq until victory is achieved." (Just don't ask me what is meant by victory.)

"We are living through a watershed moment in the story of freedom." (And many thousands have 'drowned'.)

"We saw the destruction terrorists could cause with airplanes loaded with jet fuel - and we imagined the destruction they could cause with even more powerful weapons." (And our imagination was like an LSD trip...and we saw what we needed to see!)

"He [Saddam Hussein] had pursued and used weapons of mass destruction. He sponsored terrorists." (And the United States provided the materials for making those weapons, just as the U.S. sponsored and supported Saddam in his war against Iran.)

"We are in Iraq today because our goal has always been more than the removal of a brutal dictator; it is to leave a free and democratic Iraq in its place." (Along with American military bases and Halliburton.)

"The enemy of freedom in Iraq is a combination of rejectionists and Saddamists and terrorists." (Not just rejects and Sodomists.)

"History has shown that free nations are peaceful nations." (Uhhh...was Germany a free nation? A peaceful nation? Has America's history been peaceful?)

"As we advance the cause of freedom in Iraq, our nation can proceed with confidence because we have done this kind of work before." (In the Phillipines...Nicaragua...Iran...Chile...etc)

"The people of Iraq are now seeing some of the tangible benefits of their new democracy. They see that as freedom advances, their lives are improving." (But water and electricity are not. Reconstruction money is either lost or used to pay for security.)

"And they see that freedom is bringing opportunity and a better life." (Plus more bombs and radiation from Depleted Uranium weapons.)

"As Iraqis stand up, we will stand down. And when victory is achieved, our troops will then come home, with the honor they have earned." (After about 100 years.)

"Most of the debate has been a credit to our democracy, but some have launched irresponsible charges. They say that we act because of oil, that we act in Iraq because of Israel, or because we misled the American people."
(And they're right...huh...huh.)

"These charges are pure politics." (Pure politics? This is an oxymoron!)

"They hurt the morale of our troops." (And highlight the poor morals of our policies.)

"Before this victory comes, we still have a lot of difficult work ahead."
(Rome was not built in a day and the road to hell is paved with good intentions.)

"So we can expect violence to continue." (War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery.)

"We may not know for certain who's won the elections until the early part of January - and that's important for our citizens to understand. It's going to take a while." (Remember my first election.)

"The work ahead will also require continued sacrifice." (Remember the Aztecs.)

JOSE JESUS AND MARIA

This is a story about three illegal Mexican squirrels…Jose, Jesus and Maria.
A hidden microphone was there to record their words during their voyage to America.
Jose: Jesus and Maria, it is sure getting stuffy inside these coat pockets.
Maria: Si.
Jesus: Si.
Jose: I wonder where we are going?
Maria: Maybe Disneyland?
Jesus: Maybe the Holy Land…Or the place that’s called the Big Apple.
Jose: Don't mention food. I'm starving!
Maria: Yes, me too.
Jesus: If I had a fish and some bread I’d make enough for all of us.
Jose: Oh, come on Jesus, don't play that game again.
Maria: Right. You aren't the messiah you think you are. You’re just another rodent.
Jesus: O.K. I know I've got some hang ups, but getting hanged isn't one of them.
Jose: Oh, now he's the comedian.
Maria: Hey, be quiet. I hear something.
Jose: Yeah, I do too.
Jesus: I think we're at the border crossing. Quick! Deeper into the pockets!
Immigration Official: Hello, sir. Your nationality?
Man: Mexican.
Immigration Official: Anything to declare?
Man: Yes. I have three striped squirrels.
Immigration Official: What is the purpose of their visit?
Man: Jose and Maria are going to Disneyland.
Jesus wants to visit the Holy Land and your Big Apple.
Immigration Official: My Big Apple? Oh, you mean New York.
Man: Si.
Immigration Official: O.K. Welcome to the United States.
Jose, Jesus and Maria: Gee, that was a breeze. Why?
Man: You forgot. I’m God.

KING KONG AND COMPLETE VICTORY

Newspaper Marks 1000 Days of Iraq War with Key Stats

By E&P Staff
Published: December 13, 2005 10:30 AM ET

To mark what it called the "1000 Days" of the Iraq war, the London daily The Independent offered extensive coverage today, featuring a by-the-numbers approach.

Here are some of their calculations:
$204.4 billion: The cost to the U.S of the war so far.
2,339: Allied troops killed
15,955: US troops wounded in action
98: U.K troops killed
30,000 : Estimated Iraqi civilian deaths
0: Number of WMDs found
66: Journalists killed in Iraq.
63: Journalists killed during Vietnam war
8: per cent of Iraqi children suffering acute malnutrition
53,470: Iraqi insurgents killed
67: per cent Iraqis who feel less secure because of occupation
$343: Average monthly salary for an Iraqi soldier. Average monthly salary for an American soldier in Iraq: $4,160.75
5: foreign civilians kidnapped per month
47: per cent Iraqis who never have enough electricity
20: casualties per month from unexploded mines
25-40: per cent Estimated unemployment rate, Nov 2005
251: Foreigners kidnapped
70: per cent of Iraqi's whose sewage system rarely works
183,000: British and American troops are still in action in Iraq.
13,000: from other nations
90: Daily attacks by insurgents in Nov '05. In Jun '03: 8
60-80: per cent Iraqis who are "strongly opposed" to presence of coalition troops

"In an accompanying piece from Baghdad, the newspaper's Patrick Cockburn adds one more stat: A BBC poll yesterday showed that half of the Iraqis questioned say that Iraq needs a strong leader--while only 28 per cent cited democracy as a priority."
"Iraqis are cynical about their political leaders," Cockburn writes. "The election results are likely to show that the great majority of Iraqis will vote along ethnic or religious lines as Shia, Sunni or Kurds. The country is turning from a unitary state into a confederation."
"There is no sign yet of the thousand-day war ending. Every month up to a thousand fresh corpses arrive at the mortuary in Baghdad. A new Iraq is emerging but it is already drenched in blood."
E&P Staff (letters@editorandpublisher.com)

I AM NOT IN A BUBBLE

“I am not in a bubble.
There is progress in Iraq.
I am not in a bubble.
Freedom is coming to Iraq.
I am not in a bubble.
We are winning in Iraq.
I am not in a bubble.
I am informed.
Victory is on its way.
I believe in Santa Claus.
I am informed.
I am not in a bubble.
Whoa…Nelly! Why am I rising into the sky?”

NO CLEMENCY FROM THE TERMINATOR!

As your governor and as THE TERMINATOR, I shall not sign any paper that saves Stanley Tookie Williams.
I will not commute his sentence TO DIE.
He's going to bite the dust!
Hasta La Vista, baby.
I am an eye for eye guy and tooth for a tooth fellow.
No girlie man is in THE TERMINATOR.
Now I must go press some flesh.
Thank you.
I'll be back!

GEORGE W. BUSH'S POLL NUMBERS

(Smirking) "Yeah. Alright. Good.
My Economy is robust.
My poll's (numbers) rising.
I'm back in the saddle!
My hand's on the wheel!
The good economic news might take the public's attention off of ‘I-WRecK (Iraq)’.
Anyway, it's almost Chri...Oops! I can't say the "C" word.
I don't want to upset the "suckular" folks out there.
So I'll just say "Happy holidays and Sinner's...I mean...Season's greetings!"
Now I have to get ready to do some relaxin' at Crawford.
Got bowls of pretzels to eat and Bowl games to watch!
Bring ‘em on!
Let's Roll!"

I AM SADDAM HUSSEIN!

"I am Saddam Hussein!
Allah is Great!
I am Saddam Hussein!
Allah is Great!
I demand Justice!
Allah is Great!
Get me some Doritos and a Big Mac!
I am Saddam!
I am Hussein!
Allah is Great!
Get me some Doritos and a Whopper!
Allah is Great!
Get me some clean underwear!
Make them Boxer!
Then I will certainly Swear!
To tell the Truth!
The Whole Truth!
And nothing but the Truth!
So help me Allah!
I am Saddam Hussein!
Allah is Great!

9-11 COMMISSION REPORT CARD

"We believe that the terrorists will strike again. So does every responsible expert that we have talked to. And if they do, and these reforms that might have prevented such an attack have not been implemented, what will our excuse be?" said the Thomas Kean, chairman of the panel.
"He said the terrorists were learning and adapting, and that the US government "is still moving at a crawl."
"The privately funded successor group known as the 9/11 Public Discourse Project to the original commission, which was set up by the Congress in 2002 and was disbanded after issuing its recommendations in July 2004, was issuing its "report card" on how successfully the commission's recommendations have been implemented."
"The panel gave the government an "F" on homeland security spending for cities most at risk, on improving radio communication for emergency agencies and on airline passenger prescreening."
"He said it was scandalous that first responders did not have adequate communications equipment and that airline passengers were not fully screened against terrorist lists."
"We're frustrated, all of us -- frustrated at the lack of urgency in addressing these various problems," he said.


The House of Bush is failing the Homeland.
Bush has failed in Iraq (so far).
And now Bush has failed in the United States.
There was Katrina, and now there's this 9-11 COMMISSION report card that has given Bush a big, fat F on changes and improvements for securing and protecting the United States from THE TERRORISTS!
Huh? What the hell is going on here?
Where is protection for the Homeland?
Where is the protection of OUR Freedom, Democracy and Liberty?
And so much for the grandiose title of the Patriot Act:
Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism!
How serious is Bush about TERRORISM if he and his cabal are not securing THE HOMELAND!
What Hypocrisy!
What a big, fat fraud and farce!
This should not stand!
After lingering questions about whether the Bush cabal (wanted to) or could have prevented 9-11, one now has to wonder how serious the same cabal is about really securing and protecting this nation.
Does the cabal wish for another (bigger?) attack in America to justify its continuing beheading of the U.S. Constitution and its robbery of the U.S. Treasury by feeding the voracious belly of the Pentagon. You know...the Military-Industrial (psychopathic) Complex?
Glib cliches about spreading democracy and achieving total victory ring very hollow.
And the voting American public smells the stink of this dangerous and uncaring flimflammery.
Now, more than ever, Bush and his gang members need to be investigated:

1. On 9-11: How this administration ignored the hints and Intel warnings.

2. The Intel that this cabal forged, fabricated and foisted upon the United States Congress, the World and the American public in order to fund and receive approval for its PRE-EMPTIVE WAR on Iraq.

IF READERS WANT TO ADD ANYTHING TO AN INVESTIGATION, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.



"The US military, not al Qaeda, had the sustained access weeks before 9/11 to also plant controlled demolition charges throughout the superstructures of WTC 1 and WTC2, and in WTC7, which brought down all three buildings on 9/11. ... A US military plane, not one piloted by al Qaeda, performed the highly skilled, high−speed 270−degree dive towards the Pentagon that Air Traffic Controllers on 9/11 were sure was a military plane as they watched it on their screens. Only a military aircraft, not a civilian plane flown by al Qaeda, would have given off the "Friendly" signal needed to disable the Pentagon’s anti−aircraft missile batteries as it approached the building. Only the US military, not al Qaeda, had the ability to break all of its Standard Operating Procedures to paralyze its own emergency response system."
Barbara Honegger

[Senior Military Affairs Journalist at the Naval Postgraduate School, the Navy’s advanced science, technology and national security affairs university 1995 to the present. White House Policy Analyst and Special Assistant to the Assistant to President Ronald Reagan 1981-83].

NEW AIRPORT SECURITY

O.K. Your dissecting kit can go on board.
You may also bring your nail clippers and small scissors.
No, you may not bring those box cutters! That's what the 9-11 hijackers used.
The ax and flamethrower are O.K. But again, get rid of those boxcutters.
Please take off your shoes and remove your socks.
On the other hand, leave the socks on, and buy some foot powder ASAP.
Next.
O.K. the jackhammer can come on board.
No, no...leave the boxcutters.
Next...

NOTABLE QUOTES ON THE IRAQ WAR

“The terrorists regard Iraq as the central front in their war against humanity. . .If they’re not stopped, the terrorists will be able to advance their agenda to develop weapons of mass destruction, to destroy Israel, to intimidate Europe, and to break our will and blackmail our government into isolation. I’m going to make you this commitment: this is not going to happen on my watch.”
George W. Bush, Osan Air Force base, South Korea, November 19, 2005


"If the United States can foster the development of a sufficiently stable
political system in Iraq, and if it can help train, equip, and support military
and police forces to defend that system, then American policy has a chance of
succeeding. The United States can pull its own troops out of Iraq, knowing that
it has left something sustainable behind. But if neither of those goals is
realistic - if Iraqi politics remains chaotic and the Iraqi military remains
overwhelmed by the insurgent threat - then the American strategy as a whole is
doomed." "WHY IRAQ HAS NO ARMY", James Fallows, Atlantic, Vol. 296, Issue 5, December 2005


"The war has already cost the United States an estimated $251 billion. Each day an estimated $195 million is being spent--money that could provide twelve meals to every starving child in the world, according to Senator Ted Kennedy's office."
"The Iraq Index", John S. Friedman, The Nation, 12-19-05


"The American air war inside Iraq today is perhaps the most significant—and underreported—aspect of the fight against the insurgency. The military authorities in Baghdad and Washington do not provide the press with a daily accounting of missions that Air Force, Navy, and Marine units fly or of the tonnage they drop, as was routinely done during the Vietnam War. One insight into the scope of the bombing in Iraq was supplied by the Marine Corps during the height of the siege of Falluja in the fall of 2004. “With a massive Marine air and ground offensive under way,” a Marine press release said, “Marine close air support continues to put high-tech steel on target. . . . Flying missions day and night for weeks, the fixed wing aircraft of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing are ensuring battlefield success on the front line.” Since the beginning of the war, the press release said, the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing alone had dropped more than five hundred thousand tons of ordnance. “This number is likely to be much higher by the end of operations,” Major Mike Sexton said. In the battle for the city, more than seven hundred Americans were killed or wounded; U.S. officials did not release estimates of civilian dead, but press reports at the time told of women and children killed in the bombardments."

"On the current course we will have two options," I was told by a Marine
lieutenant colonel who had recently served in Iraq and who prefers to remain
anonymous. "We can lose in Iraq and destroy our army, or we can just lose."
"The officer went on to say that of course neither option was acceptable, which
is why he thought it so urgent to change course. By "destroy our army" he meant
that it would take years for the U.S. military to recover from the strain on
manpower, equipment, and - most of all - morale that staying in Iraq would put
on it. (Retired Army General Barry McCaffrey had this danger in mind when he
told Time magazine last winter that "the Army's wheels are going to come off in
the next twenty-four months" if it remained in Iraq.) "Losing" in Iraq would
mean failing to overcome the violent insurgency. A continuing insurgency would,
in the view of the officer I spoke with, sooner or later mean the country's
fracture in a bloody civil war. That, in turn, would mean the emergence of a
central "Sunni-stan" more actively hostile to the United States than Saddam
Hussein's Iraq ever was, which could in the next decade be what the Taliban of
Afghanistan was in the 1990s: a haven for al-Qaeda and related terrorists. "In
Vietnam we just lost," the officer said. "This would be losing with
consequences."
"UP IN THE AIR: Where is the war in Iraq headed next?", Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker, 11-28-2005

BUSHSPEAK

My Big Morass is getting Bigger, but I will fight to the finish until there is Total Victory in Iraq (or at least until the GOP wins in 2006).
As long as I am your Commander-in-Chief I will continue to support and sacrifice our soldiers (and alienate and antagonize the Iraqi people).
I will prevail whether Iraqis and my liberal opponents like it or not.
I shall not Cut and Run from the Oil and Reconstruction Contracts of my friends.
I will stay the course.
I’ll stay on my horse.
Someday Iraq will have plenty of Water and Electricity, but not until America has destroyed all of its Enemies there.
Cut the Timber!
Clear the Brush!
Flush out the armadillos!
Then let Democracy bloom along the Tigris and Euphrates!

BUSH RAP

"Victory! Victory! No retreat!
Stay the course! Smoke 'em out!
Whip my horse! Bomb the enemy!
Kill the terrorists there
so we don't have to here!
No torture unless we have to!
No cut and run!
Stay the course!
Kill the enemy!
Stop the insurgents!
Listen to my generals!
Stand down when they stand up!
Democracy through force!
War is peace!
Freedom is slavery!
Love is Hate!
Victory! Victory! No retreat”

BUSH IN EL PASO

"Hello El Paso!
I'm here on a quick stop.
Can't stay long.
I fought the law and the law won.
Got to get back to the White House...or am I still on vacation at Crawford? Well, anyway, I'm here in El Paso to secure the border and spread more freedom.
Sure like your Mexican food. I like to think outside of the bun, too.
Well, time to get back on my big jet airplane...time keeps on slippin' into the future...Adios and keep grillin' those beans!"

FOREKNOWLEDGE OF 9-11?

"9/11 ushered in an era of permanent war, rule-by-fear, illegal torture, and indefinite detentions-all justified by an attack that the Bush Administration claimed was a complete surprise. But as publisher of the critical Bush biography Fortunate Son, Sander Hicks had a unique position from which to cast a hard look at the official story around the attacks. With original research and interviews, his new book, The Big Wedding: 9/11, the Whistle-Blowers and the Cover-Up, provides a new level of proof that Bush's advisors had detailed foreknowledge of 9/11. The Big Wedding examines the CIA's controlling, client relationship with Pakistani intelligence, who had close, documented, under-reported links to the 9/11 terrorists. In Big Wedding, Hicks hits the road and in Florida, finds FBI whistle-blower Randy Glass, who documents how the FBI was warned by Pakistani intelligence three years before the attacks." "Michael Chertoff: Defender of Terror", Sander Hicks, Paranoia The Conspiracy Reader

"9-11 was indeed an inside job, and perpetrated by the greatest and most despicable international gangsters and mass-murderers that have ever taken over any nation in all of Mankind's torrid history." Theodore E. Lang

NOTABLE QUOTES

"A precipitous withdrawal from Iraq would be a victory for the terrorists, an invitation to further violence against free nations and a terrible blow to the future security of the US."
DicK Cheney, In a speech at the American Enterprise Insitute, Monday, November 21, 2005

"The first thing you do is bring the troops home. And you don’t listen to anyone who says: "We can’t do that now. We knocked their countries down and now must put them back up again. We knocked them down with our tax dollars, and with our tax dollars we must rebuild them — our sort of urban renewal."

"None of that! We go. They want us out of there — the longer we stay, the more they’re going to kill us, and the more they will be killed. And the more outrages they will perpetrate on us here at home. Get out. No more adventures. Forget about our friends in the Middle East who want us to attack Iran and Syria. Forget them. Tell them to get lost. Cut the Pentagon budget by 50 percent. That’ll give you enough money to properly educate the people so they will know their own history, and when a bunch of thugs come along proposing to fleece the taxpayer — they will recognize them, because they will know about them from past history."
Gore Vidal, columns, November 4-11, 2004, LAWEEKLY

"What’s the bottom line of what Bush is saying now? That we are now in Iraq and have to stay the course because … the terrorists want us there. As the White House transcript puts it, “Our goal is to defeat the terrorists and their allies at the heart of their power, so we will defeat the enemy in Iraq.” But-the terrorists we’re fighting now didn’t have any power in Iraq until our invasion." Christopher Dickey, "The Terrorist Temptation", Newsweek, November 17, 2005

"Time Magazine asked if it troubled him that he had been initiated into the Society when he was a young man. President Bush responded, "No qualms at all. I was honored." Inevitably some people, knowing the Skull and Bones reputation of blasphemy, were surprised that the President said he was "honored." Others, particularly Christians defended him saying, in effect, "Let's put this aside. He was forgiven of that when he accepted Christ." The disturbing fact, however, is that President Bush's statement came many years after he announced he had accepted Jesus as his Lord and Saviour."

"In 1924 Prescott Bush became manager of the United Steel Works of the Union Banking Corporation that was seized in October, 1942, by the U.S. government. Prescott was charged with "running Nazi-funded groups in the United States." He was involved in the use of slave-labor in Southern Poland, and Congressional investigators found that United Steel Works supplied 50.8 percent of the pig iron needed by the Nazi war machine.
Ten years later he was elected U.S. Senator from Connecticut."

"George (Senior), in the 1980s, was involved in arming Iran in its bloody war against our then ally Iraq. (The United States, I have also painfully learned, armed Saddam Hussein against Iraq,including providing him ingredients for chemical warfare. Among other reasons there was a great deal of money to be made arming both sides of such a war by companies that were financially supporting the election campaigns of the Reagan and Bush administrations.)"

"Prescott Bush was involved with Union Banking, while George W. (Junior), I discovered in my researches, was involved with the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, partially owned by Osama bin Laden's ber-in-law Khalid bin Malfouz . Bank of Credit was called by the U.S. Senate "one of the largest criminal enterprises in history." Before September 11, 2001, Malfouz was identified as a major supporter of bin Laden's Jihad. George W. Bush's business relations with the bin Laden's go back to the 1970s, when Mr. Malfouz arranged a sweetheart loan of $25 million to bail out of the troubles of his failing oil business."
"Is the President's Soul in Jeopardy?", Lewis Alper, counterpunch, November 26-27, 2005

**C* OFF!

It has been revealed that for the past five years John Cheney has been telling the American people the very same thing that he told Senator Patrick Leahy.

It is a sad and shocking

revelation,

but it is one that all citizens need to face… or rather avoid.

NOTABLE NEWS

Teen's Mannequin Love-In

"A teenager has been charged with indecent exposure after he was caught trying to have sex with a female mannequin on display at an arts centre" in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
"Security guards found Michael Plentyhorse, 18, sprawled with the dummy on the floor with his trousers and pants down."
"Police spokesman Loren McManus said: "There was inappropriate activity between him and the mannequin."
"If convicted, Plentyhorse may be registered as a sex offender."
[SKYNEWS, November 21, 2005]


THE NEW BUDDHA

"Thousands of pilgrims are pouring into the dense jungle of southern Nepal to worship a 15-year-old boy who has been hailed as a new Buddha."
"Devotees claim that Ram Bomjon, who is silently meditating beneath a tree, has not eaten or drunk anything since he sat down at his chosen spot six months ago."
"Ram Bomjon maintains his vigil in the shade of his pipal tree."
"Witnesses say they have seen light emanating from the teenager's forehead."
"It looks a bit like when you shine a torch through your hand," said Tek Bahadur Lama, a member of the committee responsible for dealing with the growing number of visitors from India and elsewhere in Nepal."
[news.telegraph, November 22, 2005]

THE REPREHENSIBLE ORAL CAVITY OF DICK

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." (Dick Cheney, August 26, 2002)

"And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." (Dick Cheney, March 16, 2003)


The oral cavity of Dick Cheney is different today.
Dick has to say so many things out of the two sides of his mouth that it writhes on boths sides now instead of just one.
Dick's oral cavity has expanded.
Dick's defense about the Iraq war is expanding.
But Dick is dodging the ball.
The Downing Street Memo proves that Cheney and Bush wanted to find Intel that would open the doors for their pre-emptive war.
The oral cavity of Dick will continue to open wider and wider, and the American people will continue to recognize "corrupt and shameless" words which attempt to REVISE the facts about how he and the Bush cabal fashioned and interpreted Intel to make the attack and occupation of Iraq acceptable and believable.

HUGO CHAVEZ IS A STREET DOG

If Vicente Fox is a puppy of the U.S. empire, then Hugo Chavez is a big and mean street dog.
It is understandable that Chavez does not want the United States to divide and conquer Venezuela's oil industry.
But Chavez, like Cuba's Castro and Iran's current leader, needs to parse his words more carefully: Bush is not always going to be President of the United States, but since he is it is not wise for other leaders and dictators to irritate the hornets within the burning Bush.
And maybe this is exactly what Syria, Cuba, Iran and Venezuela wish.
They want to combine forces against the mad wasps inside the burning Bush.
Look out.
The fire is going to burn for three more years.
George W. Bush does not like to lose or be considered a loser.
This makes things even more dangerous.
Chill out fellows.
Maybe smoke some of that African bush…
And don’t forget to inhale it.

INVERTEBRATES

"Of the million or more animal species in the world, more than 98% are invertebrates. Invertebrates don't have an internal skeleton made of bone. Many invertebrates have a fluid-filled, hydrostatic skeleton, like the jelly fish or worm. Others have a hard outer shell, like insects and crustaceans. There are many types of invertebrates. The most common invertebrates include the protozoa, annelids, echinoderms, mollusks and arthropods." [www.kidport.com]

Dick Cheney and George W. Bush are not spineless worms or spiders.
But both men are becoming more and more like jittery jellyfish.
Both know that the tide against them is rising.
Each is in his attack mode against those who are voicing resistance to their military blunder and human hubris.
We don't need to call George or Dick liars.
But they and their henchmen (and women) hyped and manipulated the Intel.
It isn't that Bush and Cheney don't want THEIR history to be re-written.
They don't want any history to be written about their false, iniquitous, unpardonable, hellish war.
They misled by selecting scary sound bites based on inaccurate Intel which they manipulated so as to woo, cajole, and convince the American people and Congress that to bomb Iraq and its people was the right thing to do.
It was the WRONG thing to do.
But Dick and George don’t want to see the truth in the shattered mirror before them.
The floor is creaking and the foundation is beginning to crack.
This administration only increases its guilt and wrongdoing by slamming those who now oppose their blunders.
It is not just liberals.
It is not just liberal Democrats.
It is not just radical liberals or radical Democrats.
It is the common fury and frustration of Americans who will produce louder and louder sounds of protest in the coming days.
This administration refuses to face its wrongdoings. The saddest part Dick Cheney is that this nation and the world were subjected to your pernicious falsehoods.
And neither the mind’s memory nor the body’s backbone is being lost.
In fact, the memory of these fabricated reasons for this unnecessary Pre-emptive war is making millions and millions of backbones stronger and more willing to call to a halt your Invertebrate warmongering.

WHITE HOUSE ETHICS TRAINING

"Welcome to your first day of Ethics Training.
When you leave today you will feel more ethical.
You will speak and act more ethically.
The President has the greatest confidence that there will be no more ethics' issues.
Our leader believes that sins, even if any were committed, are a thing of the past.
This administration has three more years to...as the President has said...get the job done. As time passes, you will know more about just what this job is. But right now your commander-in-chief wants you to concentrate on your etiquette...I mean your ethics training. Are there any questions?
OK. Let's begin.
Find a hoola-hoop and a party hat.
It's time to twist to some Chubby Checker!"

ODE ON IRAQ

Let Sir Bush
Make the Sign
Of the Cross
For his Iraq war that
Was a double-cross!
Let that big smiling Dick
Inspect his oil-stick!
Get Rumsfeld to go to war
With his crooked arms swinging across
Bloody Radioactive Grass!
Make certain that
Miss Condi Rice
Knows a mushroom
Cloud from her ass!

BUSH PUPPIES

1. Karl Rove
2. Dick Cheney
3. Donald Rumsfeld
4. Condoleeza Rice
5. Ann Coulter
6. Sean Hannity
7. Pat Robertson
8. Bill Bennett
9. Tony Blair
10. Vicente Fox

STOP MANIPULATING HISTORY

You've repeated the same cliche-like admonitions twice in three days.
Your message is ringing hollow with the American people and the world.
The game is up.
You can run but you can't hide.
Like the Wizard of Oz, your true face is now being seen.
The data and information and evidence are going to continue to rise from the abyss in which you and your conmen (and women) hide.
Your Office of Special Plans and WHIG reveal your true lies.
People such as Paul O'Neill, Richard Clarke, Joseph Wilson and others also reveal your true colors.
But your chameleon colors will all change to black when the plethora of misinformation and obfuscation all come to light.
The sad tragedy is that you know what the truth is.
The sad truth is that you know what you did.
The sad reality is that you don’t care.


"The CIA was totally undercut since the day Bush occupied the White House (when) he set up a thing called the WHIG (the White House Iraq Group). Basically it was (also) called the Office of Special Plans and this was a group made up of individuals controlled by Mr. Cheney; (they were) Paul Wolfowitz, Michael Leanen, Richard Perle, John Hannah, people like that".

"They were basically involved in creating or gathering intelligence which that they thought was important, as far as proving the case for the war in Iraq. What we know now is that this Office of Special Plans or this WHIG, never really gathered any intelligence at all about the war in Iraq, (but rather); they MANUFACTURED the evidence for the purpose of taking American boys to their deaths, based on a lie."

"Folks, the evidence in. It is the Office of Special Plans. It was a surreptitious conspiracy to take the American people to war for financial and political reasons."

"George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, with deliberation and intent, took this country to war in Iraq based on false premises, inflated intelligence and bald-faced scare tactics. They used September 11 against their own people to get what they wanted. That is the heart of this matter."

"The Office of Special Plans, or OSP, was created by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld specifically to second-guess and reinterpret intelligence data to justify war in Iraq."

"The OSP was on no government payroll and suffered no Congressional oversight. Their tainted information and interpretations overtopped the Iraq data being provided by the State Department and CIA. The OSP was able to accomplish this thanks to devoted patronage from high-ranking members of the administration, most prominently Vice-President Cheney."

"The highest levels of the OSP were staffed by heavy-hitters like Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith and William Luti, a former Navy officer who worked for Cheney before joining the Pentagon. When the OSP wanted to intimidate analysts into shaping conclusions to fit the already-made war decision, Cheney went to CIA headquarters on unprecedented visits."

THE REAL MAD FLU: S1873

MOUNTAIN VIEWS: FORCED INOCULATIONS BEGINNING OF BUSH'S BAD BIRD FLU PLAN
By John Hanchette

"Last week's column warned of imminent federal legislation that would toss powerful pharmaceutical companies billions of dollars and complete protection from liability suits in case untested and experimental bird flu vaccines damage American recipients. It drew heavy response."

"The bill (S. 1873) -- a big congressional wet kiss to the drug industry -- is dressed up in a noble-sounding title: "Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act."

"In essence, however, it would force Americans to receive inoculations against a disease that has yet to kill one of them, while removing their constitutional right to seek redress in our courts in case of injury or death from the shots because of company negligence. The proposal, now moving its way through the Senate, would also ban citizens from using the Freedom of Information Act and other popular informational laws to discover whether the new vaccine (when it is finally produced) was effective and safe, and even whether anyone had suffered adverse reactions to it."

John Hanchette, a professor of journalism at St. Bonaventure University, is a former editor of the Niagara Gazette and a Pulitzer Prize-winning national correspondent. He was a founding editor of USA Today and was recently named by Gannett as one of the Top 10 reporters of the past 25 years. He can be contacted via e-mail at Hanchette6@aol.com.

[Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com Nov. 1 2005]

NO MORE LIES!

You are wrong again Mr. President.
Your critics do not wish to rewrite history.
They wish to get the history right.
AND SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT!
It is this history that you, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice and others do not want to hear or have revealed.
You want to forget about this nightmare.
But the wolf's clothing has been removed from the sheep.
And the fleece is as white as snow.
The truth is as black as the night.
You want the etiology and history of your PreEmptive War to be silenced.
But history makes a lot of noise when liars lie, especially when the lies are large.
No more pretzels and…no more lies!

ANOTHER SPEECH

"Bush exploited the worldwide horror felt over the 9/11 attacks to justify the Iraq invasion. His outrageous claim, repeated over and over before and after he dragged the nation into an unnecessary war, was never supported by a single piece of credible evidence. The Bush defense of what is arguably the biggest lie ever put over on the American people is that everyone had gotten the intelligence wrong. Not so at the highest level of US intelligence, as DITSUM No. 044-02 so clearly shows. How could the President not have known?"
"Lying with Intelligence", Robert Scheer, The Nation, 11-08-05

Good Mourning.
I am here on this day of remembrance to give thanks to the many who have sacrificed for the good of this nation.
Today, as yesterday, we must remain vigilant and be prepared to do everything we can to preserve the values of democracy and protect the freedom and liberty which have been endowed to us.
My critics want you to believe that my Shock and Awe invasion of Iraq was based upon manipulated intelligence.
No, it was based on the best available (twisted) intel that my neocon handlers could provide.
I bombed Iraq because the Intel (and God) told me that Saddam had to be removed.
This administration and others believed that Iraq possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction (but no mushrooms).
Now, the United States is fighting a war against terrorists (who weren't in Iraq before I bombed it) who want to prevent Iraq from becoming free and democratic.
We must not cave in to those who want the U.S. to cut and run (away from a Vietnam-like debacle).
The greater Middle East is watching (in horror) what the United States is going to do in Iraq. The world is watching (in horror) what I do as your leader. We must not fail now to secure Iraq and remove the insurgents and terrorists (which I created).
As your leader, I will not relent to the peaceniks and Christians who are weak and cynical. This war on terror will be won.
I will continue to keep rolling! I will continue to smoke the devils out!
Thank you and God Bless America!

PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES WILL GET SPECIAL PROTECTION

Americans deserve Protection from a Pandemic Flu Outbreak

"Congress needs to act to protect Americans from the dangers of a pandemic flu outbreak – and the best way to protect Americans from the flu is to produce safe vaccines."

"But the Bush Administration and Members of Congress are using fear of a flu outbreak as an excuse to slip in huge giveaways to the pharmaceutical industry. Proposals being considered would limit the ability of individuals to hold drug companies accountable if they give people unhealthy or deadly vaccines or drugs, even if they commit gross negligence."

"The bill doesn’t just give immunity to a flu vaccine. The legislation would allow the government to add drugs made by their favorite corporations to a list of those that would be protected. You name it, they could add it to the list."

"Even if it’s not related at all, the drugmaker could receive immunity anyway, if the Secretary of Health and Human Services says so. One person would be given the power to give immunity from all liability to any drug company for any drug!"

"What does that mean for ordinary Americans? It means no remedy if you or your loved ones are injured or killed by a bad dose of vaccine -- or by any dangerous drug that’s on the immunity list!"

"For instance, if a drug maker marketed a drug or vaccine that was approved for adults, but caused serious medical problems and even death when used by children, as was the case with heartburn medicine Propulsid, the parents of an injured child would have no way to hold the drug maker accountable.
And if a contaminated batch of an anti-viral treatment caused massive illness and even death, families would be unable to get any remedy."

"Unfortunately, there have been a number of cases where drug companies placed dangerous drugs on the market, putting their bottom line before the health and safety of the public."

"In the most recent example, the vaccine manufacturer Merck continued to market its pain relief drug Vioxx, even as internal company documents showed that corporate officials were aware of the serious problems with the drug. Before Merck pulled Vioxx from the market, as many as 55,000 Americans were killed by heart attacks and strokes caused by the drug, according to congressional testimony by David Graham a scientist with the Food and Drug Administration."

"Tell Congress to put our families' health and safety before pharmaceutical company profits. If they are really interested in protecting the public's safety, they will stand up for safe vaccines, not special protections for the pharmaceutical industry. Tell Congress, no special protections for the pharmaceutical industry!" (From www.peopleoverprofits.org)

BUSH DICK AND TORTURE

"Our country is at war and our government has the obligation to protect the American people. Anything we do to that end, in that effort, any activity we conduct, is within the law." George W. Bush

"Yep, we gotta do whatever it takes to protect the people, my people, the American people.
Dick is big on this torture thing.
This is a different war.
That Geneva Convention is for them old wars.
Now we have murderers and terrorists who want to see Americans die.
Torture is in the eye of the beholder, and I behold evildoers who want to stop peace and democracy from developing in Iraq.
We will stop the insurgents, and we will not torture ourselves on this matter about torture.
If it takes torture to defeat the terrorists and insurgents, then torture it will be.
Dick, you can take your foot out of my mouth now."

NOTABLE QUOTES #4

"According to the Treasury Department, from 1776-2000, the first 224 years of U.S. history, 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a combined $1.01 trillion from foreign governments and financial institutions, but in the past four years alone, the Bush administration borrowed $1.05 trillion."

"The seriousness of this rapid and increasing financial vulnerability of our country can hardly be overstated," said Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.), a leader of the Blue Dog Coalition and member of the House Ways and Means Committee."

"No American political leadership has ever willfully and deliberately mortgaged our country to foreign interests in the manner we have witnessed over the past four years," said Tanner. "If this recklessness is not stopped, I truly believe our economic freedom as American citizens is in great jeopardy."

Melanie Hunter, CNSNews.com, Senior Editor, November 4, 2005

"Seventy-two percent of the public believe oil companies gouged gas prices in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, according to an ABC News poll. Four out of five Americans support a tax on windfall profits to benefit alternative energy sources, the Civil Society Institute recently found. "The polling numbers are so bad for Washington Republicans that there are only two groups less popular than they are right now," the Cato Institute's Jerry Taylor recently told CNBC's Lawrence Kudlow, "Oil companies and mass murderers."

Ari Berman, "Oil Tycoons Grilled on Windfall Profits", The Nation, November 9, 2005

"These days, Americans suspected of no wrongdoing can suddenly find themselves caught up in FBI surveillance operations."
"It's as easy as saying "national security letter."
"Using this little-noticed but potent tool, the FBI can demand, for example, that an Internet provider, bank or phone company turn over records of who you call and e-mail, which websites you visit, how much you spend, where you work, fly and vacation, and much more. No judge has to approve the demand, a common check required on more typical subpoenas.
You'd never learn about the secret intrusion, either. It's all classified." USA Today, November 9, 2005

NOTABLE QUOTES #3

"Topless women holding a protest may be ho-hum in San Francisco, but at the state Capitol, police say such a display could corrupt children, prompt drivers to veer off the road and cause sex offenders to run amok."

"The California Highway Patrol has warned members of an organization called Breasts Not Bombs that if they dare to take their shirts off during a protest scheduled at the Capitol on Monday, they will be arrested and possibly forced to register with the state as sex offenders."

"If Topless, They'll Be Busted", Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times, November 5, 2005


"I understand the preoccupation with polls," he said. "The way you build credibility with the American people is to set a clear agenda ... and get the job done. And the agenda I am working now is important to the American people." George W. Bush


"The Senate Intelligence Committee is fine-tuning the details of a bill that will allow the FBI to secretly procure any of your personal records without "probable cause" or a court order giving them "unchecked authority to pry into personal and business matters"? (New York Times, "Republicans seek to widen FBI Powers, 10-19-05)

"On June 29, President Bush put "a broad swath of the FBI"
under his direct control by creating the National Security Service (aka; the "New SS")? This is the first time we've had a "secret police" in our 200 year history. It will be run exclusively by the president and beyond the range of congressional oversight."

"Within 2 years every American license and passport will be made according to federal uniform standards including microchips (with biometric information) that will allow the government to trace every movement of its citizens"

"The cloak of disinformation and diversion has successfully obscured the perils of our present course. Freedom is no longer guaranteed in Bush's America nor is liberty everyman's birthright. The rickety scaffolding that supports the rule of law has been replaced by the unbridled authority of the supreme presidency. The country is slipping inexorably towards the Orwellian nightmare; the National Security State."

"America Drifts Rapidly Towards A Police State", Mike Whitney, ZMag.org, 11-5-05

MORE NOTABLE QUOTATIONS

"This administration seeks for Congress to grant it the power to use America's military to enforce domestic order and impose martial law. President Bush stated, "I think the president ought to have all options on the table, all assets on the table to be able to deal with something this significant." That ought to bother us deeply; so deeply that we take decisive action and let our elected officials know that this proposed action is a step too far."

"The Militarization of Health Care: Bird Flu and the Posse Comitatus Act", Jill S. Farrell, Counterpunch, November 5/6, 2005


"When a GOP strategist suggested last weekend that the President fire Rove, Bush exploded."

"'You go to hell,' he screamed at the strategist. 'You can leave and you can take the rest of these lily-livered motherfuckers with you!' The President then stormed out of the room and refused to meet further with any other party leaders or strategists."

"Bush's escalating temper tantrums and his intransigence on political issues increase Republican worries about the long term effects on both his presidency and the party's prospects in upcoming elections."

"'Right now, George W. Bush is the Republican Party's chief liability,' says a GOP strategist who has advised Presidential campaigns for 30 years. 'The entire political future of the party and perhaps the nation now rests on the shoulders of a President that no one - Democrat or Republican - believes in or trusts.'"

"GOP Leaders to Bush: Your Presidency is Effectively Over", Doug Thompson,Capitol Hill Blue, Novermber 4, 2005


"Cheney's office is the Pandora's Box of the Bush administration campaign to invade Iraq. Most of the planning as to both the waging and selling of the war occurred under his direction, along with that of Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz at the Pentagon. It was Cheney who played the point in beating up the CIA for its unhelpful analysis of the non-threat posed by Saddam, and Cheney along with his Defense Department pals who effectively circumvented the CIA by setting up the Office of Special Plans at the Pentagon to funnel the administration the kind of intelligence it wanted, largely courtesy of their longtime double-dealing stooge, Ahmed Chalabi."

"The CIA leak investigation: Bigger fish, deeper water", Steve Perry, The City Pages, 11-2-o5

"In President Bush's first term, some of the most important decisions about U.S. national security--including vital decisions about postwar Iraq--were made by a secretive, little-known cabal. It was made up of a very small group of people led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.... I believe that the decisions of this cabal were sometimes made with the full and witting support of the president and sometimes with something less...."

"The administration's performance during its first four years would have been even worse without Powell's damage control. At least once a week, it seemed, Powell trooped over to the Oval Office and cleaned all the dog poop off the carpet...."

"Today, we have a president whose approval rating is 38 percent and a vice president who speaks only to Rush Limbaugh and assembled military forces. We have a secretary of Defense presiding over the death-by-a-thousand-cuts of our overstretched armed forces (no surprise to ignored dissenters such as former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki or former Army Secretary Thomas White). It's a disaster. Given the choice, I'd choose a frustrating bureaucracy over an efficient cabal every time."

"The White House Cabal", Lawrence Wilkerson,
L.A. Times 10-25-05


"Leo Strauss (1899-1973) was a Jewish-German émigré from the Nazi regime who eventually landed at the University of Chicago where he developed a following that has achieved enormous prominence in American politics. Among his students were Paul Wolfowitz who has openly acknowledged that he is a follower of Straus as has the godfather of neconservatism, Irving Kristol. Irving Kristol begat William Kristol, the director of operation for the DC neocons, editor of the Weekly Standard and "chairman" of the Project for the New American Century, which laid out the plans for the Iraq War. (PNAC also opined in 2000 that a Pearl Harbor-like event would be necessary to take the country to war, and one year later, presto, we had the strange and still mysterious attack o September 11.) For his part Paul Wolfowitz begat Libby, in the intellectual sense, when he taught Libby at Yale. Others stars in the necon firmament are Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and lesser figures like Abram Shulsky, director of the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans, created by Donald Rumsfeld. Shulsky, also a student of Strauss, was responsible for fabricating the lies masquerading as intelligence that were designed to get the U.S. into the war on Iraq. While the neocons have a passion for the Likud party and Zionism, they also count among their number not a few pre-Vatican II Catholics and an assortment of cranks like Newt Gingrich and John Bolton and crypto fascists like Jeanne Kirkpatrick."

"The Philosophy of Mendacity", John Walsh, www.counterpunch.com, November 2, 2005

BUSH'S BILLIONS FOR BIRDS

“I'm Gonna attack this bird flu before it attacks us.
It's better to kill these flu birds in their backyards so that we are safe in ours.
Katrina and the Iraq insurgency were unexpected.
I will be ready for this foul flu epidemic.
We will have a virus patrol on watch. We will have this flu under our control.
I am asking for billions of dollars to create vaccines (that Rummy and my other Pharma friends will greatly profit from…huh, huh).
We can get the money from my new tax code changes.
(Don't worry, rich friends, I still care about your nest eggs!}
We will get this bird flu before it gets us.
Bring 'em (those birds) on!
Smoke 'em out of their caves...I mean their nests!
Time for some pretzels and refreshments!”

RULE 21

Frist called it a stunt.
It was not a stunt.
"The White House owes the American people an explanation", Senator Dianne Feinstein told Larry King last night.
You are right Ms. Feinstein.
We need an explanation.
Harry Reid did what he had to do, because the Republicans don't want to touch the hot iron of lies and deception which Bush and friends concocted to invade and occupy Iraq.
I do not want to wait for historians to unveil the lies.
I want an inquiry and investigation...
outside of the political arena of both Democrats and Republicans(I dream).
But let ‘em (the heads) roll!

NOTABLE QUOTES

"According to some estimates
we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions"
—Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense
CBS News, January 2002

"This one company that had access to the computers at the FAA and the Pentagon and the FBI and Secret Service on 9-11-2001 was on a terrorist watch list, because of the supposed links to terrorist organizations. Michael Chertoff, who is now the head of Homeland Security, was the head of the Department of Justice's Criminal Investigation Division on 9-11. He refused permission to any FBI agents to raid the offices of this company that had access to the computers which allowed the second and third planes to hit their targets. This despite the links to "Arab terrorists" by their board of directors."
Anonymous, 10-31-05


"The dream of the one-power world may have expired in intractable Iraq, but the dream of the one-party state at home is not yet dead. Bush's difficulty is that his chief opposition is not the weak-kneed Democrats, unable to mount effective opposition even to the Iraq War, but the neglected stuff of the real world. What is currently "voting" against Bush, you might say, is not so much the bloc of independents or security moms or any of the other slices of the demographic pie that public opinion pollsters examine but the molecules of carbon dioxide heating up the global air, the collapsed water purification system of Iraq, the dollars fleeing our Treasury, the wages emptying out of people's pockets." Jonathan Schell, "Faith and Fraud", The Nation, 11-2-05


"The Fitzgerald indictment makes perfectly clear that the White House misled the public as to its involvement in sliming Wilson and talking about Plame."

"Bush needs to tell the public -- yes, the old phrase still applies -- what he knew about the operation to discredit Wilson and when he knew it. And he shouldn't hide behind those "legalisms" that Republicans were so eager to condemn in the Clinton years."

"The obligation to come clean applies, big-time, to Cheney, who appears at several critical points in the saga detailed in the Fitzgerald indictment. What exactly transpired in the meetings between Libby and Cheney on the Wilson case? It is inconceivable that an aide as careful and loyal as Libby was a rogue official. Did Cheney set these events in motion? This is a question about good government at least as much as it is a legal matter."
E.J. Dionne Jr., What the 'Shield' Covered Up, Washington Post, November 1, 2005


"To protect a war spun from fantasy, the Bush team played dirty."

"This administration's grand schemes always end up as the opposite. Officials say they're promoting national security when they're hurting it; they say they're squelching terrorists when they're breeding them; they say they're bringing stability to Iraq when the country's imploding. (The U.S. announced five more military deaths yesterday.)"

"And the most dangerous opposite of all: W. was listening to a surrogate father he shouldn't have been listening to, and not listening to his real father, who deserved to be listened to."

Maureen Dodd, "Who's On First?", NYT, October 29, 2005


"Legally, there are no significant differences between the investor fraud perpetrated by Enron CEO Ken Lay and the prewar intelligence fraud perpetrated by George W. Bush. Both involved persons in authority who used half-truths and recklessly false statements to manipulate people who trusted them. There is, however, a practical difference: The presidential fraud is wider in scope and far graver in its consequences than the Enron fraud. Yet thus far the public seems paralyzed."

"In response to the outcry raised by Enron and other scandals, Congress passed the Corporate Corruption Bill, which President Bush signed on July 30, 2002, amid great fanfare. Bush declared that he was signing the bill because of his strong belief that corporate officers must be straightforward and honest. If they were not, he said, they would be held accountable."

"Ironically, the day Bush signed the Corporate Corruption Bill, he and his aides were enmeshed in an orchestrated campaign to trick the country into taking the biggest risk imaginable--a war. Indeed, plans to attack Iraq were already in motion. In June Bush announced his "new" pre-emptive strike strategy. On July 23, 2002, the head of British intelligence advised Prime Minister Tony Blair, in the then-secret Downing Street Memo, that "military action was now seen as inevitable" and that "intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." Bush had also authorized the transfer of $700 million from Afghanistan war funds to prepare for an invasion of Iraq. Yet all the while, with the sincerity of Marc Antony protesting that "Brutus is an honorable man," Bush insisted he wanted peace."

"In an Ipsos Public Affairs poll, commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org and completed October 9, 50 percent said that if Bush lied about his reasons for going to war Congress should consider impeaching him. The President's deceit is not only an abuse of power; it is a federal crime. Specifically, it is a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, which prohibits conspiracies to defraud the United States."

"So what do citizens do? First, they must insist that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence complete Phase II of its investigation, which was to be an analysis of whether the Administration manipulated or misrepresented prewar intelligence. The focus of Phase II was to determine whether the Administration misrepresented the information it received about Iraq from intelligence agencies. Second, we need to convince Congress to demand that the Justice Department appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Administration's deceptions about the war, using the same mechanism that led to the appointment of Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the outing of Valerie Plame. (As it happens, Congressman Jerrold Nadler and others have recently written to Acting Deputy Attorney General Robert McCallum Jr. pointing out that the Plame leak is just the "tip of the iceberg" and asking that Fitzgerald's authority be expanded to include an investigation into whether the White House conspired to mislead the country into war.)"

"Third, we can no longer shrink from the prospect of impeachment. Impeachment would require, as John Bonifaz, constitutional attorney, author of Warrior-King: The Case for Impeaching George Bush and co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org, has explained, that the House pass a "resolution of inquiry or impeachment calling on the Judiciary Committee to launch an investigation into whether grounds exist for the House to exercise its constitutional power to impeach George W. Bush." If the committee found such grounds, it would draft articles of impeachment and submit them to the full House for a vote. If those articles passed, the President would be tried by the Senate. Resolutions of inquiry, such as already have been introduced by Representatives Barbara Lee and Dennis Kucinich demanding that the Administration produce key information about its decision-making, could also lead to impeachment."

Elizabeth de la Vega, "The White House Criminal Investigation", The Nation, November 14, 2005 issue.


"...the choices made by--or stolen from--the American people in the 2000 election have gained a momentum that will run and reverberate through the history of the next 30 years. The dangling chad high jinks of 2000 has put into power a bellicose and internationally unilateralist, interventionist administration. Bush Corp. consists of former movers and shakers of the fossil fuel industry--the very industry responsible for producing the key ingredient for runaway climate change. Current American policy and fossil fuel consumption are in effect throwing gasoline on the fires of global warming. And, it is a prescient fact that hundreds of prophecies from around the world--including even those recently published by the Pentagon--point to climate disruption as the key trigger for apocalyptic global warfare in the near future."
John Hogue

"If there is a nuclear terrorist attack or a major pandemic you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that'll take you back to the Declaration of Independence." Col. Larry Wilkerson [Chief of staff for Colin Powell in Bush 2 administration and former director of Marine War College]

"Beginning in 1984, the Centers for Disease Control began providing Saddam's Iraq with biological materials--including viruses, retroviruses, bacteria, fungi, and even tissue that was infected with bubonic plague."
As Craig Unger reported in his 2004 book, House of Bush, House of Saud

"The terrorists regard Iraq as the central front in their war against humanity,"
Bush said October 6 at a meeting of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

"Martial law, that's next. Bush is like a plane of glass. You can see all the worms turning around in his head at any moment. The first giveaway of what's on his mind--or the junta's mind."
Gore Vidal [10-20-2005]

"...the US occupation force which last week distinguished itself by burning two bodies of men who attacked some of them and then having Sergeant Jim Baker, "a member of a psychological operations unit", bellowing on his loudspeaker to Afghan villagers "Attention Taliban, you cowardly dogs. You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burnt. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be." This was all recorded by an Australian television team." Brian Cloughley, "The Fifth Afghan War"

N-U-C-L-E-A-R

N-U-C-L-E-A-R.
The word is used as liberally as the air we breathe.
A Congressional filibuster is called the nuclear option.
The investigation of the CIA leak produced the shibboleth nuclear bomb to refer to potential indictments.
As we all know, the word nuclear can refer either to the peaceful or the military application of nuclear energy.
Peaceful Energy or Violent War?
I believe it was Albert Camus who wrote “Violence has been made comfortable.”
Is the United States making nuclear bombs and nuclear war comfortable, and what is worse…
Acceptable?
Our violent movies…
Our violent video games…
Our violent wars (which use Depleted Uranium Radioactive Bullets & Bombs!).
Yes, VIOLENCE HAS BEEN MADE...TOO COMFORTABLE!!

ROUND UP THE SCOUNDRELS

Alright, it wasn't Rove...YET...who got indicted.
It is difficult to believe that the higher-ups (Cheney , Bush, Rice & Rumsfeld) did not know about what Mr. Libby was doing on his Scooter.
The chain-of-command has always gone from Cheney down to Bush (notwithstanding the latter's brain which Mr. Rove has occupied).
But it seems unlikely that these servants of the people (The liars and enslavers of a country) did not all have the same insidious ball bouncing in each of their courts.
They all knew where the ball was and where it was going.
The tissue of lies (i.e. toilet paper) will continue to unravel.
The Democrats will use the progressive unraveling to propel their own forward motion towards the White House.
However, for the nation's welfare and its future as a Democracy, these lies must be revealed.
The scoundrels must be rounded up (Fired? Forced out? Impeached?) "Dodge" must be a cleaner city before the Bush cabal departs.
The world must know that America still has the courage and moral fiber to show that it will clean its own house and remove the rodents who have eaten its people out of their "house and home".

'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE INDICTMENTS!

'Twas the night before...
INDICTMENTS!
Not a mouse stirred.
Not even a rat (or Nixon or Bush.)
America held its collective breath.
They couldn't sleep.
Alright, they slept.
But Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh couldn't.
Barbara Bush was at the World Series.
Laura was in the library.
(As usual)
Her hubbie was in the horse stable.
Cheney....we never know where Dick is.
Rove was in the toilet.
Condi was in her mushroom cloud.
Rumsfeld was counting the war profits.
It was the night before...
INDICTMENTS!
Not a mouse stirred.
Not even a rat (or Nixon or Bush.)
America held its collective breath...

ADIOS TURD BLOSSOM

Hello. Turd Blossom? This is Dubya.
Hello Mr. President.
Just callin' to see if you've got your bags packed.
Yes, Mr. President. They're packed.
Good. Unless I fire Mr. Fitzgerald, you might have to leave the White House.
Yes, I know.
Well, my brain will miss you.
Thank you, Mr. President. I'm sorry that I am leaving you brainless.
No problem. I've got Cheney's brain...as long as his heart keeps ticking. Huh, huh.
Yes, Mr. President. Dick has a fine mind.
Well Turd Blossom, I'll let you go. I have to call Scooter Libby now, and then I need to go find my Halloween costume.

FOWL FUNDAMENTALISTS

It has been determined that Bill Bennett of Empower America and Pat Robertson of the Christian (Whatever-in-the-hell network) both have the bird flu.
Warnings will soon be issued by the World Health Organization. The WHO will recommend that the public immediately stop watching and paying attention to these extremely sick and fowl fundamentalists.
The avian flu is reportedly a potentially larger danger to the planet than even the 1918 Spanish flu plague was at the turn of the century.

BUSH'S JOB

"The American people expect me to do my job, and I'm going to."
George W. Bush

And what exactly is (and has) been your job GWB?

1. Invading and bombing a country based on fabricated data.
2. Giving large tax breaks to the rich.
3. Gargantuan deficits.
4. Vacationing.
5. Employing cronies.
6. Blinking a lot.
7. More vacationing.
8. Smirking a lot.
9. Not reading any newspapers.
10. Milking horses.

KARL ROVER - DICK CHICANERY-AND BACKGROUND NOISE

The top secret document was helplessly floating in mid-air when multiple reporters simultaneously grabbed the document before it hit the floor, and the reporters then pondered whether to inform the White House (Karl Rover, Dick Chicanery & Others), who already were aware that the document could bring vengeance upon Joseph Wilson for his revelation of the truth about the Niger-Iraq Uranium falsehood…if only these reporters could think of something...Ah, yes...tell the world that Joseph Wilson's wife worked for the CIA...CALL Robert Novak (everybody trusts his word) and have him write a story about Mr. Wilson's CIA spouse.
Gee, did we think of this on our own or did the White House tell us?
Then confuse and contort, disassociate and discombobulate, throw curve balls and dirt balls...say this and that, then say that and this...whirling dervishes! Wolves in sheep's clothing!
(The American public could be fooled once again!)
Then hope that the independent prosecutor will heed some subtle warnings and promises to let the White House have their evil ways again.
(But let George cover our butts if anyone gets in big trouble, because Dubya always gets his way when he lies about anything.)
Time for some pretzels!