Brokekid.net

Bush has been president for four years, yet we have had to suffer the following “intelligence failures”:

• 9/11. Ashcroft de-emphasizes anti-terrorist activities in order to satiate his anti-pornography obsession. Bush completely ignores a document titled “Bin Ladin Determined to Strike the United States” and promptly went on a month-long vacation.
• Plame Affair. The administration outs the CIA’s top nuclear non-proliferation official in bid to discredit administration critic.
• Saddam’s WMD. Bush and Cheney make clear they want evidence, regardless the truth. They create a shadow intelligence inside the Pentagon to independently assess intelligence when CIA doesn’t offer the expected “truth”.
• Saddam’s WMD, Part II. Colin Powell makes an ass of himself at Security Council when he tries to prove Saddam’s evil intent, and proves nothing more than that Iraq has warehouses and trucks.
• Chalabi. The Pentagon’s top choice for Iraq’s post-war leadership lets Iran know we have cracked their communication code. Once upon a time we could listen in to one of the Axil of Evil’s most guarded communications, including communications with terrorist groups like Hizbollah. Now we cannot. An intelligence failure of epic proportions.
• Administration outs Al Qaida mole. We finally turn one of Bin Laden’s baddies, and the administration outs him days later to justify terror alert. Terror alert turns out to be unjustifiable anyway, based on years-old info.

Ouch. This is one brutal failure after another, and aside from 9-11, the rest are ALL the fault of the politicians in the Bush Administration.…More

(dailykos.com)

Anybody who has read many official documents—including those making headlines in the last year or more—has seen plenty of redactions (those portions that are blacked out or otherwise made unreadable). This, we’re told, is for legitimate reasons, such as “national security” or “protecting intelligence sources and methods.” But now we have absolute, incontrovertible proof that the government also censors completely innocuous material simply because they don’t like it.

The Justice Department tipped its hand in its ongoing legal war with the ACLU over the Patriot Act. Because the matter is so sensitive, the Justice Dept is allowed to black out those passages in the ACLU’s court filings that it feels should not be publicly released.

Ostensibly, they would use their powers of censorship only to remove material that truly could jeopardize US operations. But in reality, what did they do? They blacked out a quotation from a Supreme Court decision:

“The danger to political dissent is acute where the Government attempts to act under so vague a concept as the power to protect ‘domestic security.’ Given the difficulty of defining the domestic security interest, the danger of abuse in acting to protect that interest becomes apparent.”

The mind reels at such a blatant abuse of power (and at the sheer chutzpah of using national security as an excuse to censor a quotation about using national security as an excuse to stifle dissent).

It’s hard to imagine a more public, open document than a decision written by the Supreme Court. It is incontestably public property: widely reprinted online and on paper; poured over by generations of judges, attorneys, prosecutors, and law students; quoted for centuries to come in court cases and political essays…More

(thememoryhole.org)

In 1968, former Congressman George Herbert Walker Bush of Texas, fresh from voting to send other men’s sons to Vietnam, enlisted his own son in a very special affirmative action program, the ‘champagne’ unit of the Texas Air National Guard. There, Top Gun fighter pilot George Dubya was assigned the dangerous job of protecting Houston from Vietcong air attack.

This week, former Lt. Governor Ben Barnes of Texas ‘fessed up to pulling the strings to keep Little George out of the jungle. “I got a young man named George W. Bush into the Texas Air Guard – and I’m ashamed.”

That’s far from the end of the story. In 1994, George W. Bush was elected governor of Texas by a whisker. By that time, Barnes had left office to become a big time corporate lobbyist. To an influence peddler like Barnes, having damning information on a sitting governor is worth its weight in gold – or, more precisely, there’s a value in keeping the info secret.

Barnes appears to have made lucrative use of his knowledge of our President’s slithering out of the draft as a lever to protect a multi-billion dollar contract for a client. That’s the information in a confidential letter buried deep in the files of the US Justice Department that fell into my hands at BBC television.

Here’s what happened. Just after Bush’s election, Barnes’ client GTech Corp., due to allegations of corruption, was about to lose its license to print money: its contract to run the Texas state lottery. Barnes, says the Justice Department document, made a call to the newly elected governor’s office and saved GTech’s state contract…More

(gregpalast.com)

Ben Barnes, former lieutenant governor of Texas, has expressed his regret at helping the “sons of wealthy families,” including GWB, get admitted to the Texas Air National Guard in 1968.

“I got a young man named George W. Bush into the National Guard when I was lieutenant governor of Texas, and I’m not necessarily proud of that, but I did it,” Barnes said in the 45-second video, which was recorded May 27 before a group of John Kerry supporters in Austin. Barnes, who was House speaker when Bush entered the Guard, later became lieutenant governor.

He said he became ashamed after walking through the Vietnam Memorial and looking at the names of people who died.

…More

(blogitics.com)

A translation of Der Spiegel’s article on the topic.

IOC ANGRY ABOUT BUSH’S CAMPAIGN AD

IOC 㱧ert sich �ushs Wahlkampffilm

Candidate George Bush is once again causing angry reactions at the IOC. After changing the traditional text used to open the Olympics into a patriotic slogan at the 2002 Winter Games, the Olympians are now livid over a tv-ad used in the US presidential elections.

Wahlk㬰fer George W. Bush sorgt schon wieder f�ut beim IOC. Nachdem der US-Pr㲩dent die traditionelle Er�ungsformel bei den Winterspielen 2002 zu einer patriotischen Parole umformte, 㱧ern sich die Olympier jetzt �inen Werbespot im Pr㲩dentschaftswahlkampf.

Athens- At the Winter Games in Salt Lake City George W. Bush was the first head of State in the history of the Games, who abrogated the right to change the text used in the Olympic Charta to open the games. Two years later the International Olympic Committee is outraged that the president’s team is misusing the olympic symbols for election campaign purposes. Officially IOC President Jacques Rogge has not given any comment and has declared the controversy to be a purely US affair. Inofficial comments sound very different however. Says a leading IOC member: ” The arrogance of the Bush administration is in league of its own. They are hijacking the Olympic symbols. There really aren’t any words for that kind of behavior.”

Athen – Bei den Winterspielen in Salt Lake City nahm sich George W. Bush als erstes Staatsoberhaupt �upt das Recht heraus, die Er�ungsformel der Olympischen Charta zu ver㭤ern. Zwei Jahre sp㳥r ist das Internationale Olympische Komitee emp�dar�dass das Team des US-Pr㲩denten die olympischen Symbole zu Wahlkampfzwecken missbraucht. Offiziell hat sich IOC-Pr㲩dent Jacques Rogge eines Kommentars enthalten und die Aff㱥 zu einer inneramerikanischen Angelegenheit erkl㱴. Inoffiziell lautet die Beurteilung ganz anders. So sagt ein f�es IOC-Mitglied: “Die Arroganz der Bush-Regierung ist nicht zu �eten. Sie bem㢨tigt sich der olympischen Symbole. Daf�t es eigentlich keine Worte.”

On February 9 2002, Bush had added the following text to the traditional text for opening of the games (“I declare the Olympic winter games of Salt Lake City open.”): “On behalf of a proud, determined and, and greatful nation.” This time it is a Bush election ad that is causing anger. In it the terms “Olympia” and “Olympic Games” as well as the symbol of the Olympic Rings are used as an instrument of pro-Bush advertising…More

(dailykos.com)

Want to learn how to create and sustain psychosis on a national scale? Look carefully at the public statements made by the Department of Homeland Security.

Here are a few random examples: “Weapons of mass destruction, including those containing chemical, biological or radiological agents or materials, cannot be discounted.” “At least one of these attacks could be executed by the end of the summer 2003.” “These credible sources suggest the possibility of attacks against the homeland around the holiday season and beyond.”

The DHS’s threat warnings have been vague, indeterminate, and unspecific. The threat index goes from yellow to orange and back again, although no one is entirely sure what either level means. We’ve been warned that the terrorists might use helicopters, scuba gear, even cheap prescription drugs from Canada. New York and Washington, D.C., were put on high alert one day, and the next day told that the alert was based on information years old. The careful wording of these alerts allows them not to require any sound, confirmed, accurate intelligence information, while at the same time guaranteeing hysterical media coverage. This headline-grabbing stuff might make for good movie plots, but it doesn’t make us safer.

This kind of behavior is all that’s needed to generate widespread fear and uncertainty. It keeps the public worried about terrorism, while at the same time reminding them that they’re helpless without the government to defend them.

It’s one thing to issue a hurricane warning, and advise people to board up their windows and remain in the basement. Hurricanes are short-term events, and it’s obvious when the danger is imminent and when it’s over. People respond to the warning, and there is a discrete period when their lives are markedly different. They feel there was a usefulness to the higher alert mode, even if nothing came of it.

It’s quite another to tell people to remain on alert, but not to alter their plans. According to scientists, California is expecting a huge earthquake sometime in the next 200 years. Even though the magnitude of the disaster will be enormous, people just can’t stay alert for 200 years. It goes against human nature. Residents of California have the same level of short-term fear and long-term apathy regarding the threat of earthquakes that the rest of the nation has developed regarding the DHS’s terrorist threat alert…More

(schneier.com)

The Republican Party’s official platform is forming for next week’s convention in New York City, and it will probably come as little surprise to anyone that they’re totally against gay rights and think abortion should be constitutionally outlawed. The committee in charge of language for the platform not only thinks gay marriage is a bad idea, but that any legal recognition whatsoever of same-sex unions should be rejected.

They’re also against stem cell research, gay puppies, designer athletic shoes, interesting facial hair, women thinking for themselves (or others), small cars, recreational tanning, Buddhism, dark-colored towels, area rugs, dustbunnies and Satan.

…More

(glassdog.com)

Even for me, an ultra-loyal Republican, the two creepiest words in the English language are “Christian rock.”

I’ve listened to my fair share of it, too—long drive across the country; busted iPod—and there’s something so weird about it. It sounds like regular bad music when you first tune in. The lyrics always seem like regular bad music lyrics, too—”I feel your body next to mine/ And that makes my whole life shine”—but after a second or two you realize that they’re singing about Jesus, not some girl named Mandy, and the whole thing just seems, well, creepy. Because rock music—and most other forms of entertainment, when you really think about it—is fundamentally about carnal desire. And Jesus, when you really think about it, is fundamentally not.

Which is all a long way of saying that I don’t think I’m going to enjoy the “entertainment” portion of the Republican National Convention.

It won’t all be Christian rock, of course. According to the most recent RNC press release, conventioneers will be treated to country music acts such as Brooks & Dunn, Lee Ann Womack, Darryl Worley, and Donnie McClurkin. They’ll be joining Michael W. Smith, Daniel Rodriguez, Daize Shayne, Sara Evans, and Dana Glover on the podium. Sounds exciting, no?

I’m aware that I’m going to sound like one of those liberal Democrat media snobs—which is unfair, because I’m a conservative Republican media snob—but who are these people? I live in Venice, Calif., so I happen to know who Daize Shayne is—Google her yourself, if you’re interested—but most of the other names are drawing big blanks. There are rumors, of course, that Britney Spears is a closet Bushie—which might be true; she’s from Orlando, right?—and we’ve all seen Ted Nugent’s Republican spiel. But the sad truth is, the real difference between Democrats and Republicans is that their celebrities are, like, actually famous and ours are, well, singing weirdly erotic songs about Our Savior.…More

(slate.msn.com)