Kurt Eichenwald’s "500 Days" And the 9/11 Neocon Disaster

I can't even begin to parse this twenty minute Democracy Now interview with author Kurt Eichenwald, I would be typing forever. Suffice to say, it's just one jaw dropping revelation after the other.

As I said in a tweet yesterday: Essential viewing, a must watch.

Enough said, drive on!

"500 Days": Author Kurt Eichenwald’s New Account of How Bush Admin Ignored Warnings Before 9/11

Newly disclosed documents provide further evidence the administration of George W. Bush ignored repeated warnings about Osama bin Laden’s plans to attack the United States. In "500 Days: Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars,” author and journalist Kurt Eichenwald fleshes out how the Bush administration dismissed a number of warnings of an al-Qaeda attack against the United States beginning in the spring of 2001, instead focusing on alleged threats from Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Transcript

This from No More Mister Nice Blog:

Why did the administration do nothing? It sure looks as if it's because a key faction in the administration had a theory and didn't want anyone confused by the facts:

An intelligence official and a member of the Bush administration both told me in interviews that the neoconservative leaders who had recently assumed power at the Pentagon were warning the White House that the C.I.A. had been fooled; according to this theory, Bin Laden was merely pretending to be planning an attack to distract the administration from Saddam Hussein, whom the neoconservatives saw as a greater threat.

And we know, of course, these folks didn't change their minds even after it was clear that Al Qaeda was responsible for 9/11. They still thought Saddam was the main threat. They just couldn't let that idea go. more

They Died in Vain.

I quite recently brought you a post that included among other things a few thoughts of my own on the most expensive hard-on in history, George W Bush's invasion of Iraq. Pardon me, Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Shame and decency are not to be found.

Yet they offer the parents of the dead a free headstone if it bears the inscription "Operation Iraqi Freedom"

Shameless, and overflowing with abject hypocrisy. Bush knows all too well why the troops died, I hope the spirit of the countless thousands, the spirit of every dead man woman or child haunts the son of a bitch to the grave and beyond.

But he cannot see the irony of this “magnanimous” gesture, forever and a day will that inscription, “Operation Iraqi Freedom” etched in stone, mock the man and his presidency for what they truly are.

But the bitterest of ironies is lost on this fool, because forever and a day those words will be synonymous with: More

“They died for nothing.”

Words that preceded an article by Laurence M. Vance, Thank a Vet? A good enough article at the time to accompany my own little offering, but that original choice now superseded by another, and much more apt, Vance offerings, They Died in Vain.

When the number of Americans killed in Iraq surpassed the 1,000 mark in September of 2004, President Bush said of the families of the dead during a campaign rally: "My promise to them is that we will complete the mission so that their child or their husband or wife has not died in vain." Well, the death count of U.S. soldiers has now reached 4,000, and the completion of the mission is nowhere in sight........

.......Now, if Bush's mission were to destroy civil liberties, shred the Constitution, enrich defense and security contractors, construct permanent bases in Iraq, establish an imperial presidency, confirm him as a war president, build his legacy, expand the national debt, wreck the economy, and further increase the power of the warfare state then I would certainly say that the mission has been completed.

But at what cost?

The terrible cost of Bush's mission is the lives of 4,000 American soldiers. None of these soldiers had to die. They didn't die for their country. They didn't die for our freedoms. They didn't die for a noble cause. Every one of them died for George W. Bush's bogus mission. They all died in vain. Their lives were wasted. They Died in Vain.

It wasn't my intention to put before you this article, quite the contrary, but it was another article by Vance, one that I had kept as a draft, but only just rediscovered. Given that we purchased our soapboxes at the same, anti war, anti religion, don't give me that hypocrisy shite, store, it's little wonder that I am availing myself of, and thoroughly recommending, that you have a trawl through the not insignificant archives of Laurence M Vance.
Coming next, Pro-Lifers for Mass Murder.

Decision Points: Review

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Lengthy, well written and scathing.



‘Damn right,’ I said
Eliot Weinberger

In the late 1960s, George Bush Jr was at Yale, branding the asses of pledges to the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity with a hot coathanger. Michel Foucault was at the Societé française de philosophie, considering the question, ‘What is an author?’

The two, needless to say, never met. Foucault may have visited Texas on one of his lecture tours, but Junior, as far as it is known, never took his S&M revelry beyond the Ivy League – novelists will have to invent a chance encounter in a basement club in Austin. Moreover, Junior’s general ignorance of all things, except for professional sports, naturally extended to the nation known as France. On his first trip to Paris in 2002, Junior, now president of the United States, stood beside Jacques Chirac at a press conference and said: ‘He’s always saying that the food here is fantastic and I’m going to give him a chance to show me tonight.’

Foucault found his theories embodied, sometimes unconvincingly, in writers such as Proust or Flaubert. He died in 1984, while Junior was still an ageing frat boy, and didn’t live to see this far more applicable text. For the questions that he, even then, declared hopelessly obsolete are the very ones that should not be asked about Decision Points ‘by’ George W. Bush (or by ‘George W. Bush’): ‘Who really spoke? Is it really he and not someone else? With what authenticity or originality? And what part of his deepest self did he express in his discourse?’
Decision Points holds the same relation to George W. Bush as a line of fashion accessories or a perfume does to the movie star that bears its name...... More London Review

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Joe Wilson: Deception Points a more appropriate title

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Said Joe Wilson, "I have the distinction of being the first person to purchase Bush's book in Santa Fe, New Mexico." Now you do surprise me Joe.

Having read that people began lining up in front of bookstores before former President Bush's memoir, Decision Points, was due to be released, I hurried off to purchase mine early on November 9, arriving about fifteen minutes after opening time. I have the distinction of being the first person to purchase Bush's book in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

I have a special interest in understanding how the former president sees his decision to invade Iraq and his use of intelligence to justify the invasion. I have also been curious about what he might have to say about the betrayal of a CIA covert officer's identity, my wife's, by, among others, two senior members of his staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and Karl Rove. I had seen his interview with NBC's Matt Lauer in which he volunteered that Scooter Libby was a "loyal" American who had been somehow caught up in the Valerie Plame affair. I was thunderstruck by his description of a man convicted of four counts of lying to federal officials, perjury, and obstruction of justice, the chief of staff to the Vice President who knowingly offered up Valerie Plame's name to a New York Times reporter, and who was so obsessed with destroying my reputation that he kept a three-ring binder on me and an annotated copy of my book. My expectations for truthful revelation in Bush's book, after his comment, were naturally low. I have not been disappointed. In fact, Deception Points might have been a more appropriate title.
The former president deals with the Plame affair briskly, fairly early in the book, in the context of what he describes as the last and most "emotional personnel decision" of his presidency...more hufpo

Who says there are no such things as coincidences, I will admit I didn't go looking for it, but I did end up watching this clip of Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame (Mr & Mrs) only yesterday.

I was actually searching for Bill Maher's, New Rule-You can't Lie Anymore, it's been pulled, but if anybody sees it about, you might leave me a comment. Thanks.



Previous:

Yes It Is a Bit Of a Circus: Terry Jones On Bush's Compassion

Dear President Bush, Now That You Have Found Compassion



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My Husband Is Not a Failure: Guess Who

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I've always said there was someone dumber the Dubya in the Whitehouse, would you look at the eyes on the woman, mad as a brush!

First lady Laura Bush says she disagrees with critics who say her husband's presidency was a failure.

In an interview aired Sunday on Fox News Sunday, Mrs. Bush says she knows her husband's eight years in office was not a failure, and says she doesn't feel as if she needs to respond to people who view it that way.

She says history will judge the two-term presidency of George W. Bush.

Mrs. Bush notes that under her husband's watch, the nation has been kept safe from attack since Sept. 11 and that his administration toppled Saddam Hussein and liberated millions of people in Afghanistan and Iraq from oppressive governments. She also talked of her husband's work to provide treatment for disease to millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa. source Huffpo

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Giving Bush The Boot

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Shurley shome mishtake, don't you mean shoe?



It's only for the short first and quite funny part of this article that I draw your attention. I'm quite sure after eight years of Bush you don't need to read yet another catalogue of the disasters that can be laid at this man's door.

The image of shoes being thrown at George W. Bush during his tarnished legacy tour of Iraq has already entered legend. That a Saudi offered to pay $10 million for just one of the shoes attests to the power of symbolism. The Turkish cobbler who made the shoes is being inundated with new orders from around the world. more

Not Much of a CV GW

This individual seeks an executive position. He will be available in January 2009, and is willing (and hopeful) to relocate.

RESUME

GEORGE W. BUSH
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20520

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

Law Enforcement:·
I was arrested in Kennebunkport , Maine , in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. I pleaded guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver'slicense suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been 'lost' and is not available.

Military:·
I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By joining the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam .

College:·
I graduated from Yale University with a low C average. I was a cheerleader.

Past Work Experience:·
I ran for U.S. Congress and lost.

I began my career in the oil business in Midland , Texas in 1975. I bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas . The company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.

I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land
using taxpayer money.

With the help of my father and our friends in the oil industry (including Enron CEO Ken Lay), I was elected governor of Texas .

Accomplishments

As Governor Of Texas :·
I changed Texas pollution laws to favour power and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union .

During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America .

I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed money.

I set the record for the most executions by any governor in American history.

With the help of my brother, the governor of Florida , and my father's appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President of the United States, after losing by over 500,000 votes.

Accomplishments

As President (with 4 3 5 Notable Firsts):·

I am the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal
record.

I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over one billion dollars per week.

I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury.

I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history.

I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.

I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.

I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market. In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues.

I'm proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history. My 'poorest millionaire, ' Condoleezza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her.

I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. President.

I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations.

My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. history, Enron.

My political party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision.

I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or prosecution. More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate rip-offs in history.

I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed.

I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history.

I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts

I appointed more convicted criminals to my administration than any President in U.S. history.

I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the history of the United States Government.

I've broken more international treaties than any President in U.S history.

I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.

I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law.

I refused to allow inspector's access to U.S. 'prisoners of war' detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.

I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US election).

I set the record for fewest numbers of press conferences of any President since the advent of television.

I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one-year period. After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.

I garnered the most sympathy ever for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history.

I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protests against any person in the history of mankind.

I am the first President in U.S. history to order an unprovoked, pre-emptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. Citizens and the world community.

I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families in wartime.

In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our reasons for attacking
Iraq and then blamed the lies on our British friends.

I am the first President in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security.

I am supporting development of a nuclear 'Tactical Bunker Buster,' a WMD.

I have so far failed to fulfil my pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice.

Records And References:·

All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now in my father's library, sealed and unavailable for public view.

All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review. I specified that my sealed documents will not be available for 50 years.

I never knew one man and one post could warrant so many labels.

No attribution, my apologies.

Bush: A Funny Kind Of Christian

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Somewhere in the Middle East, Jesus Christ is strapped to a bench, his head wrapped in clingfilm. He furiously sucks against the plastic. A hole is pierced, but only so that a filthy rag can be stuffed back into his mouth. He is turned upside down and water slowly poured into the rag. The torturer whispers religious abuse. If you are God, save yourself you fucking idiot. Fighting to pull in oxygen through the increasingly saturated rag, his lungs start to fill up with water. Someone punches him in the stomach.

Perhaps this is how we ought to be re-telling the story of Christ's passion. For ever since the cross became a piece of jewellery, it has been drained of its power to sicken. Even before this the Romans had taken their hated instrument of torture and turned it into the logo of a new religion. Few makeovers can have been so historically significant. The very secular cross was transformed into a sort of club badge for Christians, something to be proud of.more

Extremely So If You're Really Looking For An Answer

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What gives more weight to the article and the writers questions is the very fact that the Republican nominee for the next President of the United States is John, lets bomb the shit out of Iran, fucking McCain!

Happy Anniversary, America!

How Lethally Stupid Can One Country Be?


Watching George W. Bush in operation these last couple of weeks is like having an out-of-body experience. On acid. During a nightmare. In a different galaxy.

As he presides over the latest disaster of his administration, (No, it’s not a terrorist attack - that was 2001! No, it’s not a catastrophic war - that was 2003! No, it’s not a drowning city - that was 2005! This one is an economic meltdown, ladies and gentlemen!) bringing to it the same blithe disengagement with which he’s attended the previous ones, you cannot but stop and gaze in stark, comedic awe, realizing that the most powerful polity that ever existed on the planet twice picked this imbecilic buffoon as its leader, from among 300 million other choices.

Seeing him clown with the Washington press corps yet once again - and seeing them fawn over him, laugh in all the right places, and give him a standing ovation, also yet once again - is the equivalent of having all your logic circuits blown simultaneously. Truly, the universe has a twisted and deeply ironic sense of humor. Monty Python is about as funny - and as stiff - as Dick Nixon, by comparison.more

Venezuela On US Terrorist List; Chavez Replies

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No prizes for guessing Chavez's response to Bush's mumbling and grumbling.

Chavez dares US to put Venezuela on list of terrorism supporters

CARACAS, Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez dared the U.S. on Friday to put Venezuela on a list of countries accused of supporting terrorism, calling it one more attempt by Washington to undermine him for political reasons.

Chavez said the "threat to include us on the terrorist list" is Washington's response to his government's successes in the region.

U.S. lawmakers including Reps. Connie Mack and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, both Florida Republicans, have called for the State Department to add Venezuela to its list of terror sponsors, which includes North Korea, Iran, Syria, Sudan and Cuba. They have expressed concerns about what they call Chavez's close ties to Colombia's leftist rebels.

"Let them make that list and shove it in their pocket," Chavez said in a televised speech.

"We shouldn't forget for an instant that we're in a battle against North American imperialism," Chavez said. "On this continent, they have us as enemy No. 1."..........

But this little snippet below has to take the biscuit, in fact it must qualify for wanker of the week.

The drivel that comes out of that man's stupid trap is beyond compare, Bush having the nerve to accuse Chavez of squandering his nation's wealth and then the cracker all in the same sentence.

"to promote its hostile, anti-American vision."

Christ in a sidecar Dubya, it doesn't take a third party to do that, you have achieved that gaol all on your ownsome, OK with a little help from your cadre of criminals I admit, you have made America, and by association Americans, the pariah of the world.

The world hates America and sees America as the greatest threat to world peace and stability and any good will that the world once felt for the US, you Mister George Walker Bush have spunked it all away with the eagerness of a virgin in a whorehouse.

Chavez said Rice's visit to Brazil and Chile this week is aimed at mounting "pressures" against "our government and against me."

Chavez also responded to barbs from Bush, who on Wednesday accused Venezuela of squandering its oil wealth internationally "to promote its hostile, anti-American vision."more

Dubya Makes A Phone Call.

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Transcript of President's Call of Support to Un-Resigning, Embattled Family Values Warrior Senator Larry Craig of Idaho

SENATOR LARRY CRAIG: Hello? Hello? I can't hear you.

THE PRESIDENT: Senator Craig? This is the President.

SENATOR CRAIG: Hold on, Mr. President, let me turn down my music.

THE PRESIDENT: What were you listening to, Larry?

SENATOR CRAIG: Oh, Patti Lupone's poignant rendition of "Memories" from Cats. THE PRESIDENT: Uh, yeah.

SENATOR CRAIG: To what do I owe the pleasure of your phone call, Mr. President? I have to admit, it is good to hear from you. I'm not getting many phone calls from my colleagues in the Republican Party, much less the President of the United States.

THE PRESIDENT: No need to thank me, Senator. I just thought I'd call you and lend you my support during these trying times. I fully support your decision to un-resign. I'm a believer in loyalty, in fact, the blinder and more myopic the better. I'm also a believer that it is unnecessary to resign a cushy, powerful political position just because you broke a law, admitted your guilt, revealed yourself as a grotesque hypocrite, resigned in disgrace, and a few days later decided to take back your resignation. I mean, you got responsibilities to your campaign contributors! Yours is a flip-flop I can respect.



SENATOR CRAIG: Sir, your character is on full display. You are a man of honor, and a great American.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator.

SENATOR CRAIG: How can I despair when a man such as you has my back?

THE PRESIDENT: And here's what those assholes in the press and the Republican sellouts don't seem to get: you've done a service for your country. Why, you've helped prove how disgusting faggotry can be. What a vile, disgusting, deviant lifestyle it is, where grown, married men tap their loafers and wave howdy to other men in public restrooms just for a chance to wash their faces in semen. By perpetuating the worst of homosexuality, you have totally overshadowed the millions and millions of healthy, stable, happy homos who make pretend they are husband and husband, or wife and she-walrus. Bravo.more

Half God, Half Mortal, Half Texan, Hercubush!

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Have four minutes of funny and quite good satire. Hercubush

A Puddle Of Slime, Is That Any Way To Describe Your President?

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Shurely shome mishtake.

But I like your style.

Oh deary me Dubya it was only two posts ago that I took it upon myself to describe your legacy and what your time on this earth has meant for mankind, and lo, somebody else is at it.

I will give him the wheel, drive on Sir.

The End of the Road for George W. Bush

By Chris Hedges

The Gilbert and Sullivan charade of statesmanship played out by George W. Bush and his enabler, Condoleezza Rice, as they wander the Middle East is a fitting end to seven years of misrule. Despots stripped of power are transformed from monsters into buffoons. And this is the metamorphosis that is eating away at the Bush presidency.



Bush stood in Jerusalem, uncomfortable and palpably bored. He mouthed platitudes about a peace settlement that mocked the humanitarian crisis he aided and abetted in Gaza, the rapacious land grab by Israel in the West Bank and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The diminished George Bush, increasingly irrelevant at home and abroad, is fading into insignificance.


A year from now one half expects to see him stand up at the next president’s inauguration and screech “I’m melting! I’m melting!” as he sinks into a puddle of slime. He will return, I expect, to his ranch, where he will be able to spend the rest of his life doing the only task for which he has shown any aptitude—cutting down brush with a chain saw.




He may yet rise again to torment us with an attack on Iran, condemning more innocents to slaughter. He and his cigar-smoking soul mate Ehud Olmert would like to go out with one more flash of mayhem and violence.



But even this will not ultimately save him. Bush will soon be reduced to the cipher he once was, left to spend the rest of his life trying to salvage a legacy of shame and deceit. In a just world he would be put on trial, if not by the International Criminal Court of Justice then by the U.S. Congress.



He would be forced to face up to his lies and wars of aggression. But the moral rot that infects the nation has seeped into the bowels of the legislative as well as the executive branch.more

25K Per Hour For Bush Israel Security: Can You Take It Out Of The Aid Money?

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It must be a logistical nightmare trying to protect Bush's sorry ass, there's a two minute video with the report, check out the chef at the one minute mark.

Don't even try looking for a hotel room in Jerusalem this week. There may be 7,000 hotel rooms in the capitol, but just about all will be occupied by U.S. President George W. Bush's delegation during his visit here Tuesday through Friday. A large number of rooms are booked for the 8,000 police and security officers coming to Jerusalem to guard the visit and keep order. About 450 rooms in the King David Hotel, where Bush is staying, and the Dan Panorama will be used by his entourage and as a press center. more


The U.S. Embassy will move almost in its entirety from Tel Aviv to the King David for the visit, according to the hotel's general manager, Haim Shkedi. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will also be staying there, as will U.S. Ambassador Richard Jones.more

New York Times To Bush. You're An Evil Clusterfuck

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Well the NYT didn't actually put it that way, they're a bit hamstrung when it comes to headers but there are no such impediments for me so I will say it for them.


Looking At America

There are too many moments these days when we cannot recognize our country. Sunday was one of them, as we read the account in The Times of how men in some of the most trusted posts in the nation plotted to cover up the torture of prisoners by Central Intelligence Agency interrogators by destroying videotapes of their sickening behavior. It was impossible to see the founding principles of the greatest democracy in the contempt these men and their bosses showed for the Constitution, the rule of law and human decency.

It was not the first time in recent years we’ve felt this horror, this sorrowful sense of estrangement, not nearly. This sort of lawless behavior has become standard practice since Sept. 11, 2001.

The country and much of the world was rightly and profoundly frightened by the single-minded hatred and ingenuity displayed by this new enemy. But there is no excuse for how President Bush and his advisers panicked — how they forgot that it is their responsibility to protect American lives and American ideals, that there really is no safety for Americans or their country when those ideals are sacrificed.

Out of panic and ideology, President Bush squandered America’s position of moral and political leadership, swept aside international institutions and treaties, sullied America’s global image, and trampled on the constitutional pillars that have supported our democracy through the most terrifying and challenging times. These policies have fed the world’s anger and alienation and have not made any of us safer.

In the years since 9/11, we have seen American soldiers abuse, sexually humiliate, torment and murder prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq. A few have been punished, but their leaders have never been called to account. We have seen mercenaries gun down Iraqi civilians with no fear of prosecution. We have seen the president, sworn to defend the Constitution, turn his powers on his own citizens, authorizing the intelligence agencies to spy on Americans, wiretapping phones and intercepting international e-mail messages without a warrant.

We have read accounts of how the government’s top lawyers huddled in secret after the attacks in New York and Washington and plotted ways to circumvent the Geneva Conventions — and both American and international law — to hold anyone the president chose indefinitely without charges or judicial review.

Those same lawyers then twisted other laws beyond recognition to allow Mr. Bush to turn intelligence agents into torturers, to force doctors to abdicate their professional oaths and responsibilities to prepare prisoners for abuse, and then to monitor the torment to make sure it didn’t go just a bit too far and actually kill them.

The White House used the fear of terrorism and the sense of national unity to ram laws through Congress that gave law-enforcement agencies far more power than they truly needed to respond to the threat — and at the same time fulfilled the imperial fantasies of Vice President Dick Cheney and others determined to use the tragedy of 9/11 to arrogate as much power as they could.

Hundreds of men, swept up on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, were thrown into a prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, so that the White House could claim they were beyond the reach of American laws. Prisoners are held there with no hope of real justice, only the chance to face a kangaroo court where evidence and the names of their accusers are kept secret, and where they are not permitted to talk about the abuse they have suffered at the hands of American jailers.

In other foreign lands, the C.I.A. set up secret jails where “high-value detainees” were subjected to ever more barbaric acts, including simulated drowning. These crimes were videotaped, so that “experts” could watch them, and then the videotapes were destroyed, after consultation with the White House, in the hope that Americans would never know.

The C.I.A. contracted out its inhumanity to nations with no respect for life or law, sending prisoners — some of them innocents kidnapped on street corners and in airports — to be tortured into making false confessions, or until it was clear they had nothing to say and so were let go without any apology or hope of redress.

These are not the only shocking abuses of President Bush’s two terms in office, made in the name of fighting terrorism. There is much more — so much that the next president will have a full agenda simply discovering all the wrongs that have been done and then righting them.

We can only hope that this time, unlike 2004, American voters will have the wisdom to grant the awesome powers of the presidency to someone who has the integrity, principle and decency to use them honorably. Then when we look in the mirror as a nation, we will see, once again, the reflection of the United States of America. Source NYT

George Bush And His Giant Porkies

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I know there are a hundred and one reports of Bush lying his lying arse off, so I shall just post this short piece where four former CIA bods give their opinion.

Four former CIA officials who provided intelligence information to past presidents described as preposterous President Bush's claim that he was unaware until very recently that Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003.

"It's unbelievable," said Melvin Goodman, who worked for the CIA from 1966 to 1990 and now is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy.

Goodman's assessment of Bush's assertions were very similar to those of Larry C. Johnson, who worked at the CIA........more

The New "Mushroom Cloud" Missile Shield

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The world hasn't forgotten the last time something was "urgent," and we know how that, along with the rest of the clusterfuck that Bush calls foreign policy turned out.
The man is a disaster on a global scale.

US President George W Bush has said there is a "real and urgent" need for a missile defence system in Europe.

Mr Bush said the missile threat was from the Middle East, not Russia, which strongly opposes sites for the shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

He warned that Iran could have a ballistic missile capable of reaching Europe or the US by 2015.

Earlier, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the shield could be delayed while Russian concerns were tackled.more

Is He Really Such A Wanker? Take The Bush Quiz

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No great prize for arriving at the correct answer.

With the usual gang of shameless Republican hypocrites being joined by the usual gang of spineless Democratic wimps in scolding Rep. Pete Stark for suggesting that George W. Bush's response to the deaths of U.S. troops is "amusement," might I suggest that maybe Stark doesn't really owe anyone an apology?more

Man In Funny Clothes Receives Gong, China Pissed

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The US has "gravely undermined" ties with Beijing by giving him the Congressional Gold Medal, China said.

And it would be well to bear in mind that it's not good business practice to further alienate your bank manager when your company is tottering and your overdraft is maxed out.

Japan and China led a record withdrawl of foreign funds from the United States in August, heightening fears of a fresh slide in the dollar and a spike in US bond yields.

A Statesman

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A Statesman:
A man who is a leader in national or international affairs.
A male political leader regarded as a disinterested promoter of the public good.
A man who is a respected leader in a given field.
A mature statesman of American letters.
A man wise in the management of public affairs.



"So I've told people that, if you're interested in avoiding World War III,.....

What a maroon!