More evidence, Bush lied.

The Times (not the New York, the London) does it again. This time they report on a July 2002 meeting where this was learned.
.

The warning, in a leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper, said Tony Blair had already agreed to back military action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch of President George W Bush three months earlier.

The briefing paper, for participants at a meeting of Blair's inner circle on July 23, 2002, said that since regime change was illegal it was "necessary to create the conditions" which would make it legal.

This Memo is clear, War was the one and only goal of this administration.


So we have more confirmation that backs up the crux of the Downing Street Memo. We see more evidence that the war was desired as early as the spring and summer of 2002, despite Bush's lies otherwise. We see that the British did consider it a violation of international law, and we again see confirmation that we were engaged in a game to try to goad Saddam into war.

This demands action. Visit After Downing Street, they off a number of direct actions that you should consider. These include, Writing to Your Congressman or Senator, Signing Conyers' Letter demanding an investigation, Sign Kennedy's Petition or Contacting the Media. Without action the truth will be burred by Bush and his staff. The only way the truth will be discovered is if the people act.

Recruiting shortfall, again

Despite the ten day delay in the report, there is nothing new. The army missed the target by 25 percent. This despite the lowering of the goal by 17%. This makes the real shortfall about 40%, and consistent with the April reported shortfall.

In a new and far more troubling development, the U.S. armed forces are now lowering standards for new officers, and allowing violations that in the past would end carriers to be ignored. All of this is being done in the name of keeping the force viable.

This give me the sad opportunity to say I told you so.

Fascism, Sin, Faith, Sex and Fatigue, we have it all

Father Jake has a short list about an old illness,fascism. So, are we on our way?


Frank at Pulling the Plank notes that Al Mohler as found a new group of people to denounce.


A miracle has been spotted by the The Green Knight, MSNBC has found an new and interesting group of people, liberal Christians


Pam's House Blend has found a blog that gives you an inside look at the fear faced by teen being sent to a faith based gay to straight program.

and

It's only Thursday and in one week we may have scandal fatigue, from the Carpet Bagger Report.

Congressional action is coming

Rep. John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has announced plans on holding hearing on the Downing Street Memo. Plans include testimony from Ray McGovern, John Bonifaz, Joe Wilson and others.

Rep. Conyers office has indicated that they have new documents that will buttress the suspicion that the Bush administration wanted war.

and , as noted in Pam's House Blend, Rep. Conyers adds.

This hearing is just one step in an investigation that I am commencing that will literally span the Atlantic. I am in touch with British officials and former U.S. intelligence officials and I am determined to get to the truth.

This additional line of attack is vital. The Democrats are out of power in every arena in the US government, and will be without bi-partisan support. Aid from the investigations in the UK could be priceless.

Repression in action

More love from the religious right, from Pam's House Blend.

More evidence of the stupidity of invading Iraq

One of the biggest reasons to not invade Iraq, was the damage that act did to our reconstruction of Afghanistan. We removed the government, took control of the capital, declared victory, and then ignored the whole show.

What have we gained?

Thousands of soldiers are deserting Afghanistan's new British- and American-trained national army, their morale undermined by poor conditions and the threat from the Taliban.

Since the 205th Afghan National Army corps became the first unit of the new national army to be deployed outside Kabul, joining US forces fighting the Taliban in the south of the country, half of its strength has deserted.

"Between 1,200 and 1,500 have run away since September," said one officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, at the 205th corps base near Kandahar. "Morale is going down fast. Four to six hundred soldiers have deserted in the last two months."

A stable and peaceful country side and a viable national defense force is required to keep this land from again becoming a failed state. They need a strong army, not one with no moral, and depleted by desertion. Our mad dash to get assets to Iraq, and our lack of additional resources for Afghanistan is just assuring that this necessary war will fail.

Abstinence based sex education again found lacking

This time the children of Ohio are the losers.

There have been trouble with these programs in the past, and is should not surprise anyone, Ohio's problems are a lot like those seen in other states.

Overstate the failure rates of condom use, blame contraceptives for poor mental health among youths and erroneously suggest that birth control pills will increase a girl's future chances of infertility.

Misrepresent religious conviction as scientific fact. One program urges teens to "follow God's plan for purity," while another recommends books that are religious in nature.

Contain inaccurate or misleading information about the transmission or detection of sexual diseases. One curriculum described HIV as a virus that can remain undetected either by test or physical symptoms for six months to 10 years, when in fact most antibodies are present within two to eight weeks after exposure. The curriculum also suggested incorrectly that HIV can be transmitted through tears and open-mouth kissing.

In the end it is the same old song, lie to the youth in an effort to scare them.

It should be clear by now that just say no about both drugs and sex is a failed policy. How can the government justify supporting this ongoing lie?

Do we have an opportunity to find an exit?

There are strong indications that some of the various Iraqi resistance groups are expressing a willingness to talk. We need to jump on this opportunity.

Any form of short term stability can give us the opportunity to exit, and that is what we need. In time there will be a full blown civil war in that nation, and we do not want to be the referee in the middle of that.

An ode to Gov. Sanford, your laugh for the week.

The song is now up on a couple of sites. To hear it go to Laurinline , or download it from Crack The Bell.

A story, not about the memo, but the media's reaction to the memo.

The Washington Post, while still avoiding actually covering the Downing Street Memo, does report that others are starting to do a little reporting on the memo.

A weak effort at best, but they do add some reason for hope at the end of their bit.

Far from being a dud, the Downing Street Memo may generate more stories to come.

Now you just have to wonder if one of those future stories may actually be from the Washington Post.

Bush's war on science continues

Be it for reasons of faith or commerce, we can count of the truth being 'worked' to fit the desired results. The latest example are the efforts of Philip A. Cooney. Mr. Cooney, who while working for the Council on Environmental Quality in the white house, reviewed and modified a number of documents on the Global Warming issue.

For example, a sentence in an October 2002 draft of a regularly published summary of government climate research, "Our Changing Planet," originally read: "Many scientific observations indicate that the Earth is undergoing a period of relatively rapid change...."

Mr. Cooney's neat, compact notes modified the sentence to read: "Many scientific observations point to the conclusion that the Earth may be undergoing a period of relatively rapid change...."

In places where uncertainties in climate research were described, Mr. Cooney added qualifiers like "significant" and "fundamental."

In effect he was modifying the results of the studies.


Now, what background and training did Mr. Cooney have that makes it proper for him to adjust reports so that it fundamentally changed the tone of the conclusion.

Before coming to the White House in 2001, he was the "climate team leader" and a lobbyist at the American Petroleum Institute, the largest trade group representing the interests of the oil industry. A lawyer with a bachelor's degree in economics, he has no scientific training.

Not surprising from this administration. Why use science when lawyers and lobbyist are so more efficient at achieving the administrations goals.


One other point of this story is also very interesting, especially in light of the Downing Street Memo.

Myron Ebell, who has long campaigned against limits on greenhouse gases as director of climate policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian group, said such editing was necessary for "consistency" in meshing programs with policy.

when you don't like the facts, just fix them to fit the conclusion. How much do the oil companies control US environmental policy? The Guardian's story about ExxonMobil's opposition to the Kyoto Accords makes it clear.

President's George Bush's decision not to sign the United States up to the Kyoto global warming treaty was partly a result of pressure from ExxonMobil, the world's most powerful oil company, and other industries, according to US State Department papers seen by the Guardian.
The documents, which emerged as Tony Blair visited the White House for discussions on climate change before next month's G8 meeting, reinforce widely-held suspicions of how close the company is to the administration and its role in helping to formulate US policy.

In briefing papers given before meetings to the US under-secretary of state, Paula Dobriansky, between 2001 and 2004, the administration is found thanking Exxon executives for the company's "active involvement" in helping to determine climate change policy, and also seeking its advice on what climate change policies the company might find acceptable.

Well I am glad the Exxon finds our total lack of an environmental policy acceptable.

John Conyer's "Downing Street Minutes" letter

Needs your signature.

If you think that this must be investigated, you need to go over and add your name to the list. When he started this his goal was 100,000 persons sign on. At this time he is nearing 145,000 names, and his new goal is 250,000.

GM announces major cuts, 25,000 jobs

in an effort to correct years of poor management and executive decisions, 25,000 employees will be let go. In addition, they are going to start to order more of their supplies from offshore operations.

This is not unexpected, since gas is now stuck at $2.00 a gallon, those Hummers and suburban just aren't as attractive to some buyers, despite the tax breaks.

But, to the workers of GM, I say have faith, Wal-Mart is always hiring.



I do have to ask, in a few years, will the new Wal-mart based American workforce be able to afford any GM product?

Bush Iraqi war planning timeline

via Daily Kos.

This is fantastic work. It includes at #23 the Downing Street Memo, and also notes the major increase in US attacks on Iraq prior to the official start of the war.

Iraqi war propionate sees the light?

Newsweeks Baghdad bureau chief reflects on his two year stay, and where we stand.

Here are a few points of interest.

The most shocking thing about Abu Ghraib was not the behavior of U.S. troops, but the incompetence of their leaders.


At last count America has pumped at least $7 billion into reconstruction projects, with little to show for it but the hostility of ordinary Iraqis, who still have an 18 percent unemployment rate. Most of the cash goes to U.S. contractors who spend much of it on personal security. Basic services like electricity, water and sewers still aren't up to prewar levels. Electricity is especially vital in a country where summer temperatures commonly reach 125 degrees Fahrenheit. Yet only 15 percent of Iraqis have reliable electrical service. In the capital, where it counts most, it's only 4 percent.


The most powerful army in human history can't even protect a two-mile stretch of road.


More troops and more helicopters could help make the whole country safer. Instead the Pentagon has been drawing down the number of helicopters. And America never deployed nearly enough soldiers.


the American enclave is a trash-strewn wasteland of Mad Max-style fortifications. The traffic lights don't work because no one has bothered to fix them. The garbage rarely gets collected. Some of the worst ambassadors in U.S. history are the GIs at the Green Zone's checkpoints. They've repeatedly punched Iraqi ministers, accidentally shot at visiting dignitaries and behave (even on good days) with all the courtesy of nightclub bouncers.


They're overworked, much ignored on the home front and widely despised in Iraq, with little to look forward to but the distant end of their tours—and in most cases, another tour soon to follow. Many are reservists who, when they get home, often face the wreckage of careers and family.

Hezbollah Sweep Vote in Lebanon

Since our administration is so eager to take credit for any democratic development in the Middle Ease, I wonder when some spoksperson will be out praising this.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Hezbollah, the armed group considered a terrorist organization by the United States, and its allies swept voting in southern Lebanon during the second round of nationwide parliamentary elections, the interior minister said Monday. Israel, which has long clashed with the group, expressed its concern.

The alliance of the pro-Syrian Islamic militant group and Shiite Amal won, by a wide margin, all 17 seats contested Sunday, Interior Minister Hassan Sabei said. In addition, the ticket had no challengers for six seats.

Hezbollah, which also is backed by Iran, hopes the landslide victory will demonstrate its strength and send a message of defiance as Washington calls for its disarmament in line with a U.N. Security Council resolution.

The DeLay effect

Tom has been working hard to keep a lower profile in the last few weeks. He is hoping to defuse the ethics bomb by being quiet. The trouble for Tom is, once armed these little guys tend to go off, and they tend to create a lot of collateral damage.

Other members of his party have noticed this, and are worried.

Among those endangered are at least two committee chairmen and several other senior members. Congressional districts that traditionally have been safe for Republicans could become more competitive, according to party officials.

Nowhere is the impact of the ethics issue clearer than here in the Appalachian hills of eastern Ohio, where a thicket of weekly newspapers now gives regular coverage to revelations about House Administration Committee Chairman Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) and his ties to DeLay and Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist now under criminal and congressional investigation for the tens of millions of dollars in fees he and a partner collected from casino-owning Indian tribes.

These should be feast days for the media who at one time thrived on scandal. Not only do they have Tom DeLay, and his numerous violations, they also have Tom Noe and his amazing disappearing coins, who also was a major Bush fundraiser and donor.

Overseas we still have the largely unreported Downing Street memo, that clearly indicates the existence of a conspiracy by the US administration to create a cause for war in Iraq. New developments indicate that John Boltons efforts to oust Jose Bustani from his UN post may be related to the total effort to start the war.

The midterm elections are only 17 months away, and every Republican needs to be painted with the slime that DeLay, Noe, Abramoff, Rove and Bush have created.

Couldn't resist

Your IQ Is 135

Your Logical Intelligence is Genius Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

A tragic catalyst for change

A pro-war republican turns against the Iraq war, but only after the death of his son.

Hart, 46, grew up in a conservative Texas family, served as president of the Republican club at the University of Texas, and voted for President Bush in 2000. His daughters, Rebecca, 18, and Elizabeth, 14, are members of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps at Bedford High School.

The peace banner went up in early 2003. That July, John Hart saw the sign as he prepared to leave for Iraq on his first tour of duty with his unit, the 173d Infantry Brigade. John asked his father to help get the sign removed.

Brian Hart wrote to the Board of Selectmen, contending that the peace banner violated the town's historic zoning codes. At a board meeting, he threatened to file a lawsuit. John Eric Gibbons, the Unitarian minister whose congregation had hung the blue-and-white banner, agreed to take it down. Hart was pleased.

Three months later, John was dead, one month past his 20th birthday. First Lieutenant David R. Bernstein of Phoenixville, Pa., was also killed in the attack. Bernstein was 24.

Sometimes cartoons say it best

This will make your head hurt

The sad state of todays media outlets

is made obvious by the protest at a Tampa Florida area TV station. The protest was an effort to get the news department to actually report the news.

"Did you get the memo?" read the fliers.

"Air the truth!" said a poster held by retired Air Force Lt. Col. Joseph F. Bohren, outside the WTVT-Ch. 13 studios with about 10 others.

They were there because of what has become known as the "Downing Street Memo," minutes from a meeting between Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top advisers on July 23, 2002, at No. 10 Downing St., published May 1 by the Sunday Times of London . The minutes indicate that the United States and Britain had agreed to invade Iraq by the summer of 2002 - months before President George W. Bush asked Congress for permission to engage in military action.

The minutes, written by Matthew Rycroft, aide to British Foreign Policy Adviser David Manning, also suggest that U.S. officials deliberately manipulated intelligence to justify the war.

"If what's in these minutes is accurate, and we have been given no reason to doubt that, then it would appear that the president has committed high crimes, specifically lying to the American public and Congress and engaging in a conspiracy with his administration," said David Dawson, a Washington organizer for the Web site AfterDowningStreet.org, which has reproduced the memo.

And the Progressive Democrats of America are pitching in to help our local media outlets. Since so many of the media outlets now have to be led to the news to report it, they tell us how to remind them about the Downing Street Memo , and what it could mean.

President for sale... Reasonable price

Well it appears we now know what the going rate for the US president, its $25,000.00 US.

Four months after he took the oath of office in 2001, President George W. Bush was the attraction, and the White House the venue, for a fundraiser organized by the alleged perpetrator of the largest billing fraud in the history of corporate lobbying. In May 2001, Jack Abramoff’s lobbying client book was worth $4.1 million in annual billing for the Greenberg Traurig law firm. He was a friend of Bush advisor Karl Rove. He was a Bush “Pioneer,” delivering at least $100,000 in bundled contributions to the 2000 campaign. He had just concluded his work on the Bush Transition Team as an advisor to the Department of the Interior. He had sent his personal assistant Susan Ralston to the White House to work as Rove’s personal assistant. He was a close friend, advisor, and high-dollar fundraiser for the most powerful man in Congress, Tom DeLay. Abramoff was so closely tied to the Bush Administration that he could, and did, charge two of his clients $25,000 for a White House lunch date and a meeting with the President. From the same two clients he took to the White House in May 2001, Abramoff also obtained $2.5 million in contributions for a non-profit foundation he and his wife operated.

DeLay, Rove, Abramoff and Bush, what a shock.


Personally, I wouldn't give you twenty-five cents for him.

Classic Friday night news release

Southern Command confirms 5 cases of Koran abuse.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American jailers at the Guantanamo prison for foreign terrorism suspects splashed a Koran with urine, kicked and stepped on the Islamic holy book and soaked it with water, the U.S. military said on Friday.

I wonder who Scott and the Administration will blame this on?

Amnesty International made a poor allusion

in calling Guantanamo Bay a Gulag.

While Gulag may evoke the proper revulsion, it doesn't capture the true flavor of the prison we have built in Gitmo (and who knows where else). We have established a system where a person can be un-created. He has no rights, his sentence in prison is for life, unless we change our mind and he has no recourse or appeal.

To find any past example you have to roll the clock back a thousand years. A King, a castle and a dungeon, where a man could be thrown in and forgotten. No other system seems to fit this monster we have created.

The US military is delaying the release of recruiting data

The standard practice is to release them on the 1st of the month. In June they will release the numbers 10 days late.

I wonder why.

TBlog has some tips for recruiters looking for IED bait.

Fear, is it the driving force in our foreign policy?

Fear is a base emotion. It can spring upon us due to a sudden event, or weigh on us over time. One aspect of fear that is interesting to study is how individuals react to it. The fight or flight response is present in animals and humans. It is a key in survival in emergency situations.

It is this fear driven desire to react, to run or fight, that needs to be looked at.

Consider this; You person is in a crowded bar, and sees another person coming at you who looks dangerous. As this threat gets nearer the feared threat make a quick move in your direction. Will you run, punch, or just wait to see what is going on? If fear takes hold, you will either punch or run. If you think you can win, you are more likely to punch, it you don't think you can win, you will flee. The fact that this person was only reaching for a pack of matches wouldn't matter, your fear demands action, and you respond.

If you had the courage to see what develop there would have been no reason for a bar fight.

Consider how our leaders and our society are dealing with the upsets in the world the last few years. We are the biggest meanest guy in the bar, yet our leaders jump in fear at every sudden move made by those we see as dangerous. The cowardly nature of our leadership has infected our society, where the majority appear willing to trade freedom for security.

It was said best by FDR, we do have Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself. We have the size strength and power to respond to any act. We don't have to fear the shadows, and what ifs that exist in the world. Living as cowards, being driven by fear, as this administration has been, is a sure path to failure.

Stand up, and refuse to be scared. Refuse to accept pre-emption, gulags and backpedaling on international treaties and laws. We must realize that nothing is one hundred percent safe, and accept those risk as part of living free.

At some point in time, a terrorist will again attack us on our soil. At some point in the days, months or years to come, a nuclear weapon will be used on this land. When that happens, we will face the greatest challenge to our society. If we allow fear to rule us we will no longer be a free land.

Lying to America or just lying to himself

Only Dick Cheney know for sure.

Watching the recent frenzy of violence in Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney is not perturbed. Quite the contrary--he sounds practically elated. "We're making major progress," he said Monday. Iraq, he explained, is "in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."

You know that secure, undisclosed location of his? I think we can be sure it's not on this planet.

On the same day Cheney was savoring his delusions, suicide bombers were striking in Iraq.

Wolfowitz takes over at the world bank today

More evidence that in Bush's administration no failure goes un-promoted.

The thought police are at it again

This time 'Human Events' (a right wing publication) is leading the charge. They have outlined a list of the 10 most harmful books on the 19th and 20th century. I do find it humorous who so many on the right are afraid of ideas.


The Communist Manifesto
Mein Kampf
Quotations from Chairman Mao
The Kinsey Report
Democracy and Education
Das Kapital
The Feminine Mystique
The Course of Positive Philosophy
Beyond Good and Evil
General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money

and honorable mention

The Population Bomb
What Is To Be Done
Authoritarian Personality
On Liberty
Beyond Freedom and Dignity
Reflections on Violence
The Promise of American Life
Origin of the Species
Madness and Civilization
Soviet Communism: A New Civilization
Coming of Age in Samoa
Unsafe at Any Speed
Second Sex
Prison Notebooks
Silent Spring
Wretched of the Earth
Introduction to Psychoanalysis
The Greening of America
The Limits to Growth
Descent of Man


I guess it is time for the book burners to get the fires stoked.

Scott Norvell admits what we all know about Fox

In a recent Op-Ed Fox's bureau chief in London called the station a private channel, and by his other statements appeared to confirm what many have felt about this source of propaganda. We know Fox is biased, and slanted, but they continue to try to deny this. After this latest bit of bombast, those denials should ring even more hollow.

Here is one quote, captured by News Hounds, that seems to sum up the Fox Lies Channel

Even we at Fox News manage to get some lefties on the air occasionally, and often let them finish their sentences before we club them to death and feed the scraps to Karl Rove and Bill O'Reilly.