Enemy Combatant
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Check out Over/Spun's blog for the latest on David Letterman's "outing" the Bush White House (and their unthinking court-stenographer lickspittle lackeys over at CNN) for the flaming, screaming liars that they are.
I'm beginning to think lying is like a reflex response to them: Lie first, lie last, lie always, and don't ever back down unless confronted with unquestionable proof of your lies eight ways from Sunday, in documentary triplicate.
Then, wait a few days, and start spreading the same lie AGAIN.
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
"I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." ñ National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 5/16/02
Hey, let's cut her some slack, folks. I mean, how could she possibly have known?
Monday, March 29, 2004
Who's looping who?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, thanks, Rush. It's good to talk to you.
Q All right, let's get straight to what the news is all about now, before we branch out to things. Why did the administration keep Richard Clarke on the counterterrorism team when you all assumed office in January of 2001?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I wasn't directly involved in that decision. He was moved out of the counterterrorism business over to the cyber security side of things, that is he was given a new assignment at some point here. I don't recall the exact time frame.
Q Cyber security, meaning Internet security?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yes, worried about attacks on the computer systems and the sophisticated information technology systems we have these days that an adversary would use or try to the system against us.
Q Well, now that explains a lot, that answer right there explains -- (Laughter.)
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, he wasn't -- he wasn't in the loop, frankly, on a lot of this stuff. And I saw part of his interview last night, and he wasn't --
Q He was demoted.
Oh, really? Well, then, how do you reconcile that assertion (made by Cheney on Rush Limbaugh's show) with this (from the Washington Post):
But Clarke did receive a huge if unspoken acknowledgment on the morning of Sept. 11: National security adviser Condoleezza Rice declined to run the so-called principals meeting in the White House Situation Room, choosing Clarke instead to coordinate the urgent information-gathering and to formulate the security responses to put before the president. Rice repaired, with Dick Cheney, to the White House basement's bomb shelter. A hijacked plane over Pennsylvania was headed toward Washington, and the rest of the White House evacuated at full sprint -- with the exception of Clarke and a handful of security professionals, who remained in the West Wing to continue their work.
Guess when Cheney and Condi left Clarke as the highest-ranking civilian in charge aboveground at the White House Situation Room during the greatest defense crisis this country has faced since Pearl Harbor, they must have taken that "loop" down into their hidey-hole bunker with them . . .
Sunday, March 28, 2004
"I would welcome it being declassified, but not just a little line here or there. Let's declassify all six hours of my testimony," [Richard Clarke] said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Unlike the Bushies, Clarke strikes me as a shrewd and careful man. He would not have stepped out into the sunlight to say what he has to say unless he were convinced he could prove the Bushies to be liars eight ways from Sunday, in documentary triplicate. Clarke realizes -- where the Wrecks-All Wrangler doesn't -- that this is a chess game, and that realization puts him about ten moves ahead. All possible moves by Bush lead to checkmate.
Thursday, March 25, 2004
Well, we could have expected this. Personally, I plan to vote absentee ballot (as I'm allowed to do here in California, permanently), but this article makes me think I should just go vote on November 2nd even if I've got to wear a frickin' flakjacket and helmet to do so:
FBI's Mueller Warns of Terrorist Plots
By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Emboldened by their deadly success in Spain, terrorists could attempt to influence the U.S. election and shock the world by launching attacks during this year's presidential nominating conventions or at the Olympics in Greece, FBI (news - web sites) Director Robert Mueller said Thursday.
†
"We understand that between now and the election, there is a window of time in which terrorists may well wish to influence events, whether it's in the United States or overseas," Mueller said in an interview with The Associated Press.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=7&u=/ap/20040325/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/mueller_interview
Translation: Vote Feckless Leader out of office, and the terrorists win!
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
"Your government failed you. Those entrusted with protecting you failed you. †I failed you. †We tried hard, but that doesn't matter because we failed you. And for that failure, I would ask, once all the facts are out, for your understanding and for your forgiveness."
-- Richard Clarke, the first -- hell, so far the only -- grownup in Dubya's administration (which I liberally define as someone willing to admit he's made a mistake) . . .
Tuesday, March 09, 2004
Following up on the RNC's PBC (Pure Bullshit Complaint) about MoveOn.org and other groups running anti-Bush ads, here's an article that explains it in more detail. Keep in mind -- they're going to the FEC with their complaint, not the courts:
http://news.findlaw.com/ap/a/p/1131/3-9-2004/20040309010004_13.html
And WHY, pray tell, are they complaining to the FEC rather than a federal judge? THIS is the operative language:
Bush-Cheney officials said they won't ask for the ads to be pulled off the air because the FEC doesn't have that authority, and because a court is unlikely to act before the FEC finishes its review of the new campaign finance laws. The object of the complaint is to highlight what Bush campaign officials say are Democratic hypocrisies and to prod the FEC to act more quickly than it has in the past, the officials said.
No, the "object of the complaint" is to piss and moan to the press, without actually having to subject your complaint to a timely review by someone knowledgeable in the law, who could then reject it, and chew you out for bringing it . . .
