While Bush is running around telling us all what a great job he’s doing in protecting us and thwarting terrorist attacks by torturing prisoners in secret CIA prisons and that congress needs to give them the tools they need to fight terrorists, U.S. soldiers in Iraq are dying every day. And the President and the Pentegon continue to do nothing to support the troops and give THEM the TOOLS THEY NEED to protect themselves.

One of the weapons that’s killing our troops is the RPG….rocket propelled grenades. Our troops have informed the Pentagon they need something to counter the RPG attacks. And they need it NOW. So….. Israel comes up with the “Trophy,” an “active protection” system that stops RPG’s in mid air. In April it was tested in the Virginia, and worked like a charm. 98% accuracy. Great! Nope…..not so great. The Pentagon decided the “Trophy” isn’t the system they want to use. Nooooooo…….they have contracted with Raytheon for 70 million to get their “Quick Kill” active protection system. Now mind you, the “Trophy” is ready to go. When will the “Quick Kill” be ready to go? Oh about 2010. But hey, what’s more important? Giving our troops the tools they need when they need them……or taking care of big business interests?

So Mr. President, as you run around the country telling us how important it is that you have THE TOOLS THAT YOU NEED to fight terrorism, I have to ask you. When are you going to give our troops the TOOLS THEY NEED to keep them from dying in YOUR war in Iraq????

You dickwad!!!!!!!!!

One of Batocchio’s many excellent links sent me to this article by Marcus Baram:

 

Presidential pitbull Karl Rove has built his political career retailing his opponents’ dirty laundry, but that hasn’t stopped him from mounting a fierce campaign against an upcoming bio that delves a little too deeply into details of his own personal life. Sources say Rove has been furiously lobbying the authors to protest the impending publication of The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power.

The book was co-authored by Wayne Slater and James Moore, the veteran Texas journalists who previously wrote the Dubya-bashing bestseller, Bush’s Brain. Their new book paints the beleaguered presidential aide as a ruthless political opportunist who let few things obstruct his march to power.

While the authors’ description of Rove’s relationship with indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff is certain to have D.C. buzzing, their revelations about his family life are even more intriguing: According to the book, the architect of the Bush administration’s anti-gay policies was raised by a homosexual father who abandoned his family to lead an openly gay life in Palm Springs. A decade later, Rove’s mother, Reba, committed suicide, a tragedy the authors attribute to her husband’s departure.

the complete article is here

 

Reviews of the book by Publishers Weekly and Booklist are here at Amazon where you can purchase the book.

President Bush on Wednesday acknowledged for the first time that the CIA runs secret prisons overseas and said tough interrogation forced terrorist leaders to reveal plots to attack the United States and its allies.

article here

Knopfler, Clapton

Sultans Of Swing

                                                                                 

There’s lovely symbolism in the fact that ABC’s The Path to 9/11 casts Penny Johnson, best known as the Lady Macbeth of 24, Sherry Palmer, as Condoleezza Rice.  Rice is a very intelligent woman, and I share her appreciation for classical music, but she’s shown a brazen willingness to lie, repeatedly, to cover the collective asses of Bush and his other cronies.  She’s much smoother than a bully like Bolton, or the strange bulldog-éminence grise that is Dick Cheney, with his I-dare-you-to-call-me-a-liar poker approach.  But her culpability is just as deep and vile.     

One of the central lies in the “docudrama” features Johnson as Rice talking about how concerned President Bush is about the PDB, “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside U.S.”

Wait, does that mean it’s no longer a historical document?

Does that mean that Bush didn’t tell the CIA agent who flew to Crawford to brief him personally (since Bush is not a big, y’know, reader), “All right, you’ve covered your ass now” …? 

It’s just like Bin Laden being boogeyman number one one day and not a threat another; none of the Bushies or their cheerleaders can keep their stories straight.  Even though it be by proxy, The Path to 9/11 is merely the latest but surely not the last attempt to re-write history and reality to their liking. 

                                          

The more I hear about ABC’s upcoming “documdrama” The Path to 9/11 (Al Franken had David Brock of Media Matters on this morning) the more infuriated I get.  It is propaganda.  It not just a hack job, it is a hatchet job.  I would not object so much if it was appearing in movie theaters, where viewers could attend or ignore it as they wished, but it is appearing on ABC and claims to be based on the 9/11 Commission Report, yet directly contradicts that same report on key issues in order to smear Clinton and his team while ignoring and whitewashing the Report’s findings (and subsequent findings) on Bush and his team’s performance.  What’s appalling is that when CBS was going to show The Reagans, a TV-made biopic of the famous couple, conservatives were outraged over Ronald Reagan being depicted as being callous and indifferent to the plight of gays with AIDS, with the line, “Let those who live in sin die in sin.”  While I despised Reagan’s politics and the immense harm his policies inflicted, and it’s fair to say he was callously slow to address the AIDS crisis (as he likely would not have been had its victims not been mostly gay men), I agree with the criticism that that line of dialogue was unfair.  (I still question, though, how much weight anyone should or would give to most TV biopics, since most are godawful.) However, let us now see the double standard in the “liberal” media.  Conservatives can complain about a single line in a TV biopic, but it’s fine to re-write history while simultaneously presenting it as fact.  ABC’s docudrama is being presented as honest, true, accurate, and serious.  As such, the standards for it are much higher, and perhaps an extremely conservative, personal friend of Rush Limbaugh’s is not the best person to be making such a piece.  Perhaps when conservative activists, bloggers and pundits are given advance copies to talk it up, and liberal and non-partisan sources have been largely banned from seeing it, something stinks to high heaven.  What the hell is wrong with ABC and Disney?  How can Harvey Keitel be involved in this?     

This is not a trivial issue.  This is exactly the sort of crap that has influenced the past two presidential elections, and the reason why so many Americans still believe that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11.  ABC has chosen to pander to the far right at the expense of truth.  And why, or why, make such a horrendous pander right before a crucial midterm election?  It’s not as if there are no mildly conservative, responsible filmmakers out there.  This was heavily reviewed and approved.   And how can Thomas Kean, always shy about critiquing Bush, have any credibility anymore if he signed off on this as an advisor, when he knows it cites his work to promote outright lies?

Here’s the ABC site for “The Path to 9/11″ (”Keeping it honest” is a hoot). Editor & Publisher managed to obtain a copy of the piece and gives a summary here. Media Matters has a piece here.  Firedoglake has so much coverage on this you’d best just hit the site and scroll back through, but expert researcher and bullshit detector Sheldon Rampton outlines some of the basics here, Jennifer Nix poses a great list of questions here, and Jane Hamsher provides some links to take action here. 

(First post in Wordpress, I’ll have to test out the bugs!)

A not especially eventful press briefing at the White House today turned rancorous with NBC’s David Gregory telling Press Secretary Tony Snow, “Don’t point your finger at me,” and Snow accusing the newsman of being “rude” and delivering Democratic talking points.

Earlier, speaking to reporters, Snow, continuing the administration’s media focus on the war on terror, accused “some in the Democratic Party” of saying “we shouldn’t fight the war” and “we shouldn’t apprehend al-Qaeda” or even “question al-Qaeda.”

Snow got into a tussle with Gregory after the NBC journalist told him, in a lengthy remark, that the public may wonder why the president’s statement and report today on the war on terror did not admit more failings on the administration’s part. Snow observed that he had nicely summarized “the Democratic point of view,” and Gregory took exception to this.

This exchange followed.

more about David Gregory here

Update: These meetings are TOMORROW….. I was thinking today was the 7th. Duh!!! So there’s still time to make plans to go!!

Sorry I’m late with this information! The World Can’t Wait organization is holding meetings nationwide today/tonight to prepare for a major demonstration on October 5th.

In every city where World Can-t Wait has organization, and in many cities where it doesn-t yet, people will gather simultaneously at 7pm on Thursday September 7 to get organized. They-ll hear from leaders of the movement, and meet others in their area ready to organize for a day of mass protest exactly 4 weeks later.

For a list of meeting places in your area, go here

And why were they disqualified? Conflict of interest due to military contracts.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, his leadership hobbled by the Lebanon war, faced a new setback Wednesday after two of his handpicked appointees were disqualified from a panel investigating Israel’s conduct of the conflict.

Olmert said he would quickly replace them.

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz informed Olmert’s office Tuesday that the two men were ineligible to take part in the inquiry because their business activities with the military represent conflicts of interest.

Full story here

Also, Israeli airstrikes kill 4 Palestinians…….read here

This is the base that the was in threat of being closed until the U.S. and Kyrgyzstan officials agreed on how much the U.S. would pay to remain there. Another “military base” looking after oil interests, IMO. I do hope Maj. Jill Metzger is found safe!

By Olga Dzyubenko
Reuters
Wednesday, September 6, 2006; 10:21 AM

BISHKEK (Reuters) - U.S. Air Force Major Jill Metzger, stationed at an airbase in Kyrgyzstan, went missing while shopping this week, the U.S. embassy said on Wednesday.

The incident happened weeks after the United States agreed terms with the ex-Soviet, Central Asian state to carry on using the Manas airbase to support operations in nearby Afghanistan.

More here

More about Kyrgyzstan here

bout time…….

Israel to lift Lebanon blockade

Israel has been enforcing Lebanon’s isolation since mid-July
Israel says it will lift its air and sea blockade of Lebanon on Thursday, at 1800 local time (1500 GMT).
The restrictions have been enforced since the start of its conflict with Hezbollah guerrillas in July.

Full story here

They are saying on CNN that he plans to transfer 14 prisoners from “secret CIA prisons” (you know, the ones that don’t exist) to Guantanamo. So, again, Bush says….fuck the Supreme Court. Fuck the laws. I’ll make new laws to do what I want to do. Or am I reading this wrong?

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush is set to offer legislation Wednesday to change the law to allow military tribunals to try detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In the third of a series of speeches on the war on terrorism, he’ll discuss this summer’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down his administration’s plan for military tribunals for “enemy combatants,” according to White House deputy spokeswoman Dana Perino.

Afterward, Bush will send the proposed legislation to Capitol Hill.

Read here

I’m missing Chicago today…….

Lip Service…….. what about the President is ILLEGALLY wiretapping as we speak??? What about that??????

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 6, 2006; Page A03

Deepening Republican divisions over the future of President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program may jeopardize GOP leaders’ hopes of making terrorism surveillance legislation a centerpiece of their final legislative push this month.

Full article here