Jaysus (of Latter Day Saints)!

What drugs are these people on?!?

Poll: Utahns Feel Bush Won Debate

A majority of Utahns feel President Bush won Thursday’s debate. That's according to an exclusive post-debate poll for Eyewitness News by Survey USA.

In a state with so many George W. bush supporters, it may not surprise you that most people in this state feel the President 'won' this debate. Survey USA caught 434 registered voters right after the debate. 44 percent of those people statewide say President Bush clearly won. 29 percent told the survey they thought Kerry clearly won. But 26 percent said there was no clear winner.

Utahns?!?

"You can't send mexed missages"

-- George Bush (September 30, 2004)

Purple Hearts Redux

A couple of weeks ago, I reported on a book of photographs by Nina Berman which documented the injuries of soldiers returning from Iraq. At the time, I didn't realize (or somehow couldn't find it) a website dedicated to the book existed.

I came across it this morning... purpleheartsbook.com. There are more photos there and more commentary by Nina about her (and the soldiers') experiences.

"Several thousand soldiers have been wounded in action in Iraq. Thousands of others have been injured in war related events. They have lost arms, legs, eyes, ears, pieces of their brains. Some will spend the rest of their lives in wheelchairs. These soldiers -- all volunteer warriors - have returned home to heal their wounds and consider life, forever scarred and changed. -- Nina Berman

Buy it!

It Depends On What The Meaning...

...of "all" is.

Yet Another New Document Surfaces On Bush's Military Service

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House said seven months ago that it had released all the records on President Bush's stateside military service during the Vietnam War, yet new records are still dribbling out as Election Day approaches.

The White House on Wednesday night produced a November 1974 document bearing Bush's signature from Cambridge, Mass., where he was attending Harvard Business School, saying he had decided not to continue as a member of the military reserve.

The document, signed a year after Bush left the Texas Air National Guard, said he was leaving the military because of "inadequate time to fulfill possible future commitments."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the resignation was found in connection with a lawsuit brought by The Associated Press. The White House said the document had been in Bush's personnel file and that it had been found by the Pentagon.

"Dear America..."

From a career soldier stationed in Iraq...

Why We Cannot Win
by Al Lorentz

Before I begin, let me state that I am a soldier currently deployed in Iraq, I am not an armchair quarterback. Nor am I some politically idealistic and naïve young soldier, I am an old and seasoned Non-Commissioned Officer with nearly 20 years under my belt. Additionally, I am not just a soldier with a muds-eye view of the war, I am in Civil Affairs and as such, it is my job to be aware of all the events occurring in this country and specifically in my region.

I have come to the conclusion that we cannot win here for a number of reasons. Ideology and idealism will never trump history and reality.

When we were preparing to deploy, I told my young soldiers to beware of the "political solution." Just when you think you have the situation on the ground in hand, someone will come along with a political directive that throws you off the tracks.

I believe that we could have won this un-Constitutional invasion of Iraq and possibly pulled off the even more un-Constitutional occupation and subjugation of this sovereign nation. It might have even been possible to foist democracy on these people who seem to have no desire, understanding or respect for such an institution. True the possibility of pulling all this off was a long shot and would have required several hundred billion dollars and even more casualties than we’ve seen to date but again it would have been possible, not realistic or necessary but possible.

Here are the specific reasons why we cannot win in Iraq.

First, we refuse to deal in reality. We are in a guerilla war, but because of politics, we are not allowed to declare it a guerilla war and must label the increasingly effective guerilla forces arrayed against us as "terrorists, criminals and dead-enders."

This implies that there is a zero sum game at work, i.e. we can simply kill X number of the enemy and then the fight is over, mission accomplished, everybody wins. Unfortunately, this is not the case. We have few tools at our disposal and those are proving to be wholly ineffective at fighting the guerillas.

The idea behind fighting a guerilla army is not to destroy its every man (an impossibility since he hides himself by day amongst the populace). Rather the idea in guerilla warfare is to erode or destroy his base of support.

So long as there is support for the guerilla, for every one you kill two more rise up to take his place. More importantly, when your tools for killing him are precision guided munitions, raids and other acts that create casualties among the innocent populace, you raise the support for the guerillas and undermine the support for yourself. (A 500-pound precision bomb has a casualty-producing radius of 400 meters minimum; do the math.)

Second, our assessment of what motivates the average Iraqi was skewed, again by politically motivated "experts." We came here with some fantasy idea that the natives were all ignorant, mud-hut dwelling camel riders who would line the streets and pelt us with rose petals, lay palm fronds in the street and be eternally grateful. While at one time there may have actually been support and respect from the locals, months of occupation by our regular military forces have turned the formerly friendly into the recently hostile.

Attempts to correct the thinking in this regard are in vain; it is not politically correct to point out the fact that the locals are not only disliking us more and more, they are growing increasingly upset and often overtly hostile. Instead of addressing the reasons why the locals are becoming angry and discontented, we allow politicians in Washington DC to give us pat and convenient reasons that are devoid of any semblance of reality.

We are told that the locals are not upset because we have a hostile, aggressive and angry Army occupying their nation. We are told that they are not upset at the police state we have created, or at the manner of picking their representatives for them. Rather we are told, they are upset because of a handful of terrorists, criminals and dead enders in their midst have made them upset, that and of course the ever convenient straw man of "left wing media bias."

Third, the guerillas are filling their losses faster than we can create them. This is almost always the case in guerilla warfare, especially when your tactics for battling the guerillas are aimed at killing guerillas instead of eroding their support. For every guerilla we kill with a "smart bomb" we kill many more innocent civilians and create rage and anger in the Iraqi community. This rage and anger translates into more recruits for the terrorists and less support for us.

We have fallen victim to the body count mentality all over again. We have shown a willingness to inflict civilian casualties as a necessity of war without realizing that these same casualties create waves of hatred against us. These angry Iraqi citizens translate not only into more recruits for the guerilla army but also into more support of the guerilla army.

Fourth, their lines of supply and communication are much shorter than ours and much less vulnerable. We must import everything we need into this place; this costs money and is dangerous. Whether we fly the supplies in or bring them by truck, they are vulnerable to attack, most especially those brought by truck. This not only increases the likelihood of the supplies being interrupted. Every bean, every bullet and every bandage becomes infinitely more expensive.

Conversely, the guerillas live on top of their supplies and are showing every indication of developing a very sophisticated network for obtaining them. Further, they have the advantage of the close support of family and friends and traditional religious networks.

Fifth, we consistently underestimate the enemy and his capabilities. Many military commanders have prepared to fight exactly the wrong war here.

Our tactics have not adjusted to the battlefield and we are falling behind.

Meanwhile the enemy updates his tactics and has shown a remarkable resiliency and adaptability.

Because the current administration is more concerned with its image than it is with reality, it prefers symbolism to substance: soldiers are dying here and being maimed and crippled for life. It is tragic, indeed criminal that our elected public servants would so willingly sacrifice our nation's prestige and honor as well as the blood and treasure to pursue an agenda that is ahistoric and un-Constitutional.

It is all the more ironic that this un-Constitutional mission is being performed by citizen soldiers such as myself who swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, the same oath that the commander in chief himself has sworn.

September 20, 2004

Al Lorentz [send him mail] is former state chairman of the Constitution Party of Texas and is a reservist currently serving with the US Army in Iraq.

A SPAMologue

"request" by ze frank...

Bin Laden Watch

Today, on BBC World News (I think), I saw a report that included a new Kerry (or DNC) commercial that emphasized the fact that Osama bin Laden was still on the loose.

I have a feeling, now more than ever, that bin Laden will be "captured"... that the commercial -- while emphasizing a major Bush failure since September 11 -- will come back to haunt Kerry, which is exactly what I think Rove has been waiting for.

I hope it isn't true, but I'm almost willing to bet someone else's house on it.

"Wake Up America!"

Listen to the other George, America...

Billionaire embarks on one-man campaign to defeat Bush

WASHINGTON — Billionaire businessman George Soros, who has donated more than $12 million to Democratic causes, launched a personal campaign on Tuesday to boot President Bush out of office.

"I want to shout from the roof tops: 'Wake up America. We must realize that we are being misled'" on the war in Iraq, Soros said as he opened a 12-city tour, which includes stops in the crucial swing states of Ohio and Florida.

His one-man crusade also includes an advertising campaign to begin Wednesday with a two-page spread in the Wall Street Journal, a Web site (georgesoros.com) devoted to unseating the president and plans to mail pamphlets to 2 million voters.

The effort will cost $2-3 million, said Soros, who has quipped in the past that he would spend all his money if it could be guaranteed that Bush would lose.

Bush's Top Ten Flip-Flops

CBS News documents them.

10 Tough Questions...

...for Thursday's Debate.

The first batch of winners in NiemanWatchdog.org's debate-question contest.

Yesterday's News Is Still Good News

The Iconoclast is Crawford Texas' weekly newspaper. In 2000, it endorsed Bush.

Kerry Will Restore American Dignity

2004 Iconoclast Presidential Endorsement

Few Americans would have voted for George W. Bush four years ago if he had promised that, as President, he would

• Empty the Social Security trust fund by $507 billion to help offset fiscal irresponsibility and at the same time slash Social Security benefits.
• Cut Medicare by 17 percent and reduce veterans' benefits and military pay.
• Eliminate overtime pay for millions of Americans and raise oil prices by 50 percent.
• Give tax cuts to businesses that sent American jobs overseas, and, in fact, by policy encourage their departure.
• Give away billions of tax dollars in government contracts without competitive bids.
• Involve this country in a deadly and highly questionable war, and
• Take a budget surplus and turn it into the worst deficit in the history of the United States, creating a debt in just four years that will take generations to repay.

These were elements of a hidden agenda that surfaced only after he took office.

The publishers of The Iconoclast endorsed Bush four years ago, based on the things he promised, not on this smoke-screened agenda.

Today, we are endorsing his opponent, John Kerry, based not only on the things that Bush has delivered, but also on the vision of a return to normality that Kerry says our country needs.

Four items trouble us the most about the Bush administration: his initiatives to disable the Social Security system, the deteriorating state of the American economy, a dangerous shift away from the basic freedoms established by our founding fathers, and his continuous mistakes regarding terrorism and Iraq.

President Bush has announced plans to change the Social Security system as we know it by privatizing it, which when considering all the tangents related to such a change, would put the entire economy in a dramatic tailspin.

The Social Security Trust Fund actually lends money to the rest of the government in exchange for government bonds, which is how the system must work by law, but how do you later repay Social Security while you are running a huge deficit? It's impossible, without raising taxes sometime in the future or becoming fiscally responsible now. Social Security money is being used to escalate our deficit and, at the same time, mask a much larger government deficit, instead of paying down the national debt, which would be a proper use, to guarantee a future gain.

Privatization is problematic in that it would subject Social Security to the ups, downs, and outright crashes of the Stock Market. It would take millions in brokerage fees and commissions out of the system, and, unless we have assurance that the Ivan Boeskys and Ken Lays of the world will be caught and punished as a deterrent, subject both the Market and the Social Security Fund to fraud and market manipulation, not to mention devastate and ruin multitudes of American families that would find their lives lost to starvation, shame, and isolation.

Kerry wants to keep Social Security, which each of us already owns. He says that the program is manageable, since it is projected to be solvent through 2042, with use of its trust funds. This would give ample time to strengthen the economy, reduce the budget deficit the Bush administration has created, and, therefore, bolster the program as needed to fit ever-changing demographics.

Our senior citizens depend upon Social Security. Bush's answer is radical and uncalled for, and would result in chaos as Americans have never experienced. Do we really want to risk the future of Social Security on Bush by spinning the wheel of uncertainty?

In those dark hours after the World Trade Center attacks, Americans rallied together with a new sense of patriotism. We were ready to follow Bush's lead through any travail.

He let us down.

When he finally emerged from his hide-outs on remote military bases well after the first crucial hours following the attack, he gave sound-bytes instead of solutions.

He did not trust us to be ready to sacrifice, build up our public and private security infrastructure, or cut down on our energy use to put economic pressure on the enemy in all the nations where he hides. He merely told us to shop, spend, and pretend nothing was wrong.

Rather than using the billions of dollars expended on the invasion of Iraq to shore up our boundaries and go after Osama bin Laden and the Saudi Arabian terrorists, the funds were used to initiate a war with what Bush called a more immediate menace, Saddam Hussein, in oil-rich Iraq. After all, Bush said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction trained on America. We believed him, just as we believed it when he reported that Iraq was the heart of terrorism. We trusted him.

The Iconoclast, the President's hometown newspaper, took Bush on his word and editorialized in favor of the invasion. The newspaper's publisher promoted Bush and the invasion of Iraq to Londoners in a BBC interview during the time that the administration was wooing the support of Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Again, he let us down.

We presumed the President had solid proof of the existence of these weapons, what and where they were, even as the search continued. Otherwise, our troops would be in much greater danger and the premise for a hurried-up invasion would be moot, allowing more time to solicit assistance from our allies.

Instead we were duped into following yet another privileged agenda.

Now he argues unconvincingly that Iraq was providing safe harbor to terrorists, his new key justification for the invasion. It is like arguing that America provided safe harbor to terrorists leading to 9/11.

Once and for all, George Bush was President of the United States on that day. No one else. He had been President nine months, he had been officially warned of just such an attack a full month before it happened. As President, ultimately he and only he was responsible for our failure to avert those attacks.

We should expect that a sitting President would vacation less, if at all, and instead tend to the business of running the country, especially if he is, as he likes to boast, a "wartime president." America is in service 365 days a year. We don't need a part-time President who does not show up for duty as Commander-In-Chief until he is forced to, and who is in a constant state of blameless denial when things don't get done.

What has evolved from the virtual go-it-alone conquest of Iraq is more gruesome than a stain on a White House intern's dress. America's reputation and influence in the world has diminished, leaving us with brute force as our most persuasive voice.

Iraq is now a quagmire: no WMDs, no substantive link between Saddam and Osama, and no workable plan for the withdrawal of our troops. We are asked to go along on faith. But remember, blind patriotism can be a dangerous thing and "spin" will not bring back to life a dead soldier; certainly not a thousand of them.

Kerry has remained true to his vote granting the President the authority to use the threat of war to intimidate Saddam Hussein into allowing weapons inspections. He believes President Bush rushed into war before the inspectors finished their jobs.

Kerry also voted against President Bush's $87 billion for troop funding because the bill promoted poor policy in Iraq, privileged Halliburton and other corporate friends of the Bush administration to profiteer from the war, and forced debt upon future generations of Americans.

Kerry's four-point plan for Iraq is realistic, wise, strong, and correct. With the help from our European and Middle Eastern allies, his plan is to train Iraqi security forces, involve Iraqis in their rebuilding and constitution-writing processes, forgive Iraq's multi-billion dollar debts, and convene a regional conference with Iraq's neighbors in order to secure a pledge of respect for Iraq's borders and non-interference in Iraq's internal affairs.

The publishers of the Iconoclast differ with Bush on other issues, including the denial of stem cell research, shortchanging veterans' entitlements, cutting school programs and grants, dictating what our children learn through a thought-controlling "test" from Washington rather than allowing local school boards and parents to decide how young people should be taught, ignoring the environment, and creating extraneous language in the Patriot Act that removes some of the very freedoms that our founding fathers and generations of soldiers fought so hard to preserve.

We are concerned about the vast exportation of jobs to other countries, due in large part to policies carried out by Bush appointees. Funds previously geared at retention of small companies are being given to larger concerns, such as Halliburton — companies with strong ties to oil and gas. Job training has been cut every year that Bush has resided at the White House.

Then there is his resolve to inadequately finance Homeland Security and to cut the Community Oriented Policing Program (COPS) by 94 percent, to reduce money for rural development, to slash appropriations for the Small Business Administration, and to under-fund veterans' programs.

Likewise troubling is that President Bush fought against the creation of the 9/11 Commission and is yet to embrace its recommendations.

Vice President Cheney's Halliburton has been awarded multi-billion-dollar contracts without undergoing any meaningful bid process — an enormous conflict of interest — plus the company has been significantly raiding the funds of Export-Import Bank of America, reducing investment that could have gone toward small business trade.

When examined based on all the facts, Kerry's voting record is enviable and echoes that of many Bush allies who are aghast at how the Bush administration has destroyed the American economy. Compared to Bush on economic issues, Kerry would be an arch-conservative, providing for Americans first. He has what it takes to right our wronged economy.

The re-election of George W. Bush would be a mandate to continue on our present course of chaos. We cannot afford to double the debt that we already have. We need to be moving in the opposite direction.

John Kerry has 30 years of experience looking out for the American people and can navigate our country back to prosperity and re-instill in America the dignity she so craves and deserves. He has served us well as a highly decorated Vietnam veteran and has had a successful career as a district attorney, lieutenant governor, and senator.
Kerry has a positive vision for America, plus the proven intelligence, good sense, and guts to make it happen.

That's why The Iconoclast urges Texans not to rate the candidate by his hometown or even his political party, but instead by where he intends to take the country.

The Iconoclast wholeheartedly endorses John Kerry.

Forget Ahnold...

Can we elect this guy?!?

Ike Likes Kerry

One can only hope that endorsements such as this one -- by Dwight D. Eisenhower's son -- can make a difference.

As son of a Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, it is automatically expected by many that I am a Republican. For 50 years, through the election of 2000, I was. With the current administration’s decision to invade Iraq unilaterally, however, I changed my voter registration to independent, and barring some utterly unforeseen development, I intend to vote for the Democratic Presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry.

The fact is that today’s “Republican” Party is one with which I am totally unfamiliar. To me, the word “Republican” has always been synonymous with the word “responsibility,” which has meant limiting our governmental obligations to those we can afford in human and financial terms. Today’s whopping budget deficit of some $440 billion does not meet that criterion.

Responsibility used to be observed in foreign affairs. That has meant respect for others. America, though recognized as the leader of the community of nations, has always acted as a part of it, not as a maverick separate from that community and at times insulting towards it. Leadership involves setting a direction and building consensus, not viewing other countries as practically devoid of significance. Recent developments indicate that the current Republican Party leadership has confused confident leadership with hubris and arrogance.

Paying Attention

Now, perhaps if PDB stood for Petroleum Daily Brief, Bush would probably have paid attention to the August 6, 2001 PDB.

White House Says It's Monitoring Oil Price Climb

The Bush administration said Monday it is closely monitoring U.S. crude oil prices, which traders said could soon top $50 a barrel on worries about supplies.

Cheney: Hacker?

Has our illustrious No. 2 (how fitting!) become a computer hacker?

UK Customer Service Line Filled With Expletives

LONDON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Customers of British cable firm NTL were subjected to a barrage of profanity after a malicious hacker or disgruntled employee changed the company's telephone service message, the Sun said in its Monday edition.

The newspaper reported that customers who called to report a fault with their service were told:

"You are through to NTL customer services. We don't give a (expletive) about you. We are never here. We just (expletive) you about, basically, and we are not going to handle any of your complaints. Just (expletive) off and leave us alone."

NTL was unavailable for comment late on Sunday but the Sun said the message had now been changed and an NTL spokesman had apologised for the matter.

1,043

AP Photo by Susan Walsh

SCLM

That Dan Rather had some kind of "so-called liberal media" vendetta is bullshit!

Tina Brown gets it right...

Breaking the News, Then Becoming It

The Dan Rather affair looks like yet another giant freakout in the patient's collapse. For Rather and CBS, all the conflicting tensions that torture journalists and producers day and night came together. The broiling partisan heat, the pressure to get out of third place with a scoop, the hot breath of cable news, the race to beat all the hacks and scribes who keep nibbling away at the story (your story, the story you've spent five years trying to get right), the baying of the bloggers, the sick sense of always being news-managed by the White House's black arts, the longing to show the Web charlatans and cable-heads that rumpled-trenchcoat news is still where the action is, the pounding inner soundtrack that asks: Am I a watchdog or a poodle? A journalist or an entertainer? A tough newsman or a mouse with mousse?

[...]

As for Dan and CBS, it wasn't really politics that drove them over the edge, was it? It was romance. That's the sad part. How good did it feel when they broke the Abu Ghraib story just a beat before Seymour Hersh at the New Yorker? How satisfying is it when a real news sensation takes hold instead of some tabloid trash moment (like Janet Jackson's flashing breast)? A veteran newsman is in the twilight of a long and distinguished career. He just wanted to taste that sweet medicine one more time.

More Cat

Just four months ago, Stephen Demetre Georgiou aka Cat Stevens aka Yusuf Islam visited Washington, D.C. and met with White House officials about "philanthropic work." A couple of months later, he was in the country to visit his record label.

I'm curious to know what he has done in the last two months to have been placed on the no-fly list (which apparently doesn't work as well as planned!).

Considering that the Justice Department is now 0 for 5,000 in the prosecution of detainees they've held since September 11, 2001, I'm probably right in saying that the Bush administration doesn't know its collective ass from a hole in the ground.

From the New York Daily News...

Cat Stevens Banished As Terror Threat

WASHINGTON - The peace-and-love rocker formerly known as Cat Stevens was kicked out of the U.S. last night as a terror risk - four months after he was invited to meet with White House officials.

The author of "Peace Train" and "Wild World" who converted to Islam was placed on the "no-fly" list and the terror watch list in May when he last visited the U.S.

Ironically during that trip, he met with officials of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives "to talk about philanthropic work," according to White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan. Buchan said that was before he was added to the no-fly list.

The singer's Web site said that during his Washington trip he also met with USAID officials and launched the Small Kindness charity, which it says helped children in the Balkans and Iraq. The site also said Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam, visited his record company in the U.S. just two months ago.

A spokesman for the U.S. Homeland Security Department said Islam was sent back to London because of his "activities potentially related to terrorism."

The spokesman declined to say what the activities were, but said, "We do not put someone on the [no-fly] list willy-nilly."

No... these idiots don't do anything willy-nilly!

Presidential Material

Finally, someone who seems to have a clue about combatting terrorism! Mikhail Gorbachev was the other (often downplayed) key participant in the ending of the Cold War. In fact, had Gorbachev not been part of the process, the fall of the Berlin Wall wouldn't have happened until years later. So, I think it's worth listening to whatever he might have to say.

Gorbachev Calls For Terror Talks

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev says terrorism can only be fought by political means, just weeks after the Beslan school siege ended in tragedy with at least 338 dead.

Mr Gorbachev called on world leaders to come together in a "united effort" to combat terrorism.

"What is more," he told Newsnight, "the united efforts must be directed at a political solution of problems relating to terrorism and at cutting the supply channels of terrorism."

He also dismissed the notion of a viable war against terrorism saying: 'I don't believe it is a war that we are talking about, some people even say that a Third World War has broken out.

In terms of the global fight against terrorism, world leaders needed to fully recognise widespread poverty is a "breeding ground for terrorists", said Mr Gorbachev.

"We should not reduce everything down to weapons and violence."

Kerry Takes Lead!

It's official... John Kerry took the lead in this year's Presidential election balloting.

Kerry Scores Two Votes in Iowa Balloting

DES MOINES, Iowa - Presidential candidate John Kerry was a double winner Thursday when two Iowans - both young Democratic Party activists - cast the state's first votes of the 2004 election.

Andy and Jana Heiting-Doane, both 22, were at the doors of the Polk County election office when it opened at 8 a.m. They filled out two absentee ballots, later telling reporters they had voted for Kerry.

Yes, Maureen... Yes!

From the New York Times...

The Prince of Tides, Tacking and Attacking

"As I quoted a girlfriend saying in September 2002, a month before Mr. Kerry's authorization vote, 'Bush is like the guy who reserves a hotel room and asks you to the prom.'

When Mr. Kerry says it was the way the president went about challenging Saddam that was wrong, rather than the fact that he challenged Saddam, he's sidestepping the central moral issue.

It was wrong for the president to take on Saddam as a response to 9/11, to pretend the dictator was a threat to our national security, to drum up a fake case on weapons and a faux link to Al Qaeda, and to divert our energy, emotions and mat�riel from the real enemy to an old enemy whose address we knew.

It was wrong to take Americans to war without telling them the truth about why we were doing it and what it would cost.

It wasn't the way W. did it. It was what he did."

Incredible!

Eupatorus gracilicornus

Origami. One piece of paper.

Hmmmm...

So, you mean to say that al Qaeda isn't in Iraq?

From the State Department's website:

Big In Japan

I found this little gem today... I haven't heard it reported on the networks yet. I wonder if the Bushies are getting a little wary of their reliance on the Saudis as their launching pad for their warmongering. Perhaps they're drawing North Korea into their sights...

U.S. Reportedly Pushing Japan To Be Base For Force Extending To Middle East
Thursday, September 23, 2004

TOKYO — The United States is pushing Japan to become a base for a force that can deploy to the Middle East, a move that exceeds the bounds of their current security alliance, according to a Japanese newspaper report.

The realignment plan would make Japan a host for command bases for Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps that could deploy to 'the arc of instability' from Africa and the Balkans through the Middle East to Southeast Asia, the Asahi Shimbun reported Wednesday, citing government officials.

Working-level talks on the plan started in November after Washington announced a global military realignment plan, the paper said.

Tokyo has been reluctant to adopt a plan it sees as going beyond the scope of the Japan-US Security Treaty, which says American troops are stationed in the country to maintain peace and stability in Japan and the Far East.

'In order to make the U.S. plan happen, we must revise the bilateral security treaty or change our interpretation of it. But we can't do that,' the Asahi quoted a senior government official as saying.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi discussed U.S. plans for military realignment with President George W Bush in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

During the talks, Bush said Washington aimed to make its deterrent force based in Japan more effective but reduce the burden on local communities, the Japan Broadcasting Corp and Jiji and Kyodo news agencies reported. (Wire reports)"

America as Iraq

As we sleep, nestled so snugly (smugly?) in our beds, with the likelihood of being the victim of a missile or improvised explosive device being infinitesimal, the people of Baghdad, Fallujah or Tikrit wonder if they'll wake to their walls falling in on them, or if that explosion in the middle of the night spared their brother's house down the street.

It's all a matter of perspective, and Juan Cole so ably shines the light...

If America were Iraq, What would it be Like?

President Bush said Tuesday that the Iraqis are refuting the pessimists and implied that things are improving in that country.

What would America look like if it were in Iraq's current situation? The population of the US is over 11 times that of Iraq, so a lot of statistics would have to be multiplied by that number.

Thus, violence killed 300 Iraqis last week, the equivalent proportionately of 3,300 Americans. What if 3,300 Americans had died in car bombings, grenade and rocket attacks, machine gun spray, and aerial bombardment in the last week? That is a number greater than the deaths on September 11, and if America were Iraq, it would be an ongoing, weekly or monthly toll.

And what if those deaths occurred all over the country, including in the capital of Washington, DC, but mainly above the Mason Dixon line, in Boston, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco?

What if the grounds of the White House and the government buildings near the Mall were constantly taking mortar fire? What if almost nobody in the State Department at Foggy Bottom, the White House, or the Pentagon dared venture out of their buildings, and considered it dangerous to go over to Crystal City or Alexandria?

What if all the reporters for all the major television and print media were trapped in five-star hotels in Washington, DC and New York, unable to move more than a few blocks safely, and dependent on stringers to know what was happening in Oklahoma City and St. Louis? What if the only time they ventured into the Midwest was if they could be embedded in Army or National Guard units?

There are estimated to be some 25,000 guerrillas in Iraq engaged in concerted acts of violence. What if there were private armies totaling 275,000 men, armed with machine guns, assault rifles (legal again!), rocket-propelled grenades, and mortar launchers, hiding out in dangerous urban areas of cities all over the country? What if they completely controlled Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Denver and Omaha, such that local police and Federal troops could not go into those cities?

What if, during the past year, the Secretary of State (Aqilah Hashemi), the President (Izzedine Salim), and the Attorney General (Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim) had all been assassinated?

What if all the cities in the US were wracked by a crime wave, with thousands of murders, kidnappings, burglaries, and carjackings in every major city every year?

What if the Air Force routinely (I mean daily or weekly) bombed Billings, Montana, Flint, Michigan, Watts in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Anacostia in Washington, DC, and other urban areas, attempting to target "safe houses" of "criminal gangs", but inevitably killing a lot of children and little old ladies?

What if, from time to time, the US Army besieged Virginia Beach, killing hundreds of armed members of the Christian Soldiers? What if entire platoons of the Christian Soldiers militia holed up in Arlington National Cemetery, and were bombarded by US Air Force warplanes daily, destroying thousands of graves and even pulverizing the Vietnam Memorial over on the Mall? What if the National Council of Churches had to call for a popular march of thousands of believers to converge on the National Cathedral to stop the US Army from demolishing it to get at a rogue band of the Timothy McVeigh Memorial Brigades?

What if there were virtually no commercial air traffic in the country? What if many roads were highly dangerous, especially Interstate 95 from Richmond to Washington, DC, and I-95 and I-91 up to Boston? If you got on I-95 anywhere along that over 500-mile stretch, you would risk being carjacked, kidnapped, or having your car sprayed with machine gun fire.

What if no one had electricity for much more than 10 hours a day, and often less? What if it went off at unpredictable times, causing factories to grind to a halt and air conditioning to fail in the middle of the summer in Houston and Miami? What if the Alaska pipeline were bombed and disabled at least monthly? What if unemployment hovered around 40%?

What if veterans of militia actions at Ruby Ridge and the Oklahoma City bombing were brought in to run the government on the theory that you need a tough guy in these times of crisis?

What if municipal elections were cancelled and cliques close to the new "president" quietly installed in the statehouses as "governors?" What if several of these governors (especially of Montana and Wyoming) were assassinated soon after taking office or resigned when their children were taken hostage by guerrillas?

What if the leader of the European Union maintained that the citizens of the United States are, under these conditions, refuting pessimism and that freedom and democracy are just around the corner?

Rafe Colburn adds:

Cole also fails to ask perhaps the most important "What if?" question, which is: How would Americans react if, amid the chaos, there were 1,650,000 foreign, non-English speaking soldiers in our country.

Teeny-Tiny

The Rude Pundit speaks.

Bring 'em on!

From Today In Iraq

Bring 'em on: Two US Marines killed in fighting in al-Anbar province.
Bring 'em on: One US soldier killed in roadside bomb ambush near Tikrit.
Bring 'em on: Eleven Iraqis killed, “dozens” wounded in Baghdad car bombing.
Bring 'em on: US helicopter shot down near Nassiriyah; three crew members wounded.
Bring 'em on: Ten Iraqis killed, 92 wounded in heavy fighting, air strikes in Sadr City.
Bring 'em on: One Iraqi detainee killed in insurgent attack on Abu Ghraib.
Bring 'em on: US air strikes reported in Fallujah.
Bring 'em on: Four Iraqis killed in fighting with US troops near Samarra.
Bring 'em on: Four US soldiers wounded in car bomb attack on US convoy in Baghdad.
Bring 'em on: Two Iraqi civilians wounded by US patrol near Samarra.
Bring 'em on: One Iraqi killed; five civilians, two police wounded by two roadside bombs near Baquba.
Bring 'em on: US troops raid al-Sadr offices in Najaf.

1,040

Taxing. No?

What Life?

Study: Life Without The Net Is Unbearable

WASHINGTON -- Researchers investigating how people would react to not having access to the Internet had a tough time getting started. 'It was incredibly difficult to recruit participants as people weren't willing to be without the Internet for two weeks,' explained Wenda Harris Millard, chief sales officer of Yahoo, and a sponsor of the study.

All participants found living without the Net more difficult than expected, and in some cases impossible, the researchers reported. Nearly half of those in one of the surveys said they couldn't go without the Internet for more than two weeks.

Sending e-mail, looking up phone numbers, getting directions for a trip, and checking sports scores online, have become a part of daily life. Conifer Research worked with several dozen people who kept a diary of their activities. Regardless of age, income or ethnicity, all said they had withdrawal symptoms and a sense of loss, frustration and 'discontentedness.'

'The study is indicative of how the Internet has irrevocably changing the daily lives of consumers,' Yahoo's Millard said "

more >>

I say, "WHAT life without the internet?!?"

Iraq: Bush's Mess

No matter the approach John Kerry takes with regard to Iraq, Bush continues to gets mileage out of his claims that Kerry has taken "many different positions on Iraq." And the public seems to be eating it up.

Frankly, I'm getting tired of it. I'm getting tired of hearing Bush say it, for one thing, I'm getting tired of the media letting him get away with it when they know it isn't true, and I'm tired of Kerry letting him say it without rebuttal. Perhaps yesterday's speech at NYU was the beginning if a bolder approach to his campaign.

If Kerry were to ask me how to respond to Bush, this is what I'd tell him to say:

"Mr. President... For the sake of argument, let's say that I have taken as many positions on the war in Iraq as you've said I've taken. You know what...? I could have taken fifty positions on Iraq... but the fact remains -- you're the one who's made a mess of the place!"

Rather vs. Bush

Let's take a look at how the Republicans view the recent blow-up over the CBS 60 Minutes report and the apparently forged documents at issue...

Fom Outlet Radio via DailyKos...

Dan Rather, CBS News Anchor:

1. given documents he thought were true
2. failed to thoroughly investigate the facts
3. reported documents to the American people as true to make his case
4. when confronted with the facts, apologized and launched an investigation
5. number of Americans dead: 0
6. should be fired as CBS News Anchor

George W. Bush, President of the United States:

1. given documents he thought were true
2. failed to thoroughly investigate the facts
3. reported documents to the American people as true to make his case
4. when confronted with the facts, continued to report untruth and stonewalled an investigation
5. number of Americans dead: 1100
6. should be given four more years as President of the United States

Peace Train Plane?

Cat Stevens, on Watch List, Diverts Plane

WASHINGTON - A plane bound for Washington from London was diverted to Maine on Tuesday after passenger Yusuf Islam — formerly known as pop singer Cat Stevens (news) — showed up on a U.S. watch list, federal officials said.

United Airlines Flight 919 had already taken off from London en route to Dulles International Airport when the match was made between the passenger and the watch list, said Nico Melendez, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration.

The plane was met by federal agents at Maine's Bangor International Airport around 3 p.m., Melendez said.

Federal officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, identified the individual as Islam.

One official said Islam, 56, was identified by the Advanced Passenger Information System, which requires airlines to send passenger information to U.S. Customs and Border Protection's National Targeting Center. TSA was then contacted and requested that the plane land at the nearest airport, the official said.

"He was interviewed and denied admission to the United States on national security grounds," said Homeland Security spokesman Dennis Murphy. He said the man would be put on the first available flight out of the country Wednesday.

Islam, who was born Stephen Georgiou, took Cat Stevens as a stage name and had a string of hits in the 1960s and '70s, including "Wild World" and "Morning Has Broken." Last year he released two songs, including a re-recording of his '70s hit "Peace Train," to express his opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq (news - web sites).

He abandoned his music career in the late 1970s and changed his name after being persuaded by orthodox Muslim teachers that his lifestyle was forbidden by Islamic law. He later became a teacher and an advocate for his religion, founding a Muslim school in London in 1983.

Islam recently condemned the school seizure by militants in Beslan, Russia, earlier this month that left more than 300 dead, nearly half of them children.

In a statement on his Web site, he wrote, "Crimes against innocent bystanders taken hostage in any circumstance have no foundation whatsoever in the life of Islam and the model example of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him."

Rathergate

I fell asleep last night with the television on and awoke in the middle of the night to CBS' overnight news program, To The Minute. A report was being run about Dan Rather's admission/apology last evening for the apparently phony documents regarding Bush's failure to report while in the Texas Air National Guard. I didn't clock it, but the segment ran probably close to five minutes (a similar report this morning ran three minutes).

What the fuck is wrong with the priorities of the national news media that that much time is being devoted to a reporter/news network's being duped, yet investigations regarding actual breaches of national security (Valerie Plame for one) are hardly, if ever mentioned?

On CBS' The Early Show, coverage of John Kerry's speech regarding Iraq was reduced to one line from his extremely scathing speech on Bush's misguided war in Iraq, along with a clip of Bush characterizing the speech as "yet another change of position" for Kerry. The CBS report then went on to run a clip of Kerry on Late Night with David Letterman last night cracking a joke. I didn't catch the name of the talking head, but his only comment was (paraphrasing), "John Kerry has to start showing that he's actually human."

Jesus. Fucking. Christ!!

Where on earth is journalism actually practiced?

[Exhaling...]

Apparently not on CNN...

James Wolcott has a lighter take on Rathergate, with a jab at CNN's less-than-eminent Wolf Blitzer.

CNN Admits It Cannot Prove Authenticity of Wolf Blitzer

In a shock announcement that will reverberate through broadcast journalism, CNN has acknowledged that it can no longer vouch for the authenticity of host Wolf Blitzer.

more >>

Bush: Big Talk, Sissy Walk

Our "strong, steady" President likes to come across as tough when dealing with the "turrists", but has done everything possible to avoid a "town hall" debate format for the upcoming debates [sic].

Scaredy-Cat
President Bush is afraid of participating in the town-hall debate. He should be.
Paul Waldman, The Gadflyer

According to recent news reports, the Bush campaign is attempting to reduce the number of debates the President has with John Kerry from the three proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates to only two. More specifically, they are attempting to eliminate the town-hall-style debate scheduled for October 8 in St. Louis.

Let us put aside the strong possibility that the Bush team's negotiating position has been constructed with an eye toward convincing reporters that Bush is afraid to debate Kerry, thus lowering expectations for the President and raising them for Kerry. If there is one debate that the President would rather skip, it's the town-hall, because it calls Bush to do the things he is least capable of: responding to unpredictable questions, talking about a wide range of issues, and addressing the day-to-day concerns of real people. And it would be a shame, because the town-hall is far and away the most entertaining and edifying format.

[...]

To a fault, their questions have been substantive and practical, focusing on issues and asking candidates to elaborate their positions and specify what actions they will take as president.

For Bush, this presents a problem: it's one thing to brush off a reporter with yet another recitation of a talking point ("We're safer…Saddam was a threat…we're turning the corner…"), since most voters think reporters are cynics just trying to get the candidates to slip up. But doing the same thing to a voter asking for some real answers doesn't make you look clever, it makes you look rude. Bush knows how to stay "on message" as well as any president in history, a talent that serves him well in many situations. But a town-hall debate isn't one of them.

The second distinction of town-hall debates is that citizen questioners tend to cover much greater ground than journalist questioners. While reporters – who travel and think in a giant pack most of the time – tend to focus on the few issues that are dominating the campaign, citizens have brought concerns to the town-hall debate that a Washington journalist might never have thought of. For instance, in the 2000 town-hall debate, Bush and Gore fielded questions about national health insurance, FDA procedures for approving new drugs, education, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, military overstretch, the Brady Law, family farms, low turnout among young people, taxes, affirmative action, and the death penalty. Both campaigns can predict fairly accurately what questions a journalist will ask them. But you can never tell what an ordinary citizen is going to bring up.

And this too is a problem for President Bush. To put it charitably, his facility with the details of the myriad policy issues a president confronts has its limits. The citizen questioners bring an unpredictability to debates that plays right to Bush's weakness. As we've seen time and again, when Bush is forced to think on his feet the results range from the comical to the embarrassing. While some issues may allow him to fall back on tried-and-true sound bites even if he doesn't really know what he's talking about, the chances Bush will be thrown a curve ball – and come out looking silly – are fairly high.

Good News!

Not all is gloom and doom and woe...

Andrews McMeel Planning Complete Calvin & Hobbes
Slipcased Hardcover Collection Coming in 2005

At last weekend's BEA, ICv2 learned that Andrews McMeel is planning to release a three-hardcover slipcased complete collection of the popular Calvin & Hobbes comic strips in 2005. This set will be similar to this year's two-hardcover slipcased Far Side collection which sold out very quickly, despite being approximately $130. Retail price is expected to be $150.

Quotable Quote

"It's not George Bush's decisiveness that's the problem. It's his decisions." - Ellen Goodman

Our Gifts To Iraq

On a daily basis, I marvel that other people who watch and hear George Bush don't get the same gut feeling that he's one of the biggest weasels of all time. There is rarely a time I have seen him on television -- whether in a video-sound byte, interview or press conference -- in which he seems to speak with a conviction that comes deeply from within him; he appears to have been wound up and let go; he appears to have rehearsed it all... and still he gets it wrong!

From the Yellow Times...

Beware Americans Bearing Gifts
By Raff Ellis

You don't have to be an anthropologist to understand that whenever a caveman left his environs to conquer a neighboring cave, he wanted something for his trouble -- more food, women or even the primitive ego gratification of exercising power. Nor do you have to study folklore to know that whenever a tribe invaded another tribe, its members wanted something the other tribe had -- superior land for agriculture, better hunting grounds or even the capture of slaves. And, as history has shown time and again, whenever one country invades another, it also wants something -- territorial expansion, natural resources or regional hegemony.

This is not an inclusive list of reasons, of course, but it is enough to show that never did anyone invade another to give them a gift. The mythical Trojans should have understood this before they dragged the wooden horse into their midst and barred the fortress gates behind them.

History has now been turned on its ear with George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq because he says, "We did it to spread democracy." In other words, we invaded to give Iraq one of our most cherished gifts -- our form of government! And we will do this under the gun, whether they want it or not.

Wait a minute. Aren't these the same people who "hate our freedoms and our liberty"?

Somewhere along the line, I suffered a logical disconnect. If those people despise the very things that our form of government provides us, how could they possibly look favorably upon our bearing them this unwanted gift of democracy?

When all other arguments failed, we changed the reasoning to, "We went in to free the Iraqis from the tyrannical leadership of the murderous Saddam Hussein." He was, after all, responsible for torturing thousands at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison. Oh, perhaps he didn't do it personally but, as head of state, he was responsible nonetheless. Our enemies' sewage rolls uphill and he was covered in it.

Of course, after deposing Saddam, we took over Abu Ghraib and gave Iraqis the gift of American torture and murder, something they already had and needed no more of. However, the blame for this was not laid at the doorstep of George W. Bush, the leader of the US, but to a few rogue soldiers who weren't trained properly. In America, sewage obeys the law of political gravity--it doesn't roll uphill. Dubya didn't do it personally and he's not responsible either. This is how it works in a proper democracy.

So, from an Iraqi point of view, what's the difference between Saddam and George? Well, there is Bush's gift of a lot more dead, and many more homeless, for one. Those who have taken pains to do the accounting estimate the number killed at close to 40,000. We don't know for sure because US forces aren't in the business of totaling "enemy" dead. The gift of bookkeeping is not one that we are giving.

There is also the gift of destroyed buildings -- homes, businesses, water works, sewage and power plants. Getting electricity and clean water, something Iraqis enjoyed under the tyranny of Saddam, is a bit problematic now but that's the price you pay when you are the recipient of American generosity.

It needs to be pointed out that it was with great fanfare that Bush & Co. denied that they were invading Iraq for their oil. Why, it belongs to the Iraqi people they said and will be used solely for their benefit -- namely rebuilding their country. It needs rebuilding, of course, because it is the same country we are destroying to liberate its people from the oppression of torture and murder.

How many of you actually believed that line?

But something happened on the road to Eden. The GAO found that over a billion dollars of said oil revenues mysteriously found their way into the coffers of Halliburton Corp. How it got there, nobody knows, or nobody is telling.

And now the Bush administration has announced plans to shift another $3.46 billion from Iraqi water, power, sewage and other reconstruction projects to improve security, boost oil output and prepare for the elections scheduled for January. The gift of elections and "security," something that has deteriorated daily since the invasion, are certainly more important than pure water, sewage disposal and electric power. (It should also be noted that to date only 5.5% of the money previously earmarked for reconstruction has actually been expended in that effort.)

Magnanimously, this will clear the way for the forgiveness of 95% of Iraq's debt to the US, something Bush has suggested that other countries also consider. Why would he give Iraq the gift of debt forgiveness? It's simple if you think about it. The oil money, if it went to pay off debt, could not easily find its way into the treasure chest of companies such as Halliburton and other administration-favored, no-bid contractors. It would have to go back into the US treasury -- our treasury from whence it came -- not to some fat cat corporate friend of the Bush family. The money would then be used to pay off what we borrowed in order to loan the money in the first place. What a silly idea! Reduction of our national debt is not something this "conservative" administration seems inclined to do.

In any case, I'm not so sure most Iraqis are willing to trade water, sewage disposal and electricity for the gift of boosting oil output—the revenues from which they most probably will never see.

Our modern caveman, the atavistic George W. Bush, has exercised his primitive power urge and gotten a big dose of ego satisfaction. And because he has done so under the guise of bearing gifts, that famous old saying -- "Beware Greeks bearing gifts" must now be updated.

If I were an Iraqi, I don't think I could take too many more of these American gifts.

The Bushes: No Class, No Decency

Maureen Dowd takes a lot of crap from both the left and the right, and while I'm not crazy that she called Kerry "lame" on Letterman a couple of weeks ago, I like her and read her columns religiously. Today, she hits one squarely on the head.

No Stars, Just Cuffs
By MAUREEN DOWD

WASHINGTON — In World Wars I and II, gold star mothers were the queens of their neighborhoods, the stars in their windows ensuring that they would be treated with great respect for their sacrifice in sending sons overseas to fight and die against the Germans and Japanese.

Instead of a gold star, Sue Niederer, 55, of Hopewell, N.J., got handcuffed, arrested and charged with a crime for daring to challenge the Bush policy in Iraq, where her son, Army First Lt. Seth Dvorin, 24, died in February while attempting to disarm a bomb.

She came to a Laura Bush rally last week at a firehouse in Hamilton, N.J., wearing a T-shirt that blazed with her agony and anger: "President Bush You Killed My Son."

Mrs. Niederer tried to shout while the first lady was delivering her standard ode to her husband's efforts to fight terrorism. She wanted to know why the Bush twins weren't serving in Iraq "if it's such a justified war," as she put it afterward. The Record of Hackensack, N.J., reported that the mother of the dead soldier was boxed in by Bush supporters yelling "Four more years!" and wielding "Bush/Cheney" signs. Though she eventually left voluntarily, she was charged with trespassing while talking to reporters.

The moment was emblematic of how far the Bushies will go to squelch any voice that presents a view of Iraq that's different from the sunny party line, which they continue to dish out despite a torrent of alarming evidence to the contrary.

Aside from moms who are handcuffed at Bush events and the Jersey 9/11 moms who are supporting John Kerry after growing disillusioned with White House attempts to suppress the 9/11 investigation, the president is doing very well with women. The so-called security moms, who have replaced soccer moms as a desirable demographic, are now flocking to Mr. Bush over Mr. Kerry, believing he can better protect their kids from scary terrorists.

In the new Times poll, 48 percent of women supported the president, compared with Mr. Kerry's 43 percent - a reversal from July, when Mr. Kerry had the women's vote 52 to 40 percent. This is an ominous sign for the Democrat, who lost his gender gap advantage after his listless summer and the G.O.P.'s convention swagger.

How did the president who has caused so much insecurity in the world become the hero of security moms? He was, after all, in charge when Al Qaeda struck, and he was the one to send off Mrs. Niederer's son and other kids to die in a war sold on a false premise. And that conflict has, despite what Mr. Bush claims, spurred more acts of terror and been a recruiting bonanza for Osama bin Laden.

In the Times poll, half of all registered voters said they had a lot of confidence in Mr. Bush's ability to protect the nation from another terrorist attack, compared with 26 percent who felt that way about Mr. Kerry.

While Mr. Bush managed to duck service in Vietnam and let Osama get away, he has been relentless in John Wayning the election and turning war hero John Kerry into a sniveling wimp.

Last week, Mr. Kerry finally tried to change the subject from Mr. Bush's mockery of Mr. Kerry's tortuous stances on Iraq to the awful reality of what's happening in Iraq.

He got an assist from the president's own intelligence community, which issued a gloomy report that gave the lie to the administration's continued insistence that Iraq is a desert flower of democracy.

This was followed by a report by Charles A. Duelfer, the top American weapons inspector in Iraq, that found no evidence that Iraq had begun any large-scale program for weapons production by the time of the American invasion last year. To rationalize its idée fixe on Iraq, the administration squandered 15 months, with 1,200 people - at a time when our scarce supply of Arabic experts should have been focused on the Iraqi insurgency and Al Qaeda - just to figure out that Saddam would have loved to have dangerous weapons if he could have, but he couldn't, so he didn't.

Even with the help of his new Clintonistas, Mr. Kerry is nibbling around the edges of the moral case against W(rong) and Dark Cheney. He charged that the president was living in "a fantasy world of spin" on Iraq.

But the Bushies are way beyond spin, which is a staple of politics. These guys are about turning the world upside down, and saying it's right side up. And that should really give security moms the jitters.

More Lyrics

I recall the first Bush's war in Iraq and the disgust I and my then-wife felt at the direction the world seemed to be taking. At about the same time, Jackson Browne's World In Motion took regular residency in our car's tape player (along with his 1985 release Lives In The Balance).

I am finding it more and more fitting for today's world.

MY PERSONAL REVENGE
Tomás Borge and Louis Enrique Mejia Godoy
(English Translation by Jorge Calderon)

My personal revenge will be the right
Of our children in the schools and in the gardens
My personal revenge will be to give you
This song which has flourished without panic
My personal revenge will be to show you
The kindness in the eyes of my people
Who have always fought relentlessly in battle
And been generous and firm in victory

My personal revenge will be to tell you good morning
On a street without beggars or homeless
When instead of jailing you I suggest
You shake away the sadness there that blinds you
And when you who have applied your hands in torture
Are unable to look up at what surrounds you
My personal revenge will be to give you
These hands that once you so mistreated
But have failed to take away their tenderness

It was the people who hated you the most
When rage became the language of their song
And underneath the skin of this town today
Its heart has been scarred forevermore

It was the people who hated you the most
When rage became the language of their song
And underneath the skin of this town today
Its heart has been scarred forevermore
And underneath the skin of this town today
Red and black, its heart's been scarred
Forevermore

Anything Can Happen

"People give their lives to making war
And we call those people sane"
                 - Jackson Browne

Catholics For Bush

I grew up Catholic, attending Catholic schools for twelve years, and I can't for the life of me understand how anyone who has even a scintilla of intelligence can believe that George Bush is of higher moral standing than John Kerry. George Bush's policies -- whether regarding the invasion of a soverign Iraq to the economy to environmental issues -- are about as far from being Christian as any politician this side of Pontius Pilate.

Frankly, I don't believe this website to be anything more than a Republican front site for the group One Issue Zealots Who Refuse To Look At The Big Picture For Bush.

The issue, of course, is abortion. And the anti-abortion zealots (I will not call them pro-life activists for they support not only the death penalty but the murder of thousands of Iraqi civilians under false pretenses) would have you believe that legislation banning abortions will have any significant impact on anything that happens on this earth.

Suppose that abortions were banned. Would they still occur? Absolutely. Would there be any fewer abortions as a result. Likely not. Would any lives really be saved? I think not. Actually, since the abortions would consequently be performed under less than ideal conditions, I'd bet the loss of life of the women involved would increase.

What, then, is the real agenda of those pushing for the criminalization of abortions? It clearly isn't reducing the loss of life. If it were, why do we not see them in the forefront of groups protesting the invasion of a sovereign Iraq? Why do we not see them protesting the thousands upon thousands of innocent lives being extinguished in Iraq? Are they really any less helpless than the sacred unborn? Do they have any real choice in the yay or nay conditions of their lives?

I'd like to know why the lives of the unborn are any more significant than the lives of the civilians (or American or British or whosever soldiers) dying in droves in Iraq. I want to know why the lives of the unborn are any more worth fighting for than the lives lost to the chemical poisoning due to years and years of industrial pollution. I'd really like to know why the lives of the unborn are any more important than the Palestinians and Israelis killing themselves in a land that our moron of a president chose to ignore for almost a year after taking office, right when they were on the brink of settling their dispute. Why are the lives of the unborn any more important than the lives of the poorest poor in this country who suffer under the grinding heel of this greedy corporate society that we either explicitly or implicitly support with the tired, worn-out promise of an "American Dream"? The only fucking people living the "American Dream" are the top one percent of the population, the ones who gain the most as a result of Bush's policies.

Bush doesn't give any more a flying fuck for the sacred gift of life than these poseurs spew who their nonsense in defense of this lousy excuse for a public servant we call President.

Woody Guthrie had a word for these people: Fascists.

Leonard Cohen

Tuesday is Leonard Cohen's 70th birthday. Here's a list of seventy things you might not have known about him.



(I could not determine who took this photograph)

Give America Hell

"Hi! I'm Satan... and I approve this message."

THIS is S-C-A-R-Y!!

From the DailyKos...

6 senators, including Zell Miller, Brownback, and Inhofe introduced a bill called "the constitutional restoration act of 2004" in Feb of 2004. It has picked up 34 cosponsors. It has received very little press attention. It is truly radical-possibly the start of a fascist theocracy.

The bill would allow government officials to cite god as the source of their authority. Decisions they make under the cover of this citation would be exempt from review by the courts. The wing nuts are selling this bill as something that would allow the display of nativity scenes and the ten commandments and so forth, but that is a Trojan horse. The wording of the act cuts broader than that.

Check out Yurica Report.

Also check out Peroutka2004 for the wing nutter view.

Now, Wait A Minute...

Bush Raises Questions About CBS Documents

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (Reuters) - President Bush questioned the authenticity of documents aired by CBS News that said he received special treatment during his Vietnam-era service in the National Guard, according to a Bush interview published on Saturday.

"There are a lot of questions about the documents and they need to be answered," Bush told the Union Leader newspaper of Manchester, New Hampshire, after a week in which some experts questioned whether the documents had been fabricated by those seeking to damage Bush in his re-election race.

"I think what needs to happen is people need to take a look at the documents, how they were created, and let the truth come out," Bush added.

[...]

Bush, who was spending a quiet day at his parents' seaside home in rain-soaked Kennebunkport, did not go as far as his wife, Laura, in his comments about the documents.

She told Radio Iowa last week the documents "probably are altered and they probably are forgeries and I think that's terrible, really."

Now, let's look at this a little more closely...

Laura Bush, who wasn't there when Chimpy served [sic], says that the documents "probably are forgeries". Chimpy -- who was there (or wasn't as the case may be) -- says "people need to take a look at the documents, how they were created, and let the truth come out."

Does that sound like a statement from someone who can unequivocally state that the essence of the documents is false?!?

Quagmire

You can't spell it without i-r-a-q.

Thanks to Becky for the catch...

Freaky Indeed!

I went to school in Bowling Green, Ohio and not once did I hear of a shooting in the four years or so that I was there. Football players breaking urinals, perhaps, but not once a shooting.

Man Shot in Downtown Bowling Green

BOWLING GREEN -- A Bowling Green man is in police custody. He's accused of shooting another man in downtown BG.

Shots rang out in this typically quiet community early this morning near the intersection of Wooster and Prospect Streets. Police say 22-year-old Brian Steen shot 20-year-old Matthew Llanas twice in the legs. Llanas was air-lifted to St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries. Police say a second man was not wounded, but did have a bullet go through his shirt.

[...]

"I heard it on the news this morning. I think it's kinda scary, because things like that don't happen in Bowling Green," said one resident Theresa Boggs.

"I think it's kinda freaky. I mean you really don't expect that to happen. It's mostly why you come to school someplace like this is to stay away from the big city and guns and things and stuff," said another resident Caleb Woods.

On a side note, will writers ever stop using the phrase, "shots rang out"?

"It ain't pretty"

Christopher Allbritton is a former AP and New York Daily News reporter who is currently in Baghdad.

His recent blogpost at Back To Iraq is very much worth reading.

I think that his feelings with regard to the United States soldiers serving over there are very much the same as mine and many anti-Iraq War activists: that while we are against the invasion (let's call a spade a spade, after all) we appreciate that they are fighting a battle they were ordered to fight and that we are concerned for their well-being.

We hope that while the Bush Administration's purposes for sending them into harm's way are sketchy at best, they are able to find the little victories every day that help to keep them from going insane.

I don’t know if I can really put into words just how bad it is here some days. Yesterday was horrible — just horrible. While most reports show Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra as “no-go” areas, practically the entire Western part of the country is controlled by insurgents, with pockets of U.S. power formed by the garrisons outside the towns. Insurgents move freely throughout the country and the violence continues to grow.

I wish I could point to a solution, but I don’t see one. People continue to email me, telling me to report the “truth” of all the good things that are going on in Iraq. I’m not seeing a one. A buddy of mine is stationed here and they’re fixing up a park on a major street. Gen. Chiarelli was very proud of this accomplishment, and he stressed this to me when I interviewed him for the TIME story. But Baghdadis couldn’t care less. They don’t want city beautification projects; they want electricity, clean water and, most of all, an end to the violence.

[...]

I should expand on some of my thoughts. I’m not blaming the soldiers or think of them as evil bastards. I feel sorry for them, being put in a horrible position, and my anonymous soldier is right: If all they can do is open a park, then I will not begrudge them that. It doesn’t hurt, and if it makes it easier for the soldiers to get through the day, more power to them. It’s better than waiting around for the next attack. And they desperately need to feel they’re doing something. Otherwise, I would think they’d go mad. At least I get to feel that I’m bearing witness or something. And I’m here voluntarily. I can’t begin to imagine how it would feel if you were sent here against your will and then told what you were doing was a big fat waste of time and lives. I feel for the soldiers as deeply as I feel for the Iraqi people. As I said once before, we are all prisoners here.]

Included in the post is a letter from an MP who has returned stateside that recounts the frustrations and the need for such victories.

1,032

Oh, yeah... two more American soldiers died today in Iraq.

Heartbreak

For any parent who knows the dangers that await our children once they leave our view, this has got to be once of the scariest. How anybody goes about consuming this much alcohol in such a short time is beyond me. But it happens. What is almost equally as heartbreaking as the loss of life is the notion that this girl's friends were complicit. What is also equally heartbreaking is that before long, many of this girl's friends will be right back where they left off yesterday.

Officials: Dead Woman Had Up to 40 Drinks

FORT COLLINS, Colo. - A 19-year-old college student drank up to 40 beers and shots of liquor in an 11-hour period before she was found dead in a fraternity house, investigators said Friday.

Samantha Spady had a blood-alcohol level of 0.436 percent — above the 0.4 percent considered potentially deadly — when her body was found Sept. 6 at the Sigma Pi fraternity house at Colorado State University, Deputy Coroner Dean Beers said.

Spady drank the equivalent of 30 to 40 12-ounce beers or 1-ounce shots of liquor, Beers said, but her death was ruled an accident and there was no evidence of foul play. Spady was found fully clothed, and her body had not been moved.

Spady began drinking with companions at 6 p.m. on Sept. 5 and did not stop until about 5 a.m. the next day. Investigators said Spady and her friends started with beer but later switched to vodka.

Spady's body was found in a lounge of the fraternity house by a fraternity member giving a tour the evening of Sept. 6. Beers said Spady probably died about midmorning that day.

Absolutely heartbreaking!

In a story in the Rocky Mountain News, a friend of Spady's had this to say...

"This just doesn't seem like her at all," Tatro said. "Sam, she was a smart girl. If you knew her at all through high school, she wasn't getting in trouble. She wasn't out doing stupid things. She was an all-around nice girl. This was out of character."

Bruhn added, "She was the one who knew when to go home when she knew she'd had too much (to drink)."

When does that cursed moment occur in which a "smart girl" who didn't do "stupid things" become a stupid girl who doesn't do smart things?

And how do we -- as parents -- light the way when our light isn't what our children want to follow?

Why is it that some of us can watch Animal House and recognize the absurdity, yet others (unfortunately, too many others) see that film and others of its ilk as a clarion call?

Let Us Recall...

George Bush (September 13, 2001):
"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him."

George Bush (March 13, 2002):
"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority."

Renewal In Iraq

Hmmm... we must be making progress in Iraq if the White House website says we are! Just look at those smiling faces!



But wait...



Then there's the Cincinnati Post...

A New Skepticism

The official White House line, dutifully echoed by Republican members of Congress, was that the rebuilding of Iraq was going ahead just fine. The only reason that reconstruction appeared to be in trouble was that the media reported it that way.

You don't hear that anymore. Indeed, you are beginning to hear Republican criticism of the lack of progress in Iraq.

The Bush administration this week asked Congress for permission to shift $3.46 billion from reconstruction -- sewer, water and electricity -- to security. The administration wants 20 more Iraqi national guard battalions, 45,000 more police and 16,000 additional border guards. It was, said Sen. Chuck Hagel, the Nebraska Republican, "an acknowledgment that we are in deep trouble."

The senators were also alarmed that of the $18.4 billion for Iraqi reconstruction that the Congress had passed with such urgency last November, only a little over $1 billion has been spent.

Security concerns and bureaucratic foot-dragging may play a role in the failure to launch timely infrastructure projects that would get restless and angry Iraqis off the streets and into productive jobs. But the indications are that the administration was overwhelmed by the scope of the problem.

That was Sen. Richard Lugar's take at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which the Indiana Republican chairs. He blamed the blind optimism of "the dancing in the street crowd" within the administration: "The lack of planning is apparent."

more >>

Oh, and...

Government Warns Americans of Travel to Iraq

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department reminded Americans Friday of the dangers of traveling in Iraq, a day after two American construction workers were kidnapped from their home in Baghdad.

"The security threat to all American citizens in Iraq remains extremely high, with a high risk of attacks on civilians," the department said in a travel warning update. "...All vehicular travel in Iraq is extremely dangerous."

The department, without providing additional details, said it had credible information that terrorists have targeted civil aviation, and warned of the danger of using civilian aircraft to enter or leave Iraq.

Insurgents are targeting hotels, restaurants, police stations, checkpoints, foreign diplomatic missions, international organizations and other locations with expatriate personnel, the department said.

Attacks occur throughout the day, but travel at night is especially dangerous, the warning said. It described as particularly dangerous: Travel in or through Ramadi and Fallujah; between al-Hillah and Baghdad; and between the International Zone and Baghdad International Airport.

Americans who visit or live in Iraq have been urged for some time to pay close attention to their security, avoid crowds and inform the U.S. Embassy of their presence in the country. More than 100 foreigners have been abducted since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and many have been killed.

On Thursday, two Americans and a Briton were seized from their house in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood where many embassies and foreign companies are based, according to the Iraqi Interior Ministry and witnesses.

The American Way

Baseball... I do believe the Japanese are finally getting the hang of it!

Japanese Baseball On First Strike

Japanese professional baseball players have gone on strike for the first time since the game was introduced from the US 70 years ago.

The action was called over the players' demand that the league suspend a merger between two clubs, Orix Bluewave and Kintetsu Buffaloes.

Such a merger could cause job losses, but the clubs' owners say it is the only way to keep the teams in business.

1030

So, I was looking at the chart of American Military Casualties in the Iraq War posted at AntiWar.com (the data from which which I've posted below)...

American Deaths (Total/In combat)
Since war began (3/19/03): 1030/782
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 891/671
Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03): 570/477
Since Handover (6/29/04): 172/150

American Wounded
Total Wounded: 7125

Scrolling a bit more the comparison figures for fatalities in the war in Afghanistan...

US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 133

Now... if I recall correctly, the people who attacked us on September 11, 2001 were part of an organization that is based in... Afghanistan?

Burning Bush

Oh, this is too good to not post the entire thing!

The meatiest, juiciest parts of Kitty Kelley's new book, The Family, have been extracted at Slate. This looks to me to be perfect for copying/pasting into emails that you know are eventually going to get passed around to everyone (hint, hint!).

Burning Bushes

A reader's guide to Kitty Kelley's The Family.
By Bryan Curtis

Want the best (if somewhat dubious) dish from The Family, Kitty Kelley's new treatise on the Bush clan? Follow Slate's reading guide straight to the good parts.

Academic Honors

Page 252: George H.W. Bush comes to the rescue when his sons run afoul of Andover honor codes. Jeb violates the school's alcohol ban, but he's allowed to finish his degree after his father intervenes. Years later, Kelley writes, school officials catch W.'s younger brother Marvin with drugs, but dad talks them out of expulsion and secures for his son an "honorary transfer" to another school.

Page 253: At Andover, George W. Bush writes a morose essay about his sister's death. Searching for a synonym for "tears," he consults a thesaurus and writes, "And the lacerates ran down my cheeks." A teacher labels the paper "disgraceful."

Page 251: The family patriarch, Prescott Bush, questions W.'s seriousness about attending Yale, the Bush clan alma mater. "It's the difference between ham and eggs," he says. "The chicken is involved. The pig is committed."

Page 261-68: George W. at Yale. A witness remembers a "roaring drunk" Bush doing the Alligator at a fraternity kegger. A frat brother says Bush "wasn't an ass man." Another friend concurs: "Poor Georgie. He couldn't even relate to women unless he was loaded. … There were just too many stories of him turning up dead drunk on dates." W. lovingly tends to his frat brothers but derides other Yalies as "liberal pussies."

Page 271: Joke excised from Bush's 2001 Yale commencement speech: "It's great to return to New Haven. My car was followed all the way from the airport by a long line of police cars with slowly rotating lights. It was just like being an undergraduate again."

Page 309: At Harvard Business School, which W. attends from 1973 to 1975, a professor screens The Grapes of Wrath. Bush asks him, "Why are you going to show us that Commie movie?" W.'s take on the film: "Look. People are poor because they are lazy."

Sex and Drugs

Page 49: Prescott Bush frequently shows up drunk at the lavish Hartford Club and never tips the bellboys. "Finally we figured out how to exact revenge," says one bellboy. "Whenever he came in drunk and wanted to go upstairs, we'd take him in the elevator and stop about three inches from his floor. He'd step out and fall flat on his face."

Page 79: In a letter to his mother during World War II, H.W. fulminates against the casual sex he sees at a Naval Air Station: "These girls are not prostitutes, but just girls without any morals at all."

Page 209: In the early 1960s, H.W. has an affair with an Italian woman named Rosemarie and "promise[s] to get a divorce and marry her." Bush ends the affair in 1964; the woman asks the attorney if she can sue Bush for breaking their engagement.

Page 327-30; 341-42; 353: Now ambassador to China, H.W. has a relationship with his aide Jennifer Fitzgerald. Around the same time, Barbara disappears from Peking for three months. "Everyone knew that [Fitzgerald] was George's mistress," says a source.

Page 375-76: James Baker refuses to run Bush's 1980 presidential campaign if Fitzgerald is around; Bush concedes but pays her a salary. After becoming vice president, Bush gets into a traffic accident while riding with his "girlfriend"; he calls Secretary of State Alexander Haig to help him shoo away the Washington, D.C., police. Fitzgerald isn't Bush's only dalliance: A divorcee from North Dakota moves to Washington to be with the veep. Kelley says Nancy Reagan, who reviles the Bushes, delights in the gossip.

Page 266: George W. and cocaine. One anonymous Yalie claims he sold coke to Bush; another classmate says he and Bush snorted the drug together. Sharon Bush, W.'s ex-sister-in-law, tells Kelley that Bush has used cocaine at Camp David "not once, but many times." (Sharon has since denied telling Kelley this.)

Page 304: While working on a 1972 Alabama Senate campaign, Bush, witnesses say, "liked to sneak out back for a joint of marijuana or into the bathroom for a line of cocaine."

Page 575: A friend says Laura Bush was the "go-to girl for dime bags" at Southern Methodist University.

Ibid.: George and Laura visit Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax and his girlfriend Jane Clark in the Caribbean and attended pot parties.

Team Sports

Page 257: At Andover, W. proves a poor athlete. He rides the bench in basketball until a starter falls ill, and he is given the chance to enter the lineup. Bush smacks an opponent's face with the ball and winds up back on the bench.

Ibid.: Bush elects not to tell his friends back in Texas—where all-male Andover is derided as "Bend Over"—that he has become the school's head cheerleader.

Page 258-59: Under the moniker "Tweeds Bush," W. presides as unofficial chairman of Andover's stickball league. He manufactures a series of bogus membership cards that double as fake IDs in Boston bars.

Ibid.: W. introduces the school to the sport of pig ball, which involves throwing a football high in the air and then throttling a random player. As one ex-student puts it, "[T]o me he is the epitome of pig ball."

Page 276: George H.W. challenges Yale chaplain William Sloane Coffin to a series of squash games. When Coffin takes four in a row, Bush refuses to quit until he wins. "That time I kicked a little ass and it felt good," Coffin gloats.

Matriarchs

Page 50: George H.W.'s mother, Dotty, forces her son to play sports right-handed, even though he's a natural southpaw.

Page 72-73: Barbara Bush's nickname explained: During World War II gasoline rationing, the Bushes navigate Kennebunkport, Maine, in a horse-drawn carriage. Prescott Bush Jr. notices that the family's horse, Barsil, looks a bit like George's then-girlfriend. He gives them both the nickname "Bar."

Page 191: At Yale, George H.W. asks Bar find a job to pay for her smoking habit.

Page 437: On a 1986 trip to Israel, Barbara visits the Holocaust Museum. "She had worn a blue flowered cotton housedress and open-toed sandals," says the wife of the U.S. consul general. "I couldn't believe it. Here she was the wife of the Vice President of the United States, for God's sakes, and she looked like she was going to a Sears Roebuck picnic."

Page 467: An associate on Barbara: "She can make a clean kill from a thousand yards away. … [W]hen she delivers the life-taking blow, she does it with a thin-lipped smile. … Have you ever seen an asp smile?"

Page 534: After Bush loses the 1992 election, Barbara holds a White House rummage sale and hawks her lightly used ball gowns to staffers.

Page 381-82: Sharon Bush on Barbara: "She can be a tyrant. That's why her boys called her 'The Nutcracker.' "

Page 577; 618: On party invitations, Laura Bush insists on being listed as "Mrs. Laura Bush," not the traditional "Mrs. George W. Bush." An intimate describes her as a "very nice woman who's got a lot of problems and smokes constantly."

Black Sheep

Page 183: Prescott Bush's eldest son, Prescott Jr.—known to the family as "P2"—sabotages his 1982 Senate campaign when he tells a women's club, "I'm sure there are people in Greenwich who are glad [the immigrants] are here, because they wouldn't have someone to help in the house without them."

Page 337-39: Prescott Bush III—"P3"—abandons his wife shortly after their wedding and, according to various accounts, is diagnosed with schizophrenia and moves in with members of the Weather Underground.

Page 186: H.W.'s brother Jonathan, an aspiring actor, announces plans for an off-Broadway minstrel show that Variety says includes "some Negro talent along with the blackface components." The production is quickly scuttled, and Bush settles for a part in Oklahoma! before giving up show business.

Page 491-92: Barbara Bush is upset that her daughter Doro, a divorcee, is getting nowhere with Rep. David Deier after a year of dating. "Never laid a hand on her," Bar says.

Compassionate Conservatism

Page 227: George H.W., who runs hard against civil rights legislation in his 1964 Senate campaign, makes amends by sponsoring a black softball team in Houston called the "George Bush All-Stars." As he puts it, "Organized athletics is a wonderful answer to juvenile delinquency."

Page 247: H.W. campaigns hard to be Nixon's running mate in 1968. Nixon goes with Spiro Agnew, a Greek-American, whom Bush derides as "Zorba, the Veep."

Page 252: George W. hangs a Confederate flag in his dorm room at Andover.

Page 268: W. on Yale's decision to admit women: "That's when Yale really started going downhill."

Page 427: In Midland, W. and his lawyer, Robert Whitt, try to hire the same housekeeper, an illegal alien named Consuela. When Whitt wins, Bush calls his wife and cusses her out.

Page 481: Miss USA visits the Oval Office in 1989 and affirms her commitment to world peace. After she leaves, H.W. tells reporters, "Did ya hear that, fellas? It's all about brains now. I liked it better when it was just bikinis."

Page 591: When Jeb's son Johnny is caught half-naked with a girl in a mall parking lot in 2000, George W. jokes, "It could have been worse. The girl could've been a boy." He adds, "We've might've picked up some gay votes with that one, huh?"

Burning Bush

Page 279: George H.W. makes a secret trip to Lyndon Johnson's ranch to ask the ex-president if he should give up his House seat for a 1970 Senate run. Johnson says the "difference between being a member of the Senate and a member of the House is the difference between chicken salad and chicken shit." Bush runs and gets clobbered.

Page 350: As CIA director, H.W. despises Henry Kissinger and instructs his staff to refer to him as "Mister," not "Doctor." "The fucker doesn't perform surgery or make house calls, does he?" Bush says.

Page 454: After a testy interview with Dan Rather in 1988, H.W. remarks, "That guy makes Lesley Stahl look like a pussy."

Page 504: H.W. tells a congressman that he wants Ronald Reagan to go down in history as "the man who preceded George Bush."

Page 598: George W. to McCain during the nasty 2000 South Carolina primary: "John, we've got to start running a better campaign." McCain: "Don't give me that shit. And take your hands off me."

Secrets of the Bushies

Page 22: W. isn't the first Bush with a dubious war record. Prescott writes a gag letter to an Ohio newspaper detailing his mock-heroics in World War I, which the newspaper takes as fact and prints in full on the front page. His mother later apologizes and the paper retracts the story.

Page 95: George H.W. weeps during Skull and Bones initiation when describing his World War II heroics.

Page 213; 347: H.W. as Oliver Stone—hours after the Kennedy assassination, Bush phones the FBI and tells them about a 24-year-old Bircher who he says plotted to kill the president. The man is later cleared. As CIA director, for reasons no one quite understands, Bush demands to see many of the agency's assassination files.

Page 567: A witness recalls that during a CNN interview-turned-family-dinner "the elder Bush was drooling over Paula Zahn's legs, and younger Bush was yammering to get to the dinner table."

Page 578: A retired National Guard officer says he overheard a conversation between a Bush staffer and a guardsman about tidying up W.'s service record.

Page 604: During the 2000 recount controversy, W.'s sister Doro shrouds herself in a scarf and dark glasses and joins GOP protesters outside the Naval Observatory.

Page 566: The Bush family exchanges gleeful e-mails during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. George H.W. sends his sons a missive about Peyronie's disease—an unwelcome curvature of the penis—with the addendum: "And, of course, [Clinton's] Johnson curves to the left."

Page 618: A friend says that during their famous Crawford summit, Bush treated Russia's Vladimir Putin as if he were an unreformed Communist apparatchik: "I told Putin that in this country we own our own homes and because we own them we take great pride in them. … I don't think the son of a bitch knew what the hell I was talking about."