Tristero

Most of the above information comes from the ACLU.

Today's The Day  

Buried Stories  

On February 7, two days after Colin Powell's much-lauded presentation before the United Nations Security Council, Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus described how foreign government officials, terrorism experts and members of Congress disputed a key claim: the supposed link between Iraq and Al Qaeda. Despite the article's relevance, the Post buried it in journalistic no man's land--page A21--where it had little effect. An article a week later by Pincus and military correspondent Dana Priest, 'Bin Laden-Hussein Link Hazy,' got a similar A20 placement.

On March 16 another Pincus article, 'U.S. Lacks Specifics on Banned Arms,' explained that US intelligence agencies believed the Bush Administration had exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam's purported stocks of WMD. Its placement: A17. Two days later, Pincus and White House correspondent Dana Milbank wrote a strenuous indictment of the Administration's rationales for war: 'As the Bush Administration prepares to attack Iraq this week, it is doing so on the basis of a number of allegations against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that have been challenged--and in some cases disproved--by the United Nations, European governments and even U.S. intelligence reports.' That one managed to vault only up to A13.

It wasn't until May 29, almost a month after Bush declared an end to major combat operations, that Pincus, along with co-writer Karen DeYoung, broke onto the front page with a story headlined 'U.S. Hedges on Finding Iraqi Weapons; Officials Cite the Possibilities of Long or Fruitless Search for Banned Arms.' At that point, with guerrilla attacks rising, postwar planning in disarray and the weapons highlighted by the Bush Administration nowhere to be found, experts and politicians on Pincus's intelligence beat--and, more important, his own editors--began to stir. In June and July, stories about Iraq-related intelligence controversies written or co-written by Pincus, Priest and Milbank appeared on the front page twenty-one times. Between July 15 and July 21, their breaking news stories were on page one seven days in a row.

The Post's sluggish start, followed by its abrupt shift into high gear, was not lost on readers--including its own ombudsman. 'There was a disconcerting pattern of underplayed or missed stories that were not up to the coverage that followed during and after the war,' says Michael Getler, who's written critically of his paper's prewar failure to acknowledge dissenting voices.

Iraqmire: 3 More Soldiers Killed, 2 More Wounded  

Three U.S. soldiers investigating a suspected launch site for rocket-propelled grenades were killed in an ambush near Tikrit Thursday night, U.S. military officials said. Two other soldiers were wounded by the small-arms fire, military officials said.

Eeek!  

Herds of buffalo-sized guinea pigs roamed South America millions of years ago, according to a study of a fossil that is today recognised as the biggest rodent ever discovered.

Christianism And Demonizing Gays (Pardon Me: Hating Their Acts)  

Unfortunately, this comment does little to convince me of Tristero's ability to constructively engage in conversation with those with whom he disagrees.

First of all, he refers to Christians by the strange word "Christianists." Why, I have no idea... isn't it best to refer to people using the label they chose?

Second, he is of the same opinion as too many people: that those who view homosexual acts as self-destructive actually hate homosexuals. This simply isn't the case... Christians also view lying as wrong, but you don't hear about Christians hating liars, do you?

Third, he compares the orthodox Christian view of the morality of homosexual acts to pornography... not the best way to engage in a calm & fruitful discussion on an issue.

Finally, he appears to be completely unfamiliar with the rational arguments which all sorts of people (political philosopher Robert George comes to mind) offer against homosexual acts. While I can't completely blame him for this -- there is probably too much mere assertion by the fundamentalist crowd -- I think he must take some responsibility to investigate the matter and determine if there are perhaps more serious arguments offered by those who oppose homosexual acts.

Hurricane On The Horizon  

What is coming already -- as my friend Hesiod points out in a fascinating, thorough post on Counterspin Central -- is the predictable sliming of Clark by his moral inferiors, descending from Rush Limbaugh to David Horowitz.

Friedman Is Off His Meds  

France wants America to sink in a quagmire there in the crazy hope that a weakened U.S. will pave the way for France to assume its "rightful" place as America's equal, if not superior, in shaping world affairs.

Liberal Ink: New Mag For The Web's Cool Kids  

Cheney Caught In Another Lie  

Vice President Dick
Cheney, a former CEO of Halliburton Co., has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company since taking office while asserting he has no financial interest in the company, Senate Democrats said Tuesday.

The Democrats demanded to know why Cheney claimed to have cut ties with the oil services company, involved in a large no-bid contract for oil reconstruction work in Iraq, when he was still receiving large deferred salary payments.

Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said the revelations reinforced the need for hearings about the no-bid contracts Halliburton received from the Bush administration.

"The vice president needs to explain how he reconciles the claim that he has 'no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind' with the hundreds of thousands of dollars in deferred salary payments he receives from Halliburton," Daschle said in a statement.

On NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday, Cheney, who was Halliburton's CEO from 1995 to 2000, said he had severed all ties with the Houston-based company.

"I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't had now for over three years," he said.

Good  

Leading lawmakers told President Bush Wednesday they are prepared to abandon his proposal to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a key provision in the national energy strategy Bush is close to pushing through Congress.

Bush himself was noncommittal about whether he will fight vigorously to open the refuge to drilling as congressional negotiators grind toward agreement.

From the WTF Is THIS All About Department?  

US President George Bush has said there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 11 September attacks.

The comments - among his most explicit so far on the issue - come after a recent opinion poll found that nearly 70% of those asked believed the Iraqi leader was personally involved in the attacks.

Iraq Art Looting: Just A Few Clay Pots. NOT  

After much initial confusion, the scale and significance of the looting are gradually becoming clearer. Initial estimates of 170,000 missing objects were hasty extrapolations from reports that "everything" was gone. It soon turned out that many of the showcases were empty because the museum's staff had removed the important objects to more secure locations, and that most of the collection was still intact (more or less) in the storerooms. This created something of a backlash. Having initially denounced the scandal of troops being stationed at the oil ministry while one of the world's great museums was looted— "protecting Iraq's oil but not its cultural motherlode"[2] —much of the press has since played down the disaster as overblown. This is not the case. The quantities of works stolen were substantial and, more to the point, their cultural significance immense.



A recent official estimate[3] is that around forty major works were taken from the main public galleries, including the Warka Vase (later returned) and the Warka Head—two of the greatest masterpieces of Sumerian art, found at the site of ancient Uruk (modern Warka) in Southern Iraq. They also included Assyrian ivories, a large copper sculpture of a hero, and a number of other irreplaceable works. Much more was taken from the storerooms, including nearly all of the museum's collection of cylinder seals—some 4,800 small stone cylinders carved in intaglio with miniature figured and decorative scenes that were rolled over damp clay tablets. The finest of these are exquisite and powerful works of art. Also gone are much jewelry, sculpture, metalwork, and ceramics.



At the urging of mosque leaders and museum authorities, some objects were brought back in the days immediately after the looting, and many more have since been seized both in Iraq and in customs and police operations in Jordan, Italy, Britain, and New York. As of July 11, a total of 13,515 objects had been confirmed as stolen, of which 10,580 were still missing, including all but a handful of the most important works.



As terrible as these losses are, even greater damage has been done in the months since the fall of Baghdad by the extensive, organized, and in some cases mechanized plundering of archaeological sites in the Sumerian heartland of southern Iraq. After the first Gulf War there were reports of illicit excavations and of unusual quantities of "fresh" artifacts reaching Western markets. During the past four months clandestine digging on a much greater scale by AK-47-toting bands has again been rampant at several important Sumerian sites. Some are already almost entirely gone; others are riddled with trenches and tunnels. "The looters stop at nothing," says Pietro Cordone, head of cultural affairs in the Coalition Provisional Authority, "they use trucks, excavators, and armed guards to steal objects of great value without being disturbed. We've tried everything to end this systematic pillaging, military patrols at the site and helicopter overflights, but so far we haven't been successful."[4] Officials on the ground still report a lack of funding for the basic necessities of site protection—guards, vehicles, and guns. This is where the Bremer administration, UNESCO, and other supranational organizations should concentrate their resources, shutting down the looting at its source.[5] What has happened in recent months is already among the worst mass desecrations of cultural sites in our lifetime, perhaps the worst. If more time is lost before the sites are protected effectively we shall be in need of a lamentation over Sumer and Baghdad worthy of the Sumerian poets.

In Other Words  

Breaking with other top Bush administration officials, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice disputed the possibility yesterday that Saddam Hussein was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.

'I've not seen any indication that would lead me to believe that I could say' Saddam was linked to Al Qaeda's suicidal hijackings, Rumsfeld said.

'We have never claimed that Saddam Hussein had either direction or control of 9/11,' Rice added.

But with the White House having asserted otherwise, recent polls showed nearly 70% of Americans believe there was an Al Qaeda-Iraq link to 9/11, and Vice President Cheney said Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press' that Iraq was 'the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault for many years, but most especially on 9/11.

Tapped Is Right  

CLINTON VERSUS CLARK? If, as The Washington Times reports, Hillary Clinton will serve as co-chair of Wes Clark's presidential campaign, doesn't that put the damper on right-wing speculation that Clinton wants the weakest possible Democrat to win the nomination, so that she can take the nomination in 2008 without having to beat an incumbent Democrat?

Yes. Yes, it would. Hillary and Bill both want what other Democrats want: to get a Democrat back in the Oval Office in 2004. Unless you despise Hillary, there's no good reason to believe otherwise.

Paranoia Strikes Deep  

Coulter's Derriere Fact Checked  

Error No. 82: Coulter, again on page 27, says the person who advised Roosevelt when
he was handing over Poland to Stalin was Alger Hiss. Even if Roosevelt had been in a position to
hand over Poland, which he wasn’t (see Error No. 81); and even if Hiss had been sent to Yalta
because Roosevelt wanted him there, which he hadn’t (the Secretary of State had brought Hiss
along as a last-minute replacement for another man – see Error No. 14); and even if Hiss had
been a spy (which he denied, as did Whittaker Chambers for nine years between 1939 and 1948),
Hiss at Yalta was a junior official who had no means or opportunity to wield Svengalian
influence over either Roosevelt or the rest of the Allies, who notably included Churchill, who as
Prime Minister of Great Britain personally endorsed the Yalta agreements.

The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus  

Nicholas Lemann Reads This Blog  

(Headline)The Real Reason the US Is Going To War In Iraq  

because we can. No more, no less

...Bush’s statement does claim that reducing terrorism justifies virtually any use of American force. If you believe this, as Bush seems to do with every fibre of his being, how could you in good conscience not go to war in the region from which the worst terrorism emanates? Back in June, Thomas Friedman, of the Times , wrote breezily, “The ‘real reason’ for this war, which was never stated, was that after 9/11 America needed to hit someone in the Arab-Muslim world.” Well, now Bush has as much as stated it. Friedman went on, “Smashing Saudi Arabia or Syria would have been fine. But we hit Saddam for one simple reason: because we could, and because he deserved it, and because he was right in the heart of that world.”

The first link in his chain of logic

[Bush states that] just about any forceful response to terrorism, or to the “radical allies” of terrorism (a group that included Saddam, evidently), would cause terrorism to decrease. As Bush said, “We have learned that terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength. They are invited by the perception of weakness.”

This doesn’t quite parse—it doesn’t allow for the terrorist attacks that have followed the use of force in Iraq, or for the evident immunity of most of the world’s weaklings to terrorist attacks.

...Bush’s statement does claim that reducing terrorism justifies virtually any use of American force.

Bush’s second point was that, like the use of strength, freedom and democracy inevitably reduce terrorism, too. The choice is simple: “The Middle East will either become a place of progress and peace, or it will be an exporter of violence and terror that takes more lives in America and in other free nations.” This, again, is impressive in its clarity and certainty...

Goals as morally grand as defeating terrorism and ending tyranny make any objection to the program for reasons of logic or practicality look puny, niggling, and cynical.

It stemmed from the President’s soaring conviction that courageous intentions must inevitably produce pleasing results.

As we are finding out in Iraq, military boldness does not always decrease terrorism. It can, in fact, inspire it...

Bush’s desire to end terrorism and spread democracy can’t be gainsaid

Letter To The Washington Post  

Bush on the end of the day, 9/11/01: "That's Right --we got a laugh out of it."  

Peggy Noonan (the interviewer): You were separated on September 11th. What was it like when you saw each other again?

Laura Bush: Well, we just hugged. I think there was a certain amount of security in being with each other than being apart.

George W. Bush: But the day ended on a relatively humorous note. The agents said, "you'll be sleeping downstairs. Washington's still a dangerous place." And I said no, I can't sleep down there, the bed didn't look comfortable. I was really tired, Laura was tired, we like our own bed. We like our own routine. You know, kind of a nester. I knew I had to deal with the issue the next day and provide strength and comfort to the country, and so I needed rest in order to be mentally prepared. So I told the agent we're going upstairs, and he reluctantly said okay. Laura wears contacts, and she was sound asleep. Barney was there. And the agent comes running up and says, "We're under attack. We need you downstairs," and so there we go. I'm in my running shorts and my T-shirt, and I'm barefooted. Got the dog in one hand, Laura had a cat, I'm holding Laura --

Laura Bush: I don't have my contacts in , and I'm in my fuzzy house slippers --

George W. Bush: And this guy's out of breath, and we're heading straight down to the basement because there's an incoming unidentified airplane, which is coming toward the White House. Then the guy says it's a friendly airplane. And we hustle all the way back up stairs and go to bed.

Mrs. Bush: [LAUGHS] And we just lay there thinking about the way we must have looked.

Peggy Noonan (interviewer): So the day starts in tragedy and ends in Marx Brothers.

George W. Bush: That's right--we got a laugh out of it.

Cynicism  

Say what you want people to believe for the front page and on TV, then whisper a halfhearted correction or apology that slips under the radar. It is really quite ingenious in its cynical effectiveness, and Wolfowitz's latest performance is a classic example ˜ even his correction needs correcting.

Ok, So Which Is it Boys?  

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday he had no reason to believe that Iraq's Saddam Hussein had a hand in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

At a Pentagon news conference, Rumsfeld was asked about a poll that indicated nearly 70 percent of respondents believed the Iraqi leader probably was personally involved.

"I've not seen any indication that would lead me to believe that I could say that," Rumsfeld said.

He added: "We know he was giving $25,000 a family for anyone who would go out and kill innocent men, women and children. And we know of various other activities. But on that specific one, no, not to my knowledge."

The Bush administration has asserted that Saddam's government had links to al-Qaida, the terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden that masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks. And in various public statements over the past year or so administration officials have suggested close links.

Vice President Dick Cheney said on Sunday, for example, that success in stabilizing and democratizing Iraq would strike a major blow at the "the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault for many years, but most especially on 9/11."

In an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," Cheney was asked whether he was surprised that more than two-thirds of Americans in the Washington Post poll would express a belief that Iraq was behind the attacks.

"No, I think it's not surprising that people make that connection," he replied.

Cheney said he recalled being asked about an Iraq connection to 9/11 shortly after the attacks, and he recalled saying he knew of no evidence at that point.

"Subsequent to that, we have learned a couple of things," he said. "We learned more and more that there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida that stretched back through most of the decade of the '90s; that it involved training, for example, on BW (biological warfare) and CW (chemical warfare) — that al-Qaida sent personnel to Baghdad to get trained on the systems, and involved the Iraqis providing bomb-making expertise and advice to the al-Qaida organization."

Josh Marshall On Dean  

Dean's supporters ... believe that he is the only candidate who can beat George W. Bush, and that it is his early opposition to the war, the defiance of his message, and his social liberalism that makes him such a strong candidate.

To them I can only say that, with sincere respect, I disagree with their judgment. Or, at least, I'm deeply skeptical.

Now, what chance does Clark have?

All my experience of conventional, real-world politics tells me that political outsiders and late-entrants end up not winning. And that experience says that Clark doesn't win. But this is already far from a normal or conventional political moment. Howard Dean's extremely impressive run to date, if nothing else, shows that. Add to that the very unsettled international scene, President Bush's wobbly approval ratings, a shaky economy, and the demonstrable inability -- as noted above -- for any of the other candidates to get any traction.

Buy Krugman's Book  

Bush Shortchanges Funding for His Own Emergency AIDS Program  

Score One For The Good Guys  

The Senate voted 55 to 40 today to wipe out all of the Federal Communication Commission's controversial new media rules, employing a little used legislative tool for overturning agency regulations.

The resolution of disapproval, sponsored by Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), is now put on the House calendar, where a tougher vote is expected. Even if passed by the House, the White House has promised a veto.

Dorgan's resolution is the most sweeping of several challenges to the FCC's rules, which make it easier for media corporations to buy more newspapers and television stations but tighten radio ownership rules.

Think The Patriot Act Won't Be Abused?  

In the two years since law enforcement agencies gained fresh powers to help them track down and punish terrorists, police and prosecutors have increasingly turned the force of the new laws not on al-Qaida cells but on people charged with common crimes.

The Justice Department said it has used authority given to it by the USA Patriot Act to crack down on currency smugglers and seize money hidden overseas by alleged bookies, con artists and drug dealers.

Federal prosecutors used the act in June to file a charge of "terrorism using a weapon of mass destruction" against a California man after a pipe bomb exploded in his lap, wounding him as he sat in his car.

A North Carolina county prosecutor charged a man accused of running a methamphetamine lab with breaking a new state law barring the manufacture of chemical weapons. If convicted, Martin Dwayne Miller could get 12 years to life in prison for a crime that usually brings about six months.

Prosecutor Jerry Wilson says he isn't abusing the law, which defines chemical weapons of mass destruction as "any substance that is designed or has the capability to cause death or serious injury" and contains toxic chemicals.

Civil liberties and legal defense groups are bothered by the string of cases, and say the government soon will be routinely using harsh anti-terrorism laws against run-of-the-mill lawbreakers.

"Within six months of passing the Patriot Act, the Justice Department was conducting seminars on how to stretch the new wiretapping provisions to extend them beyond terror cases," said Dan Dodson, a spokesman for the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys. "They say they want the Patriot Act to fight terrorism, then, within six months, they are teaching their people how to use it on ordinary citizens."

One Year Ago Today  

Iraq says it will allow United Nations weapons inspectors back into the country.

President Bush had threatened a military strike against Iraq if it did not allow the inspectors in to search for weapons of mass destruction.

Wesley Clark About To Enter  

Kevin Drum Interviews Paul Krugman  

If you were king of the economy, what's the Krugman plan?

A phased elimination of all the Bush tax cuts, plus some additional taxes. I'd probably look first at some way to make the corporate profits tax actually effective again — the nominal rate is 35% but the effective rate is only 15% or so. Look at some cuts, maybe you start to talk about retirement age, and possibly some means testing of Medicare, and that's enough to bring the budget under control. And meanwhile you have to manage the economy, you have to talk about what we can do to actually get demand going faster, and there are lots of things you can do….

Are there? We're running a $500 billion deficit, interest rates are at one percent…

We're running the wrong kind of deficit. We need aid to state and local government, more checks to lower and middle income people. We need some WPA type of projects, and as it happens the homeland security stuff would be a perfect candidate. I just looked to find out how much of that $20 billion New York has actually gotten so far, and the answer is $5.6 billion. Two years after September 11th New York has gotten less than $6 billion in aid, so how about a little bit more on all of that?

In terms of a classic Keynesian stimulus, homeland security is a perfect fit.

Yeah, but they don't want to do it. Partly because they don't like government, partly because a lot of it would be going to New York and they don't like New York. It's pretty amazing.

Brooks' Advice To Dems: Pick a Boring Candidate  

George Bush makes many liberal Democrats froth at the mouth, but he does not have this effect on most independents. Democrats are behaving suicidally by not embracing what you might, even after yesterday's court decision, call the Schwarzenegger Option: supporting a candidate so ideologically amorphous that he can appeal to these swingers.

Kay Report Is Not Okay  

Recall Delayed  

A US federal appeals court has delayed a vote to decide the future of California's governor amid concern over outdated voting equipment.

In a two-part vote which was to be held on 7 October, Californians were to be asked whether they wanted to recall Governor Gray Davis and then to pick a replacement.

The court said the vote could not proceed as scheduled because votes in some counties would be cast using outmoded punch-card ballot machines.

However, it decided to allow a week for appeals to the Supreme Court.

MoveOn's New Blog: Misleader.org  

Whitewater Perjurer Paid $118,000/Year By US Taxpayers  

The Bush administration has quietly installed a surprising figure in a high-level Pentagon post: L. Jean Lewis, the former federal fraud investigator who kicked up major controversy in the ’90s over her allegations about the Clintons’ Whitewater dealings.

Although there's been no public announcement of her return to government, Lewis has been given a $118,000-a-year job as chief of staff in the traditionally nonpartisan Defense Department’s inspector general office. With 1,240 employees and a budget of $160 million, this office is the largest of its kind in the government. It investigates fraud and audits Pentagon contracts, including the billions of dollars being awarded in Iraq to companies like Halliburton and Bechtel.

        As an investigator for the now defunct Resolution Trust Corp. in 1993, Lewis drafted a criminal referral alleging illegal Whitewater dealings that eventually became the basis for Ken Starr’s probe. Republicans praised Lewis as a whistle-blower; Democrats blasted her as a partisan. (In a private letter on her computer, she once called Bill Clinton a “lying bastard.”) Lewis told NEWSWEEK she got her new job last year after interviewing with top administration officials at Defense. Although they were aware of her background, she says, “I would prefer to think it was my ability and skills they were interested in.”

Surprise! US Media Admits Capitulation To Bush  

[Said Christiane Amanpour,] "I think the press was muzzled, and I think the press self-muzzled. I'm sorry to say, but certainly television and, perhaps, to a certain extent, my station was intimidated by the administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News. And it did, in fact, put a climate of fear and self-censorship, in my view, in terms of the kind of broadcast work we did."

Brown then asked Amanpour if there was any story during the war that she couldn't report.

"It's not a question of couldn't do it, it's a question of tone," Amanpour said. "It's a question of being rigorous. It's really a question of really asking the questions. All of the entire body politic in my view, whether it's the administration, the intelligence, the journalists, whoever, did not ask enough questions, for instance, about weapons of mass destruction. I mean, it looks like this was disinformation at the highest levels."

Fox News spokeswoman Irena Briganti said of Amanpour's comments: "Given the choice, it's better to be viewed as a foot soldier for Bush than a spokeswoman for al-Qaeda."

Typo Of The Month  

President Álvaro Uribe, who enjoys strong public support for vowing to bring order to Colombia, is proposing a law that would effectively grant impunity to right-wing death squads that lay down their arms.