Live radio from Crawford

Two links you can use to listen on line:
http://bradblog.com/BradShow/
http://www.kpftx.org/
The hours of live shows may be longer than those listed on the site. So listen in when you can and find out what they're doing then. It's "seat-of-the-pants" radio. Presently they're simulcasting with Air America, from Peace House in Crawford.

The Mahablog: Danger Abled

Conspiracy theorists across the political spectrum are having a field day with the new "Able Danger" revelations. Able Danger, as you probably have heard, was a data mining project initiated during the Clinton Administration to help track al Qaeda cells. Three individuals who say they worked on the project claim that 9/11 highjacker Mohamed Atta, among other terrorists, had been identified and located in the U.S. by Able Danger.

The Able Danger story has become a crusade for Republican Congressman Curt Weldon as part of his larger campaign to shift the blame for bad 9/11 intelligence to Bill Clinton.

Able Danger is controversial because (1) the 9/11 Commission was told about Able Danger but left it out of its final report; and (2) it is claimed that in 2000military lawyers prevented the Atta information from being shared with the FBI.

The Daily Howler - 08/27/05

ENDLESS IMPROVEMENT! One more journalist changes the facts to produce a treasured contradiction

SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 2005

THE WEEKEND’S FEEL-GOOD STORY: Wake the kids and share this story! On Wednesday night, the Baltimore Oriole’s Sidney Ponson racked up his latest DUI. The team hopes to void the pitcher’s contract. But in this morning’s Washington Post, one of Ponson’s loyal team-mates says he’s planning to stand by his man. Jorge Arangue delivers:

ARANGUE (8/27/05): Ponson was asked by the team to stay home on Friday. Some teammates offered support.

"I'm not going to sit here and crucify him," Rafael Palmeiro said. "The one thing I'm going to do is stand by him. He supported me and I'm going to do the same for him."

Kids, there is no “i-rony” in the word “team!” In Arangue’s moving rendition, we see the modern face of teamwork: The steroid abusers stand by the drunk drivers. Once again, we beg our readers: Run, don’t walk—wake up the kids!

Juan Cole: Constitution's Fate Unclear

Al-Jazeera early Saturday morning is reporting that some sort of deal has been reached with the Sunni Arabs on the constitution, but the situation is so muddled that I cannot be sure it is a firm agreement.

Dexter Filkins and James Glanz of the NYT reported that at the close of business, Iraq time, on Friday,t the Shiites and the Kurds had effectively given up on trying to reach a consensus with the Sunni Arab members of the constitution drafting committee. The Shiites and the Kurds have reached compromises with one another, but were unwilling to mollify the Sunni Arabs. The big sticking points were a Sunni Arab demand for an end to the placing of disabilities on former Baath Party members, and the Sunni Arab opposition to allowing regional confederations to form that had an a prior claim on national resources. I continue to be disturbed at the big place the NYT coverage gives to Ahmad Chalabi and his perspectives. I anyone has been discredited, it is he.

Juan Cole:100,000 Sadrists March Against Constitution

Reuters reports that Muqtada al-Sadr's supporters rallied in 8 cities on Friday, totaling a hundred thousand demonstrators in all. They chanted against the new constitution, which they characterized as an American-authored document. They also complained about lack of electricity and other services. Al-Sadr's followers rallied in Kufa, Najaf,Baghdad (Sadr City), Nasiriyah, Amarah, Basra and elsewhere.

I saw the demonstrations on al-Jazeera and they were in fact just enormous. I have all along said that I think Muqtada al-Sadr is formidable, that that those who underestimate him are making a mistake. But these demonstrations are evidence of a quantum leap in Muqtada's organizational capability.

Billmon: Bring Me the Head of Hugo Chavez

I was as entertained as anybody this week by Pat Robertson's remake of the Sam Peckinpah classic (this time with the president of Venezuela in the title role) and I certainly enjoyed watching the old devil wriggle on the hook of his own words, but I have to say I was amazed by all the media attention.

I mean, the fact that Pat Robertson babbled something completely insane (and dangerous) to his TV cult followers has a definite dog-bites-man quality to it. When Robertson says something sane, that will be big news. But I wouldn't keep a hole waiting on page one for that story.

For a taste of some of Robertson's more, ah, creative ideas, check out this Greg Palast story from 1999, recently reposted on Greg's web site.

Billmon: Another Satisfied Customer

Senior Iran cleric hails “Islamic state of Iraq”

Tehran, Iran, Aug. 26 – A senior Iranian cleric welcomed on Friday the establishment of an Islamic republic in Iraq and hailed the country’s new constitution as one based on “Islamic precepts.”

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who heads the powerful ultra-conservative Guardian Council, told worshippers in Tehran’s Friday prayers, “Fortunately, after years of effort and expectations in Iraq, an Islamic state has come to power and the constitution has been established on the basis of Islamic precepts.”

“We must congratulate the Iraqi people and authorities for this victory,” he said.

Two Fingers to America

He's a friend of Fidel Castro, a fierce critic of the war in Iraq, and wants to spread revolutionary fervour throughout South America. Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, has long been a thorn in the side of the US - a fact highlighted this week when televangelist Pat Robertson called for his assassination. Richard Gott on a man at war with the White House

Thursday August 25, 2005
The Guardian

Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela, is a genial fellow with a good sense of humour and a steely political purpose. As a former military officer, he is accustomed to the language of battle and he thrives under attack. He will laugh off this week's suggestion by Pat Robertson, the US televangelist, that he should be assassinated, but he will also seize on it to ratchet up the verbal conflict with the United States that has lasted throughout his presidency.

The Rude Pundit: La Habra, California - Just Another Stop In Gitmo America:

So, like, on August 7, when terrorism expert and former Justice Department prosecutor John Loftus, speaking on Fox "News," gave out the exact address of a Southern California home that allegedly was the residence of the leader of the group that committed the London bombings, it should have perhaps occurred to him that he might be wrong. Because otherwise, he'd be a stupid fuck whose credibility would be worthless, even as he spouts happy bullshit like that he "believes that we may be witnessing the death throes of the fundamentalist terror states, and the birth of a renaissance of modernity in the Middle East."

And, of course, potentially evil Middle Easterner Iyad K. Hilal hadn't lived at the La Habra residence for three years. And, of course, it was a middle class white couple with three kids who now lived there. And, in a sign that perhaps Americans are a bit more color-blind than we might think, the family's been harassed, and their home's been vandalized, with the strange word "Terrist" spray-painted on it, which could also mean they're fond of terriers or just like to rip shit up.

Greenspan Cites Economic Risks For Consumers

Warns Higher Long-Term Rates Could Reverse Housing, Stock Gains

By Nell Henderson

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 27, 2005; Page A01

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo., Aug. 26 -- Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned Friday that recent gains in U.S. home prices, stock values and other forms of wealth may be temporary and could easily erode if long-term interest rates rise.

Households and businesses have been able to spend more by transforming houses, stock and other assets into cash, he noted. But Americans should not assume that such good times will roll on forever.

NYT ED: Excessive Powers

August 27, 2005

When John Ashcroft was the attorney general, he railed against the "hysteria" of critics of Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows the government to search library records. The number of times Section 215 had been used to search libraries was, Mr. Ashcroft declared, zero. But civil libertarians opposed the provision not because they knew it had been used - searches under Section 215 are secret - but because they expected it would be.

It turns out that they were right to be concerned. The American Civil Liberties Union has just reported that the F.B.I. demanded library records from a Connecticut institution by using another troubling Patriot Act provision that authorizes a tool known as a national security letter. The A.C.L.U. says it cannot identify the institution or specify the nature of the request because of federal secrecy rules. But this is the first confirmed instance of the F.B.I.'s use of the Patriot Act to demand library records.

The Connecticut library inquiry follows on the heels of an American Library Association report that law enforcement officials have made at least 200 inquiries to libraries about reading materials and other internal matters since October 2001. In some cases, the officers issued subpoenas; in others, they relied on informal requests.

MI GOP Rebuked on 2004 Nader Petition Activity

Federal Election Commission Investigation Finds Reason to Believe that MIGOP Acted Illegally

LANSING - An investigation by the professional, nonpartisan staff of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) into a complaint filed by the MDP concerning the Michigan Republican Party's efforts to place Ralph Nader on the 2004 Michigan ballot has found reason to believe that the GOP made an excessive contribution to the Nader for President campaign and failed to report and misreported its expenditures for that effort.

"The investigation by the FEC's staff completely vindicates our complaint that the Michigan GOP broke the law in its desperate effort to help Bush win Michigan in 2004 by placing Ralph Nader on the ballot," said MDP Chair Mark Brewer. "Not only did their election ploy fail, but they have now been found to have acted illegally as well."

Fury over loss of 9/11 heroes' health program

By MICHAEL McAULIFF

DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON — A program supposed to monitor the health of thousands of federal workers who answered the call of 9/11 has been lost for more than two years, the Daily News has learned. "We seem to have inherited our own Loch Ness monster in terms of being able to find this monitoring," said Jon Adler, vice president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers' Association.

Programs were developed to check on the health of every other group that rushed to Ground Zero during and after the Sept. 11 attacks, primarily the World Trade Center Medical Screening Program run by the Mount Sinai Medical Center. Officials involved told The News the feds barred their workers from that program because they were setting up their own.

National Guard involved in more questionable surveillance, senator says

Posted on Thu, Aug. 25, 2005

DON THOMPSON

Associated Press

SACRAMENTO - California's National Guard engaged in more questionable surveillance beyond a previously publicized Mother's Day peace rally, a state senator said Thursday, citing a confidential Army inspector general's report.

Sen. Joe Dunn accused the Guard's acting adjutant general of deliberately mischaracterizing the confidential report, and requested that the report be made public.

Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy

TRANSCRIPTION OF INTERVIEW

August 6, 2005
Matthew R. Simmons, President
Simmons & Company International
Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy

Editor's Note: We have edited the interview in this transcription for clarity and readability.
The original real audio interview may be heard on our Ask The Expert page.

Book Info

JIM PUPLAVA: Joining me on the program is Matthew Simmons. He’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Simmons & Company International, a Houston-based investment bank that specializes in the energy industry. Mr. Simmons serves on the boards of Brown-Forman Corporation, The Atlantic Council of The United States, he’s also a member of the National Petroleum Council and The Council of Foreign Relations. He has an MBA from Harvard University. And he’s here to discuss his new book Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy.

Matt, I want to start out the discussion from the back of your book in Appendix B. Several years ago you did a study of the world’s major oil fields. What did you find?

MATTHEW SIMMONS: It was really an incredible exercise of trying to collect the data no one had ever actually thought of doing before, and that’s, what are the top oil fields in the world – field by field. And the background for me doing this is that I’ve participated 2 years in a row in an energy supply workshop, conducted by the energy analysts of the CIA in Washington, where they got about 10 of the best oil experts together, and we’d spend a day doing a discussion of all the key countries, and how much oil capacity they had in place over the course of the coming 3 years. I sat there listening aghast at all of these experts with their laptops that kept looking at their supply models, and it’s how China will be producing 3,217,000 barrels/day this year, and 3,281,000 barrels/day. And I basically said: “how do you all even know that. What are the 3 or 4 top fields in China?” And no one had any answers.

Nearly 1,000 Released From Abu Ghraib

The U.S. military announced Saturday that it has released nearly 1,000 prisoners from Abu Ghraib prison in response to a request by Iraqi authorities.

The move, the largest prisoner release to date, followed appeals by Sunni representatives to start releasing thousands of prisoners who have been languishing in the jail for months without being charged.

After a meeting with President Jalal Talabani Thursday, Sunni negotiator Saleh al-Mutlaq said the president agreed to release many detainees before the Oct. 15, referendum on the constitution. Al-Mutlaq said hundreds of detainees, most of them Sunni Arabs, were to be set free.

Billmon: What He Said

From Larry Johnson :A hard, clear-eyed look at the current situation in Iraq reveals that we are confronted with equally bad choices. If we stay we are facilitating the creation of an Islamic state that will be a client of Iran. If we pull out we are likely to leave the various ethnic groups of Iraq to escalate the civil war already underway. In my judgment we have no alternative but to pull our forces out of Iraq. Like it or not, such a move will be viewed as a defeat of the United States and will create some very serious foreign policy and security problems for us for years to come. However, we are unwilling to make the sacrifices required to achieve something approximating victory. And, what would victory look like? At a minimum we should expect a secular society where the average Iraqi can move around the country without fear of being killed or kidnapped. That is not the case nor is it on the horizon.

Digby: Expecting Different Results

I'm sure I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but as Dear Leader says "you gotta catapault the propaganda." Therefore, I hope you'll bear with me reiterating an earlier point as I discuss Wes Clark's WaPo op-ed.

I am, as many of you know, a fan of Clark's. I thought he would have made a good president, although I can see now that he isn't a real member of the club and would have had a terrible time navigating Washington as a politician at this point in history. (It's not that he doesn't know Washington, it's that he wasn't properly anointed. The Clinton's may have backed him, but let's not forget that the Clintons are considered tres nouveau establishment and are hardly to be trusted in such matters.) In any case, I'm always interested in what he has to say on Iraq because from the early days of the debacle, he was pounding on the fact that the military's mission was to secure the country for political ends --- which were never entirely clear.

DC Media Girl: O’Reilly goes batshit insane on TV

Problem? He goes after Manchester Union Leader publisher Joe McQuaid, who doesn’t put up with O’Reilly’s bullshit. I particularly love the "you’re a tinhorn" comment. This is one helluva video clip. Thanks, as always, to Crooks&Liars.

DC Media Girl: A Note About Hypocracy

I should have known that as soon as I posted that item about Duke Cunningham’s kid the e-mails would start coming in. "But..but..but...you’re supposed to be a liberal! You’re supposed to understand drug addicts! You only care when the addicts are right-wingers, or related to right wingers! Hypocrite!!"

Fair enough. Let’s discuss this question of drug addiction and hypocrisy.

The Mahablog: Exits and Strategies

Gen. Wes Clark's op ed about Iraq in today's Washington Post may, at least, help broker some peace between the "immediate-withdrawal" and "attempt to establish stability before withdrawal" factions of the Left. See, for example, reactions from Armando of Kos and Mark Kleiman.

Clark provides a brief overview of some of the ways the Bushies have screwed the pooch and suggests practical ways in which some goals might yet be achieved. But, as Armando says, Bushie mismanagement "has placed us on the brink in Iraq leaving us this close from having no options but to withdraw." Our debates over gradual versus immediate withdrawal may prove to be naught but exercises in rhetoric.

Arthur Silber: Our National Amnesia

August 26th, 2005

There has been much discussion lately regarding what to do about Iraq. I realize that many people are incapable of retaining information for longer than a week, but the extent to which most of the debate misses a crucial point is entirely remarkable. In a significant sense, all of the discussion about whether to increase troop levels (which every serious commentator acknowledges we can’t do, and even a draft wouldn’t alter the situation quickly enough to make a difference), whether to “stay the course,” and the like misses the central point.

Arthur Silber: Bush's Disastrous Folly

BUSH’S DISASTROUS FOLLY: “WE ARE ALL TARGETS FOR ASSASSINATION NOW”

August 26th, 2005

I noted yesterday some of the profoundly horrifying results of Bush’s Folly in Iraq. Here are some further consequences of our completely failed foreign policy. After describing a bombing that destroyed a shop on bookseller’s row, the article continues:

Ahmed Dulaimi, a young guitarist for Iraq’s only heavy metal band, told a story that has been going around Baghdad these last few weeks. There was an ice seller selling ice from a small shop on the sidewalk in the Dora neighborhood. One hot day, a man came up to him with a gun and said, “You shouldn’t be selling ice because the Prophet Mohammed didn’t have ice in his time.” Then the gunman shot the ice seller dead. This story terrifies Iraqis but they often laugh when they recount it, because it is absurd that anyone would get killed for selling ice or shaving a beard. It is also true that the ice-seller anecdote follows a pattern of killings around the capital where Islamic militants have regularly assassinated Iraqis for violating strict, and utterly random, codes of behavior. The point of the ice-seller story is that now, anyone in Iraq can be killed for any reason at all. After Hajji Qais was killed, more than one person mentioned these spontaneous assassinations, and they spoke about them the way they’d describe a sandstorm, an all-encompassing thing that no one can stop.

TBogg: I think we've seen this movie before

To start with, here is the Bush Vacation Death count : 75

The single worst day during the Bush holiday at Rancho Boraccho was Aug. 3 when 18 American soldiers died in action. A great many of those who died on that day were from Ohio:

Lance Cpl. Michael J. Cifuentes, 25, of Fairfield, Ohio
Lance Cpl. Aaron H. Reed, 21, of Chillicothe, Ohio
Lance Cpl. Edward A. Schroeder II, 23, of Columbus, Ohio
Lance Cpl. William B. Wightman, 22, of Sabina, Ohio
Lance Cpl. Timothy M. Bell Jr., 22, of West Chesterfield, Ohio
Lance Cpl. Eric J. Bernholtz, 23, of Grove City, Ohio
Sgt. Bradley J. Harper, 25, of Dresden, Ohio
Sgt. Justin F. Hoffman, 27, of Delaware, Ohio
Cpl. David Kenneth J. Kreuter, 26, of Cincinnati, Ohio

At the time this reminded me of something I had read some time ago.

Today I found it.

Cursor's Media Patrol - 08/26/05

With Iraq said to be 'on the brink of meltdown' as 'political violence surges,' Saddam Hussein loyalists walked the streets of Baghdad openly, "in black masks and carrying AK-47s and grenade launchers," and gunmen killed 8 presidential bodyguards.

Knight Ridder, reporting that insurgents have "fought the U.S. military to a stalemate" in Anbar province, where Marines and soldiers "have stopped talking about winning a military victory" and are no longer "referring to the enemy derisively as 'terrorists.'"

A Pentagon task force blamed a culture that devalues women for the prevalence of rape and sexual harassment at the Army and Navy academies, with panelists citing "groupthink" and "confusion" regarding "what is warrior ethos and what is offensive behavior."

'Radioactive Wounds of War' Dave Lindorff follows up on a New York Daily News report by "Democracy Now!" co-host Juan Gonzalez, on U.S. soldiers 'Poisoned' by exposure to depleted uranium.

An AP/Ipsos poll, which found 90 percent support for the right to protest against the war in Iraq, also found that "Republicans are the most likely to disapprove of people voicing opposition to the war."

A Crawford counter protestor and Iraq war vet tells Raw Story that "The people we are fighting now are the same people that bombed those World Trade Center towers."

Editor & Publisher boils down a "mammoth" Los Angeles Times report on 'A CIA cover blown, a White House exposed,' that "raises questions about the credibility of the Bush White House, the tactics it employs against political opponents and the justification it used for going to war." Plus: 'A funny little story about the media.

The Politics of Slander

Bill Berkowitz
August 26, 2005

With the president's poll numbers dropping and anti-Iraq war sentiment rising, the Heritage Foundation is sponsoring an event built around the premise that the anti-war movement is anti-American

Late in the evening of Wednesday, August 24, the Drudge Report featured the headline -- "ANTI-WAR PROTESTERS TARGET WOUNDED AT ARMY HOSPITAL" -- followed by this text:

"Anti-war protestors besieged wounded and disabled soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C, a new web report will claim!

"CNSNews.com (Cybercast News Service) is planning to run an expose on Thursday featuring interviews with both protestors and veterans, as well as shots of protest signs with slogans like 'Maimed for a Lie.'

FDA Delays Morning-After Pill Decision

Probably will be delayed until after the election--Dictynna

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer 36 minutes ago

The government on Friday put off its long-awaited final decision on whether to sell emergency contraception without a prescription, saying the pill was safe to sell over-the-counter to adults but grappling with how to keep it out of the hands of young teenagers.

The Food and Drug Administration postponed for 60 days a final decision on how to allow nonprescription sales of the morning-after pill called Plan B just to women 17 or older.

"Enforceability is the key question," said FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford.

The drug's maker, Barr Pharmaceuticals, criticized the decision, questioning how the agency could acknowledge that scientific evidence supported nonprescription sales and yet not allow those sales to begin.

"It's like being in purgatory," said Barr chief executive Bruce Downey.

The morning-after pill is a high dose of regular birth control that, taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, can lower the risk of pregnancy by up to 89 percent.

Study shows: Unemployment aids extremism

Public release date: 26-Aug-2005

Contact: Professor Armin Falk
Falk@iza.org
49-228-389-4112
University of Bonn
Study shows: Unemployment aids extremism
East-West divide mainly due to higher jobless levels in Eastern Germany
This press release is also available in German.

In Eastern Germany there are three times as many right-wing extremist crimes per inhabitant as in Western Germany. Is this the result of differing socialisation patterns, as politicians and others keep maintaining? Certainly not: the reason is primarily higher unemployment levels in former East Germany. This is the conclusion reached by researchers from the University of Bonn, the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) and the University of Zurich.

We are on a tram at night. A few people are dozing, one of them is African. Then two skinheads get on and start harassing him. "What do the others do? Do they look away, or do they help?" asks Professor Armin Falk, an economist at the Institute for the Study of Labor and the University of Bonn. He adds: "My theory is that it depends on the economic situation, among other factors. When the economy is in trouble latent racist attitudes begin to surface, and the willingness to stand up for non-German fellow citizens wanes. In this sort of climate right-wing extremist crimes flourish.

Lone Woman on Committee Feels Pull of Further Duty in Roberts Hearings

By DEAN E. MURPHY
Published: August 26, 2005

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 25 - It was the sight of Anita F. Hill being brusquely questioned by an all-male Senate Judiciary Committee about her sexual harassment charges against Clarence Thomas, then a United States Supreme Court nominee, that helped propel Dianne Feinstein into the Senate in 1992.

F.B.I., Using Patriot Act, Demands Library's Records

By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: August 26, 2005

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 - Using its expanded power under the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act, the F.B.I. is demanding library records from a Connecticut institution as part of an intelligence investigation, the American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday.

Top Official Urged Change in How Parks Are Managed

By FELICITY BARRINGER
Published: August 26, 2005

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 - A high-ranking appointee at the Interior Department proposed fundamentally changing the way national parks are managed, putting more emphasis on recreational use and loosening protections against overuse, noise and damage to the air, water, wildlife or scenery. But a group of senior National Park Service employees rejected the proposal at a meeting this month.

NYT ED: Snowmobile Deceit

Published: August 26, 2005

It's hard to think of another subject in the history of the national park system that has been as thoroughly studied as the use of snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park. Since 1996, there have been three major official assessments of snowmobiles' impact on the park in winter. Two of those were done during the Bush administration. Now a fourth major study has been authorized; it is to be completed by 2007, when the current three-year plan for winter use comes to an end. This new study will cost $2 million to $3 million - for a park that is annually underfinanced by nearly $23 million. There is only one conceivable reason for this study. It's part of the tried and true methodology of the Bush administration: if you don't like the results the first time, do it again and change the definitions so you do get the results you like.

Paul Krugman: Summer of Our Discontent

For the last few months there has been a running debate about the U.S. economy, more or less like this:

American families: "We're not doing very well."

Washington officials: "You're wrong - you're doing great. Here, look at these statistics!"

The administration and some political commentators seem genuinely puzzled by polls showing that Americans are unhappy about the economy. After all, they point out, numbers like the growth rate of G.D.P. look pretty good. So why aren't people cheering?

Some blame the negative halo effect of the Iraq debacle. Others complain that the news media aren't properly reporting good economic news. But when your numbers tell you that people should be feeling good, but they aren't, that means you're looking at the wrong numbers.

American families don't care about G.D.P. They care about whether jobs are available, how much those jobs pay and how that pay compares with the cost of living. And recent G.D.P. growth has failed to produce exceptional gains in employment, while wages for most workers haven't kept up with inflation.

Poll: Many Back Right to Protest Iraq War

By WILL LESTER, Associated Press WriterFri Aug 26, 7:21 AM ET

An overwhelming number of people say critics of the Iraq war should be free to voice their objections — a rare example of widespread agreement about a conflict that has divided the nation along partisan lines.

Nearly three weeks after a grieving California mother named Cindy Sheehan started her anti-war protest near President Bush's Texas ranch, nine of 10 people surveyed in an AP-Ipsos poll say it's OK for war opponents to publicly share their concerns about the conflict.

"Part of the Constitution is the First Amendment," said Mike Malone, a salesman from Odessa, Fla. "We have the right to disagree with the government."

With the U.S. death toll in Iraq climbing past 1,870 with an especially bloody August, the public's opinion of the Bush administration's handling of the war has been eroding over the past two years.

Schools block peace group

So recruiiters can get on campus, but not peace activists? Interesting...--Dictynna

Board says students, but not activists, can hand out anti-war material on campus

By JENNY LEE ALLEN
jenny.allen@heraldtribune.com

BRADENTON -- Paul Waters-Smith, 17, said military recruiters call students sissies and say things like "It's time to be a man" to try to get them to enlist.

On top of the harassment, recruiters target the weak and "promise things that will never happen," the Pine View High School senior said.

Waters-Smith was one of nearly 20 people who urged the Manatee County School Board on Monday night to let groups on campus to counter the messages of the recruiters.

The real problem with Bush's holiday is that it won't stop when he goes back to work.

It's Not About the Mountain Bike
The real problem with Bush's holiday is that it won't stop when he goes back to work.
By Bruce Reed
Updated Friday, Aug. 26, 2005, at 6:58 AM PT

Friday, Aug. 26, 2005

Groundhog Day Off: George Bush desperately wants history to remember him as the Sept. 11 President. In speeches, he sounds like a wartime Bill Murray, who wakes up every morning only to find that it is still 9/11.

That's more or less what the country wanted: a commander in chief who'd worry about the war on terror so we didn't have to. These days, however, Bush doesn't look like a Sept. 11 President at all. With each passing day, he acts more like the last thing the country wanted: an August President, who leaves all the worrying to us.

August is the siesta month, when we shut down our brains, head on holiday, and spend money while doing nothing to earn it. We go back and forth between a deep desire to squeeze in every last moment of idle repose, and a vague sense of dread about what lies in store.

Concessions Standoff

Concessions Standoff
Can the Iraqi Constitution be saved?
By Fred Kaplan
Posted Friday, Aug. 26, 2005, at 9:05 AM PT

What are the prospects for the Iraqi Constitution? And what does that question have to do with the prospects for Iraq?

Both matters are hazy, given the stretched-out proceedings and multiple delays of the National Assembly over the last two weeks: the sporadic refrains of imminent breakthrough, then breakdown. After Thursday night's persistent deadlock, it now seems that the Shiite and Kurdish delegates will simply bypass their Sunni colleagues and pass the draft constitution on to the Iraqi people in an Oct. 15 referendum.

Patriotic Bore

by DANIEL LAZARE

[from the September 12, 2005 issue]

Although undoubtedly one of the most glorious events in history, the American Revolution was also a bloody mess. It gave rise to a war that raged for fully half a dozen years, claiming the life of one colonist in a hundred. Proportionally speaking, it generated five times as many political exiles per capita as the French Revolution and saw roughly the same amount of revolutionary confiscations of private property. But if anyone questions whether it was worth it, he or she need only take a look at political conditions north of the border. Canada, where most of America's counterrevolutionary émigrés wound up, is today an increasingly authoritarian society in which elections are stolen, political corruption is rampant and religious fundamentalists hurl thunderbolts while liberals scurry for cover. Thanks to its infinitely more progressive foundations, the United States is the opposite--a sunny, relaxed social democracy admired the world over for its humane attitudes and nonviolent ways.

Er, perhaps we ought to take this once more from the top.

Who's Next?

by KAREN HOUPPERT

[from the September 12, 2005 issue]

The US Army Recruiting Command has a motto: "First to contact, first to contract." In the school recruiting handbook the Army gives to the 7,500 recruiters it has trawling the nation these days, the motto crops up so often it serves as a stuttering paean to aggressive new tactics--tactics that target increasingly younger students.

To make sure they are the first folks to contact students about their future plans, Army recruiters are ordered to approach tenth, eleventh and twelfth graders--repeatedly. Army officials spell out the rules of engagement: Recruiters are told to dig in deep at their assigned high schools, to offer their services as assistant football coaches--or basketball coaches or track coaches or wrestling coaches or baseball coaches (interestingly, not softball coaches or volleyball coaches)--to "offer to be a chaperon [sic] or escort for homecoming activities and coronations" (though not thespian ones), to "Deliver donuts and coffee for the faculty once a month," to participate visibly in Hispanic Heritage and Black History Month activities, to "get involved with local Boy Scout troops" (Girl Scouts aren't mentioned), to "offer to be a timekeeper at football games," to "serve as test proctors," to "eat lunch in the school cafeteria several times each month" and to "always remember secretary's week with a card or flowers." They should befriend student leaders and school staff: "Know your student influencers," they are told. "Identify these individuals and develop them as COIs" (centers of influence). After all, "some influential students such as the student president or the captain of the football team may not enlist; however, they can and will provide you with referrals who will enlist." Cast a wide net, recruiters are told. Go for the Jocks, but don't ignore the Brains. "Encourage college-capable individuals to defer their college until they have served in the Army."

Before It's Too Late in Iraq

By Wesley K. Clark

Friday, August 26, 2005; Page A21

In the old, familiar fashion, mounting U.S. casualties in Iraq have mobilized increasing public doubts about the war. More than half the American people now believe that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake. They're right. But it would also be a mistake to pull out now, or to start pulling out or to set a date certain for pulling out. Instead we need a strategy to create a stable, democratizing and peaceful state in Iraq -- a strategy the administration has failed to develop and articulate.

Director of NIH Agrees To Loosen Ethics Rules

By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 26, 2005; Page A19

Flooded with 1,300 comments by employees and threats of high-level defections, the head of the National Institutes of Health agreed yesterday to loosen some of the ethics rules he unveiled in February.

Under the final regulations, about 200 senior staff members will be required to divest large stock holdings in drug and biotechnology companies, NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni said. That is far fewer than the 6,000 employees who would have had to divest under his original proposal to strengthen conflict-of-interest rules at the world's premier biomedical research agency.

Military Academies Faulted on Harassment

Associated Press
Friday, August 26, 2005; Page A11

Hostile attitudes and inappropriate treatment of women persist at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, a Pentagon task force reported yesterday.

The panel called for better training of future officers at the academies, saying the value of women in the military should be better emphasized. It said current training regarding sexual harassment and assault issues is inadequate, resulting in misunderstandings by cadets and midshipmen about how to obtain medical care, counseling and legal assistance.

Political Violence Surges in Iraq

Two-Day Toll Reaches 100;Third Charter Deadline Missed

By Ellen Knickmeyer and Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, August 26, 2005; Page A01

BAGHDAD, Aug. 26 -- Political violence surged Thursday along many of Iraq's ethnic and sectarian fault lines, while Shiite and Sunni Arab political leaders haggled past a third deadline without reaching accord on a draft constitution.

As the two-day death toll around Iraq reached 100, fighting between two powerful Shiite militias in the southern city of Najaf subsided, with 19 reported dead overall. The clashes Wednesday night and Thursday between the Mahdi Army, loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, and fighters allegedly linked to the government-allied Badr Organization were the deadliest between Iraqi militia forces since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

Cursor's Media Patrol - 08/25/05

Completing a trifecta, President Bush said in a speech that "So long as I'm the president, we will stay" in Iraq, and a senior U.S. commander "said American planners were preparing for a 'long war' with Islamist militants who may move on from Iraq and Afghanistan if those countries stabilize."

Iraq's draft constitution is called "a time bomb that will explode as soon as it's enacted," and "a recipe for separation based on Shiite and Kurdish privilege."

Referencing two recent columns by Paul Krugman, Robert Parry traces the U.S. media's role in "building a protective cocoon" around the Bush presidency back to Florida in 2000, when "they bent over backwards to concoct hypothetical situations in which George W. Bush might still have won the presidency."

As the homeland popularity gap between two leaders widens, Lloyd Hart uncovers a White House strategy based on 'Turning Chavez Into Noriega,' with a little help from the media.

Forest Service Admits Logging Mistake

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 25, 2005

Filed at 7:46 a.m. ET

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- The Forest Service admitted Wednesday to making a ''serious'' mistake that allowed the logging of 17 acres inside a rare tree reserve as part of the salvage harvest of timber burned by a fire in 2002.

The logging inside the 350-acre Babyfoot Lake Botanical Area, created in 1966 to protect Brewer spruce and other rare plant species in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, was discovered last week by environmentalists after the timber was harvested and a forest closure intended to bar protesters was lifted.

Iraqi Leaders Again Put Off Meeting on New Constitution

By DEXTER FILKINS
and KIRK SEMPLE
Published: August 25, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 25 - The National Assembly today called off a meeting that was scheduled to decide on the draft constitution, the Speaker's office said, and no new date for the meeting was immediately announced.
Skip to next paragraph
Reuters

A vote on the document was originally deferred Monday by the Speaker, Hajim al-Hassani, who said three days of talks would be held to try to win over Sunni Arab negotiators.

It appears, however, that no agreement has been reached so far with the Sunnis on the question of federalism, which would essentially set up powerful local regions instead of a strong central government.

Justice Weighs Desire v. Duty (Duty Prevails)

By LINDA GREENHOUSE
Published: August 25, 2005

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 - It is not every day that a Supreme Court justice calls his own decisions unwise. But with unusual candor, Justice John Paul Stevens did that last week in a speech in which he explored the gap that sometimes lies between a judge's desire and duty.

Addressing a bar association meeting in Las Vegas, Justice Stevens dissected several of the recent term's decisions, including his own majority opinions in two of the term's most prominent cases. The outcomes were "unwise," he said, but "in each I was convinced that the law compelled a result that I would have opposed if I were a legislator."

Study Finds 29-Week Fetuses Probably Feel No Pain and Need No Abortion Anesthesia

By DENISE GRADY
Published: August 24, 2005

Taking on one of the most highly charged questions in the abortion debate, a team of doctors has concluded that fetuses probably cannot feel pain in the first six months of gestation and therefore do not need anesthesia during abortions.

Gross-Out of the Day

Age-Old Cures, Like the Maggot, Get U.S. Hearing

By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: August 25, 2005

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 - Flesh-eating maggots and bloodsucking leeches, long thought of as the tools of bygone medicine, have experienced a quiet renaissance among high-tech surgeons, and for two days beginning Thursday a federal board of medical advisers will discuss how to regulate them.

Leeches, it turns out, are particularly good at draining excess blood from surgically reattached or transplanted appendages. As microsurgeons tackle feats like reattaching hands, scalps and even faces, leeches have become indispensable.

Sheehan 'Swift Boaters' GOP PR firm

Republican Shills

Move America Forward ( the Hate crowd ) was outed today by Keith Olbermann as having been launched by a Sacramento P.R. firm which has strong ties to the Republican party. Later in the segment Dana Milbank said that they were part of the Orin Hatch for President campaign. lol That's grassroots for you. This diary at Kos was the first one that I found which uncovered the scam.

Exclusive: Downing Street reporter dissects pre-war Iraq intelligence

Michael Smith

Details 'chill factor' imposed around Iraq intelligence; Putting Downing Street docs in perspective

LONDON -- "The [U.S. WMD] Commission found no evidence of political pressure to influence the Intelligence Community's pre-war assessment of Iraq's weapons programs."

That is only one of a number of strange conclusions by those charged with investigating the way flaky intelligence was used to justify the 2003 Iraq War.

The most vociferous advocates of an attack on Iraq were Dick Cheney, the vice-president, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Rumsfeld deputy Paul Wolfowitz. They needed Congressional support and set about obtaining it in an aggressive fashion, insisting that not only did Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction threaten America and its allies but that the dictator was closely linked to al-Qa'eda.

Low Concept: The Parable of Jesus and the Rubber Chicken

What if Christ spoke at a Republican Party fund-raiser?
By Tom Peyer
Posted Thursday, Aug. 25, 2005, at 4:21 AM PT

TRANSCRIPT OF JESUS CHRIST'S REMARKS AT A REPUBLICAN PARTY FUND-RAISER, CRAWFORD, TEXAS, AUGUST 2005

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm going to have a hard time living up to an introduction like that. (LAUGHTER)

First, let Me express My gratitude for your support over the last few years. It's nice to be thought of as a winner for a change. If I had known we'd get the House, the Senate, and two consecutive terms in the White House (APPLAUSE)—if I'd known all that, I would have had an easier time that Friday on the Cross, let me tell you. (LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)

Bolton Tries To Squash Development Goals, Climate Change In First Act

US urges quick negotiations, changes on UN reform

By Evelyn Leopold
Reuters
Wednesday, August 24, 2005; 11:01 PM

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador John Bolton urged U.N. member nations on Wednesday in a letter to accelerate negotiations on development, security and human rights proposals less than a month before 175 world leaders are to approve reform proposals at a summit.

Bolton's letter, circulated to the other 190 ambassadors, at the United Nations comes a week after the United States submitted more than 500 amendments to a draft document diplomats have been negotiating for six months, causing some envoys to panic that agreement might not be reached.

GOP Fears Gas Price Anger May Spill Over

By Richard Simon and Mary Curtius, Times Staff Writers

WASHINGTON — As consumers feel pain at the pump, record high gas prices are registering as a political problem with congressional Republicans.

At a town hall meeting this week, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) wanted to talk about Social Security and Medicare, but the session quickly turned to gas prices.

When Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) toured a Veterans Affairs clinic Wednesday, the first question put to her was: "What are you going to do about the high price of gasoline?"

And a growing number of GOP officials worry that, as the party in power, Republicans will pay their own high price — at the ballot box. They are scrambling to find ways to respond.

"People are mad as hell," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said.

Bad Moon Arising

Max B. Sawicky
August 25, 2005

Max B. Sawicky is an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. He can be reached at his blog, MaxSpeak, You Listen!

While last week we were distracted by some euphoric fluff about this year's budget deficit, serious problems are brewing. The U.S. economy is facing two giant imbalances: the projected gap between tax revenues and federal spending, and the current, growing gap between what the U.S. buys and what it sells to the rest of the world. The measure of our political system's vacuity, fed by a brainless commercial media, is the inability or unwillingness to put these issues on the table. Consequently, when forced to deal with a crisis, the remedies are likely to be short-sighted, panicky and stupid.

In light of the interesting times that lie ahead, whatever happens to the 2005 or 2006 deficit is not even a sideshow; it's a flea circus.

Mobil, CIA Secrets May Come Out in Bribery Trial of Oil Adviser

Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) -- In the mid-1990s, long before oil prices topped $60 a barrel, U.S. companies sought access to Kazakhstan, a Central Asian nation that the U.S. State Department says will be among the world's top 10 producers of crude by 2015.

First, they had to win approval from Jim Giffen, a New York investment banker who became an official in Kazakhstan's government and held sway over its energy deals.

``You couldn't go to a Kazakh minister, particularly if you were an American company, without going through Giffen,'' says Ed Chow, who managed external affairs at Chevron Overseas Petroleum Ltd., a unit of San Ramon, California-based Chevron Corp.

Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company, avoided Giffen by arriving in the country before he amassed power, says Chow, 55, who's now an oil and gas consultant in Leesburg, Virginia. Others couldn't.

Official in Racial Profiling Study Demoted

Justice Department Denies Political Pressure; Lawmaker Demands Investigation

By Dan Eggen

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 25, 2005; Page A07

The ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee called for a congressional investigation yesterday into allegations that a Justice Department official is being demoted after attempting to publicize findings that police treated Hispanic and black drivers more aggressively than whites during traffic stops.

Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) said he was preparing a request for an "independent review" by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, which will be asked to examine the personnel issues and the formulation of the study itself.

U.S. Wants Changes In U.N. Agreement

By Colum Lynch

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 25, 2005; Page A01

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 24 -- Less than a month before world leaders arrive in New York for a world summit on poverty and U.N. reform, the Bush administration has thrown the proceedings in turmoil with a call for drastic renegotiation of a draft agreement to be signed by presidents and prime ministers attending the event.

Cursor's Media Patrol - 08/24/05

Salon shows and tells in analyzing the American media's role in helping to make sure that Iraq remains 'The Unseen War.'

"What will history say about an opposition party that stands silent while all this goes on?" asks Gary Hart, who writes that "to harbor the thought that the administration's misfortune is the Democrats' fortune, is cowardly."

The Bush administration's 'Gas-Guzzler Relief Act' is said to offer "a minuscule change in fuel economy standards," and to create new loopholes which "encourage manufacturers to bulk up their trucks so they ... don't have to get as good mileage."

Leaders at the Traditional Values Coalition, the Family Research Council and the Christian Coalition, were reportedly "too busy to comment" on the remarks made by Robertson, about whom it is being asked: 'Out of His Mind or in the Loop?'

Questioning the benefit of a one-time tax holiday on foreign profits, a former Bush administration economic adviser said that "you might as well have taken a helicopter over 90210 [Beverly Hills] and pushed the money out the door. That would have stimulated the economy as well."

High Impact, Low Maintenance

Bill Berkowitz
August 24, 2005

The GOP is counting on Bishop Harry Jackson and his High Impact Leadership Coalition to bring African Americans to the Party

In the group photo publicizing "Justice Sunday II," one man stands out among the group of Christian right luminaries. It is not because he is the only guy not wearing a dark suit or because he is one of the biggest folks in the room. Bishop Harry Jackson stands out because he is the only African American in the picture. Over the past year, Jackson, who was the featured African American speaker at the "Justice Sunday II" rally, has become one of the religious right's go-to-guys.

One month before the presidential election, Bishop Jackson envisioned the future, and it had a second term for President George W. Bush writ large all over it. In a commentary posted on The Elijah List (website) -- "Discover what God's Prophets and Prophetic People are Saying Daily" -- Jackson wrote that he "support[ed] George Bush" and he believed "that the Black vote will push him over the top."

Nonprofits Cloak Donors to Governor

By Robert Salladay and Peter Nicholas Times Staff WritersWed Aug 24, 7:55 AM ET

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is benefiting from millions of dollars raised by a network of tax-exempt groups without revealing that the money comes from major corporations with business before his office.

The groups are run by Schwarzenegger's closest political allies, who also represent some of California's biggest interest groups. Unlike the governor's many campaign funds, the nonprofits are not required to disclose their contributors and can accept unlimited amounts.

One group controlled by a powerful corporate consultant pays the $6,000-a-month rent on a Sacramento hotel suite used by the governor, who is a multimillionaire. Others have funded media events and political rallies featuring Schwarzenegger and helped pay for his foreign travel. So far, five tax-exempt groups aiding Schwarzenegger have collected $3 million.

Other elected officials also raise money through nonprofit groups. But Schwarzenegger campaigned on creating an open government answerable to the public. His use of the nonprofit groups has the opposite effect, ethics watchdogs said.

CBN Idiocy: How Leftists Aid Radical Islam

By Dale Hurd

CBN News Sr. Reporter

CBN.com –The London subway bombing was never supposed to happen in Britain, according to the British left.

For years they have said the U.S. War on Terror was a fraud , and the al-Qaeda threat was made-up. Summed up in the popular BBC TV series "The Power of Nightmares," the War on Terror has been a White House scheme to dominate the world. That's the same view as Al-Qaeda's, by the way.

It's alleged that the radical left in the west has forged an alliance with radical Muslims who want to destroy the west. CBN News witnessed this strange coalition in London in 2003: a massive anti-American, anti-war demonstration by radical leftists and radical Muslims. They are two groups with seemingly nothing in common except hatred of America, capitalism, and Israel.

Atrios: What People Care About

When something like this happens:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 - The Bush administration is replacing the director of a small but critical branch of the Justice Department, months after he complained that senior political officials at the department were seeking to play down newly compiled data on the aggressive police treatment of black and Hispanic drivers.

The demotion of the official, Lawrence A. Greenfeld, whom President Bush named in 2001 to lead the Bureau of Justice Statistics, caps more than three years of simmering tensions over charges of political interference at the agency. And it has stirred anger and tumult among many Justice Department statisticians, who say their independence in analyzing important law enforcement data has been compromised.

Officials at the White House and the Justice Department said no political pressure had been exerted over the statistics branch. But they declined to discuss the job status of Mr. Greenfeld, who told his staff several weeks ago that he had been asked to move on after 23 years of generally high marks as a statistician and supervisor at the agency. Mr. Greenfeld, who was initially threatened with dismissal and the possible loss of some pension benefits, is expected to leave the agency soon for a lesser position at another agency.

what isn't really answered is, why? What possible reason would the Bush administration have for wanting to downplay this kind of thing?

Is Blair Off To Join $30BN World Elite?

HE'S EYEING UP £250K JOB WITH ARMS TRADE LINK FIRM

Exclusive By Rupert Hamer

TONY Blair is expected to join one of the most exclusive groups of businessmen in the world after he leaves Downing Street.

The PM is being lined up for a highly lucrative position with the Carlyle Group - an American-based investment giant with strong links to the White House and the defence industry.

Billmon: Axis of Evil

It seems Shrub and the mullahs in Iran have at least one thing in common: they both really like the new "draft" Iraqi constitution -- or they will like it, once it actually exists.

Iran hails Iraq draft constitution

"The composition of Iraq's constitution is an very valuable and important step towards the independence and integration of Iraq," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told official media. "It will help the Iraqi nation to gain security, establishment of peace and sovereignty."

You know, it's almost as if Bush and Asefi were sharing the same talking points.

Billmon: Down the River

Secular Iraqis said on Wednesday a proposed new constitution left no room for doubt about the Islamist path the country was heading down two years after a U.S.-led invasion was supposed to produce greater freedoms . . .

The draft says Islam is the official religion of the state and there can be no law that contradicts the "fixed principles of its rulings." . . . Language guaranteeing "rights and freedoms" is subordinate to the primary position given to Islam, opponents say.

Reuters
Iraq secularists denounce "Islamist" constitution
August 24, 2005

"When we came back from exile, we thought we were going to improve rights and the position of women. But look what has happened -- we have lost all the gains we made over the last 30 years. It's a big disappointment."

Safia Taleb al-Souhail
Iraq's ambassador to Egypt
Reuters interview
August 24, 2005

Billmon: Is Anybody Listening?

Some stories are so obvious that I fool myself into thinking the facts will speak for themselves. I forget that we don't live in that kind of world any more (if we ever did) and that amensia is no longer just a chronic condition for the corporate media but also a willful one.

So, to drive the point of my last post home a little harder, let me summarize:

The White House propaganda maestros used an Iraqi women's rights activist as a living prop at Shrub's state of the union address earlier this year, whipping wing nut war hawks and media dingdongs alike into a frenzy of teary-eyed patriotism. They also arranged for her to stand immediately in front of the mother of a Marine killed in action in Iraq -- setting the scene for a "spontaneous" hug that reduced a national television audience to quivering lumps of sentimental jello and left Joe Klein spitting phlegm-coated bile at the Democratic Party.

Billmon: Aid and Comfort

"The American Legion will stand against anyone and any group that would demoralize our troops, or worse, endanger their lives by encouraging terrorists to continue their cowardly attacks against freedom-loving peoples," Thomas Cadmus, national commander, told delegates at the group's national convention in Honolulu" . . . "We had hoped that the lessons learned from the Vietnam War would be clear to our fellow citizens. Public protests against the war here at home while our young men and women are in harm's way on the other side of the globe only provide aid and comfort to our enemies."

Editor & Publisher
American Legion Declares War on Protestors
August 24, 2005

(via Atrios)

______________________

Dear Mr. President:

The American Legion, a wartime veterans organization of nearly three-million members, urges the immediate withdrawal of American troops participating in "Operation Allied Force.''

The National Executive Committee of The American Legion, meeting in Indianapolis today, adopted Resolution 44, titled "The American Legion's Statement on Yugoslavia.'' This resolution was debated and adopted unanimously.

Mr. President, the United States Armed Forces should never be committed to wartime operations unless the following conditions are fulfilled:

• That there be a clear statement by the President of why it is in our vital national interests to be engaged in hostilities;

• Guidelines be established for the mission, including a clear exit strategy;

• That there be support of the mission by the U.S. Congress and the American people; and

• That it be made clear that U.S. Forces will be commanded only by U.S. officers whom we acknowledge are superior military leaders.

It is the opinion of The American Legion, which I am sure is shared by the majority of Americans, that three of the above listed conditions have not been met in the current joint operation with NATO ("Operation Allied Force'').

In no case should America commit its Armed Forces in the absence of clearly defined objectives agreed upon by the U.S. Congress in accordance with Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution of the United States.

Sincerely,
Harold L. "Butch'' Miller,
National Commander

American Legion
Letter to President Clinton
May 5, 1999

Billmon: Settling All Family Business

The Badr Organization -- the party militia of the Iranian-backed Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq -- moved against its enemies on several fronts today, possibly triggering the start of a full-scale civil war in Iraq.

At a minimum, it's going to make the Cheney administration's stay-the-course snow job an even harder sell.

The wires, as well as Chris Allbritton at Back to Iraq 3.0, are reporting that Badr units in the holy city of Najaf attacked the offices of archrival Moqtada Sadr, killing more than 20 of Sadr's supporters and burning the place to the ground.

The Daily Howler - 08/24/05

JFK WAS JUST COOLER! Why did the press feel disdain for Clinton? He just wasn’t cool, Harris says: // link // print // previous // next //

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2005

STILL MONKEYS AFTER ALL THESE YEARS: How pre-human is American discourse? Last night, Larry King conducted a lengthy discussion on evolution and Intelligent Design. And no, we aren’t kidding; here was the first exchange, between Larry and author John MacArthur:

KING (8/23/05): John MacArthur, do you believe that the world is only 5,000 years old?

MACARTHUR: No, I wouldn't say necessarily 5,000. But I would say I doubt that it's more than 10,000 years old.

KING: So all this other proof of millions of years, cavemen, don't mean anything?

MACARTHUR: Well, I think there may have been cavemen, but I don't think millions of years has been proven.

King double-checked. “You don't think any of that has been proven?” he asked. Suitably assured that his guest didn’t think so, he turned toward a scientist lady (Barbara Forrest) and posed the following question:

KING: All right, hold on. Dr. Forrest, your concept of—how can you out-and-out turn down creationism, since if evolution is true, why are there still monkeys?

Jesus' General Offers a Brilliant Suggestion

Call to duty

Gen. Abizaid needs my help spreading the good news about Iraq:

Hello JC,

I am a Public Affairs Officer writing from US Central Command. I would like to inquire about the possibility of you posting a link to our web site. I see that you are covering a lot of different types of stories in a lot of countries. I would like to get some of the stories out that are happening in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa. This is the area of responsibility for CENTCOM. Due to the nature of your blog, and the wide variety of information you cover, your blog is ideal for news stories. I have attached a couple of postings that have been used by other Bloggers,
please let me know.

Thanks for your time.

Here's some graphics to assist.

Central Command Website: US Central Command

Brian M. Anderson

1LT Brian M. Anderson MS, USAR
CENTCOM Public Affairs Officer

1LT Brian M. Anderson, USAR
CENTCOM Public Affairs Officer

cc: Pat Robertson

Dear Lt. Anderson,

I am honored that you've asked me to serve as a domestic information warrior in the War to Lay the Groundwork for A Democratic Iraq. I've reviewed your website and was pleasantly surprised to see just how well things are going. I mean, my gosh, it's amazing. There isn't a single piece of bad news posted there. It's like a preview of what our media will look like once we finally rid ourselves of the extremist element within our borders.

TBogg: "Yeah. I fought in the big one....Well, it was big to me."

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

The American Legion's High Poofty Grand Jabberwock Thomas Cadmus says:

"The American Legion will stand against anyone and any group that would demoralize our troops, or worse, endanger their lives by encouraging terrorists to continue their cowardly attacks against freedom-loving peoples..."

[...]

"For many of us, the visions of Jane Fonda glibly spouting anti-American messages with the North Vietnamese and protestors denouncing our own forces four decades ago is forever etched in our memories. We must never let that happen again….

Cadmus is a United States Army veteran where he served as an Armored Reconnaissance Specialist from 1965 to 1967. He left the Army as a Specialist 5th (E-5). During his time in the Army he was stationed at Fort Knox, Ky. and Munich, Germany.

Soooo...any lessons he learned about Vietnam during his two years of service he obviously learned from afar. Or, to put it another way:

Jane Fonda spent more time in Vietnam than Thomas Cadmus did.

Lesson learned.

Arthur Silber: Fascism Rising, And The Media Declares War On Itself

August 24th, 2005

“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.”—Sinclair Lewis, who wrote an entire novel describing how it might happen

Story today (via Atrios):

The American Legion, which has 2.7 million members, has declared war on antiwar protestors, and the media could be next. Speaking at its national convention in Honolulu, the group’s national commander called for an end to all “public protests” and “media events” against the war, even though they are protected by the Bill of Rights.

“The American Legion will stand against anyone and any group that would demoralize our troops, or worse, endanger their lives by encouraging terrorists to continue their cowardly attacks against freedom-loving peoples,” Thomas Cadmus, national commander, told delegates at the group’s national convention in Honolulu.

James Wolcott: Pigeon Poop

As my faithful readers know, I draw many, if not most, if not all of my analogies from Seinfeld. And I'm about to do so again.

Yesterday we saw the backfire over Pat Robertson's call for the assassination of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. It was rather comic how, even in the condemnation of Robertson's statement, the man behind the mouth was diminuitized as a sort of quaint old garden gnome whose name recognition was all out of proportion to his influence. The State Department called his murdermongering "inappropriate" (pretty rough language there, sailor), but described Robertson modestly as a "private citizen." He's rather more than that. A former Republican presidential candidate and former head of the Christian Coalition, he isn't just some guy popping off at the end of the salad bar.

Bush: We will stay, We will fight, We will win!

Is Bush on drugs? He is more "animated" than I think I've ever seen him. He's all hunched over, swinging his arms wildly, screaming into the microphone. It's quite a performance.

My favorite line so far is the patented "they can run but they can't hide." C'mon. You just have to sit back and admire the sheer audacity of continuing to say that after four long years.

Digby: Christian Assassination Doctrine

I don't know if I heard this right, but I think that one of the CNN anchorettes just asked a first amendment expert if Pat Robertson's statement should fall under freedom of religion since he was advocating "the idea of taking out one very bad individual to save thousands of others."

The Mahablog: What's New?

I take it nothing earth-shattering happened last week. As far as I can tell, the only significant development is the (very slow) realization, dawning in a few rightie minds, that Iraq could become an Islamic theocracy.

This post by rightie blogger Professor Bainbridge presents the same arguments against the war that we liberals were making before it happened.

... if Iraq's alleged WMD programs were the casus belli, why aren't we at war with Iran and North Korea? Not to mention Pakistan, which remains the odds-on favorite to supply the Islamofascists with a working nuke. If Saddam's cruelty to his own people was the casus belli, why aren't we taking out Kim Jong Il or any number of other nasty dictators? Indeed, what happened to the W of 2000, who correctly proclaimed nation building a failed cause and an inappropriate use of American military might? ...

...The trouble with Bush's justification for the war is that it uses American troops as fly paper. Send US troops over to Iraq, where they'll attract all the terrorists, who otherwise would have come here, and whom we'll then kill. This theory has proven fallacious. ...

TBogg: Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's cheap gasoline

Today I purchased my first $40 tank of gas. Based upon the meter on the pump that I used, the person that preceded me had just driven away with slightly over $76 worth. On Saturday I was talking to an acquaintance who has a Hummer H2. He estimated that he will spend approximately over $6500 this year on gas for the pleasure of driving a pimped-out military vehicle down to Target to buy Snapple.

That's nuts.

But speaking from the rarified air of Mt. Axiomatic comes the phlegmatic intonations of George Will who tells us to quit our whining.

Cursor's Media Patrol: 08/23/05

Iraqi leaders employed "a legal sleight of hand ... claiming they had met their deadline, but granting themselves another extension," as they submitted a constitution under which "no law may contradict" either Islamic or democratic standards.

The Times of London describes the maneuver: "To loud applause, the speaker announced that the deadline had been met. Then to stunned confusion, he dismissed parliament without a vote, calling for three more days of talks."

President Bush mentioned 9/11 five times in a 30-minute speech to the VFW convention "in the conservative bastion of Utah," and Norman Solomon warns that "the Bush administration may ratchet up the Iraq war."

"The time for the press to act, if it ever does, is now," says Editor and Publisher's Greg Mitchell, who notes that even the Dallas Morning News is "taken aback by the disconnect between Mr. Bush's oratory and the situation on the ground in Iraq."

As coverage of 'The "Big Lie" on Bush's Nightstand' "makes you wonder if the mainstream outlets are catching on, finally," a helpful editor suggests '13 Problem-solving Books for George.'

"The issues in the Iraq war are the structure of the Iraqi state, the respect of Iraqi nationalism, the constitutional and legal status of Islam, and the meaning of democracy," writes Olivier Roy, adding that "the terrorists have no interest in any of these issues." Read a review of books about Jihad that includes Roy's "Globalized Islam."

A previously secret group of U.S. and international scientists has reportedly eliminated "the biggest smoking gun that everyone was waving" as proof that Iran was making bomb-grade ingredients in a clandestine weapons program.

The Daily Howler - 08/23/05

CONTEMPT AND DISDAIN! Harris describes the press corps’ disdain for Clinton, going where career liberals won’t: // link // print // previous // next //

TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2005

LET’S PLAY FREEFALL: Norah O’Donnell’s freefall continued as she guest-hosted last night’s Hardball. During one segment, she spoke with Colleen Rowley, the former FBI analyst who is now running for Congress as a Democrat. Rowley had recently gone to Crawford to show support for Cindy Sheehan. Try to believe O’Donnell’s questions and the fractured logic they describe:

O`DONNELL: You`re a Democrat running for Congress. It was reported that Republican leaders in your state were just thrilled that you had decided to align yourself with anti-war extremists. Do you think that this could affect your race for Congress?

ROWLEY: Well, I will quickly correct the record, that they are not anti-war extremists. The majority of the people I saw down in Crawford were actually veterans groups. There were military families and—

O`DONNELL: But, Colleen, they do oppose the war in Iraq, do they not?

By O’Donnell’s apparent logic, if you “oppose the war in Iraq,” that makes you an “anti-war extremist.”

Atrios: An American Patriot

Caption:

Bill Moyer, 73, wears a "Bullshit Protector" flap over his ear while President George W. Bush addresses the Veterans of Foreign Wars. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)

Avedon Carol: What the Papers Say

More whining Republicans: Governor Ehrlich (R-MD) is being a cry-baby over the fact that he is being investigated for his unethical firings of state workers in order to replace them with his own partisans. Naturally, he is accusing Democrats of "partisanship" for wanting to put a stop to it.

Ehrlich is also fighting to have paperless, hackable machines counting the votes in Maryland, which he probably needs desperately to stay in the Governor's mansion at this point. Even the WaPo can figure out that there's something wrong with that, although their insistence that, "Computerized voting systems are the way to go in Maryland and elsewhere," has some holes in it, too. And, as a reminder: "The state legislature did vote this year for an official review of electronic systems, but Mr. Ehrlich would not buy even this weak move; he vetoed the bill." Why is that? Why is it that Republicans are so adamantly against any moves to ensure voting integrity?

Avedon Carol: The So-Called Liberal Media

You may remember this Richard Posner article from last month in which he wrote about the media and trotted out all the usual right-wing canards. Even if you didn't read it (and why should you?), you might find it rewarding to read the letters in response from Bill Moyers and Eric Alterman, both of whom put the lie to the old talking points. Oh, there's also a letter from the paper's very own executive editor, Bill Keller, which is a remarkable exercise in lack of self-knowledge. There are also a couple of others, one of which, in its entirety, reads:

The photos selected to accompany Richard Posner's essay say far more about media bias than the words do. The conservatives - Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge and Trent Lott - look like clowns. The liberals - Dan Rather and Bill Moyers - look serious and intelligent. [-- Bob Hoffman]

Well, actually, no, it doesn't say anything about media bias; it's just that Limbaugh, Drudge, and Lott really do look like clowns.

Billmon: Squeeze Play

You probably remember the famous line from the Vietnam War: "In order to save the village, it was necessary to destroy it." We've already seen it repeated over and over again on the ground in Iraq -- so many times that even a Republican Senator from Nebraska can hear it. Now it looks like we're going to get the political version:

Shiites and Kurds were sending a draft constitution to parliament on Monday that would fundamentally change Iraq, transforming the country into a loose federation, with a weak central administration governed by Islamic law, negotiators said.

The draft, slated for action by a Monday deadline, would be a sweeping rejection of the demands of Iraq's disaffected Sunni minority, which has called the proposed federal system the start of the breakup of Iraq. Shiites and Kurds indicated they were in no mood to compromise.

Aside from the emphemeral propaganda benefits of finally having a document that can be called a constitution (and avoiding the propaganda debacle of yet another blown deadline) the United States gains nothing from this sectarian power play -- which surely won't prevent the Cheney administration and its conservative media claque from hailing it as yet another "turning point" in the war. There's always room for another illusion in the fantasy world that now passes for foreign policy in this country.

Billmon: Disable Danger

All wing nuts report to battle stations! The vast liberal conspiracy to conceal Bill Clinton's responsibility for 9/11 has seized control of the Department of Defense!

The Pentagon has been unable to validate claims that a secret intelligence unit identified Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta as a terrorist more than a year before the attacks, a Defense Department spokesman said Monday.

Larry Di Rita said that some research into the matter continues, but thus far there has been no evidence that the intelligence unit, called "Able Danger," came up with information as specific as an officer associated with the program has asserted.

"What we found are mostly general references to terrorist cells," Di Rita said, without providing detail.(emphasis added)

Unless Di Rita -- as partisan a GOP flack as you will find anywhere in the U.S. government -- has been secretly implanted with brain chips designed by Hillary Clinton, this should hang a closed sign on the Mohamed Atta rumor mill. Otherwise, you'd have to conclude the Cheney administration is also in on the coverup, in which case Captain Ed and the gang should probably just surrender. The Network clearly has them outgunned.