Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Sen. Stevens is 'the secret senator'

Sen. Stevens is 'the secret senator'

From Andrea Koppel, Ted Barrett and Abbi Tatton
CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The identity of the blogosphere's "secret senator" has been revealed.

CNN has confirmed that Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has placed a hold on a bill that would require the government to publish online a database of federal spending.

"He does have a hold on the bill," Stevens' spokesperson Aaron Saunders told CNN. "At the time he placed the hold he notified Sen. [Tom] Coburn and his staff and identified several questions we had with the bill. Two weeks ago Sen. Coburn named Stevens as having a hold on the bill, so we don't consider it a secret."

Senate tradition allows any senator to keep a piece of legislation from reaching the Senate floor by placing a hold on the bill.

Coburn's office confirmed that Coburn had revealed Stevens' hold during a town hall meeting in Oklahoma two weeks ago.

The bill has become a cause célèbre for both liberal and conservative bloggers as they tried to uncover the "secret senator" who had blocked passage of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 2590). The bill was introduced earlier this year by Sens. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, and Coburn, R-Oklahoma.

The conservative-leaning, anti-government waste site Porkbustersexternal link urged readers to call their senators and ask them to go on the record denying that they placed the hold. TPMmuckrakerexternal link, under the banner "blogosphere unites in pursuit of masked senator" also got in on the act, posting updates from readers around the country.

The effort prompted Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to weigh in online: Blogging at his political action committee Web siteexternal link, Sen. Frist, R-Tennessee, called on "all members, when asked by the blog community, to instruct their staff to answer whether or not they have a hold."

Saunders said Stevens did not attempt to keep his hold anonymous.

"Sen. Stevens has a series of concerns and questions about the bill. He wants a cost benefit analysis to make sure it doesn't create an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy and not meet its purpose," Saunders said.

"He prefers to handle things at the member to member level or at the staff level," Saunders said. "That's the way Sen. Stevens has always operated."

"This wasn't in any way secretive," Saunders said. "We're baffled as to why it's been called a secret hold."

But a spokesperson for Coburn's office disputed the idea that Stevens had been open about the hold.

"This hold was a secret," Coburn spokesman John Hart said. "His office has ignored media and bloggers' calls about this issue for weeks. We had to ask Stevens if he was the hold. His staff has still not met with us."

"Senator Stevens sits on the committee where this bill was considered and never raised any objections because he skipped the hearings," Hart said. "His specific concerns were addressed at the hearings he skipped, and his office has yet to meet with us to discuss his concerns despite repeated requests."

Last year a proposed $223 million for a "bridge to nowhere" connecting Alaska's Gravina Island -- population 50 -- to the mainland caused a nationwide furor. The allocation was backed by Stevens and fellow Republican Rep. Don Young of Alaska, the powerful chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The earmarked funding for the bridge was later rescinded by Congress. However, Alaska's overall allocation of federal transportation funds was not decreased, and the state is free to spend the federal dollars to build the bridge if it wishes.

When Coburn tried to block funds for the bridge, he was heavily denounced by Stevens on the Senate floor.



Link

For those who haven't heard of this "Bridge to nowhere".....click here

Bush Talks Nonsense with Brian Williams

Bush Talks Nonsense with Brian Williams


Posted on Aug 30, 2006
Bush Interview MSNBC
via crooksandliars.com
Watch George W. Bush ramble with Brian Williams through a New Orleans neighborhood as he utters a series of incoherent responses to questions from the MSNBC reporter. Listen with amazement as our commander in chief mangles the English language, and speaks nonsensically about the war in Iraq, America’s standing in the world, relationship with his father, and Albert Camus. (via crooksandliars)
Crooks and Liars:
For someone who does not like how the public perceives him, Bush does not help his case any in this interview. Take this little exchange:
WILLIAMS: When you take a tour of the world, a lot of Americans e-mail me with their fears that, some days they just wake up and it just feels like the end of the world is near. And you go from North Korea to Iran, to Iraq, to Afghanistan, and you look at how things have changed, how Americans are viewed overseas, if that is important to you. Do you have any moments of doubt that we fought a wrong war? Or that there’s something wrong with the perception of America overseas?
BUSH: Well those are two different questions, did we fight the wrong war, and absolutely — I have no doubt — the war came to our shores, remember that. We had a foreign policy that basically said, let’s hope calm works. And we were attacked.
more
Watch the Clip (crooksandliars)
Full Transcript (MSNBC)

It's amazing that it's been 5 years and they still can't get a consistent answer going on the war and 9/11.

Oil Company CEO Pay Averaged $32.7 Million in 2005, Study Says

Oil Company CEO Pay Averaged $32.7 Million in 2005, Study Says By Vineeta Anand

Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Rising prices and profits translated into pay packages for oil company chief executive officers that are nearly three times the size of similarly sized businesses, a new study from two watchdog groups said.

In 2005, the CEOs of the largest 15 oil companies averaged $32.7 million in compensation, compared with $11.6 million for all large U.S. firms, according to the study, released today by the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy.

Amid reports of multimillion-dollar pay packages, shareholder activists have sponsored resolutions to limit compensation at companies like Exxon Mobil Corp. and Home Depot Inc. In May, three members of the House of Representatives criticized the retirement benefits of former Exxon CEO Lee Raymond and asked the company to fill a gap in its workers' pension fund.

``Instead of lining the pockets of executives, they should be investing the money into new sources of energy that go beyond fossil oils,'' said Sarah Anderson, director of the global economy project at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies, and a co-author of the study.

Anderson's group researches peace, justice and environmental issues. United for a Fair Economy, a non-profit group based in Boston, tries to raise awareness about the effects of ``concentrated wealth and power,'' according to its web site.

Combined $512.9 Million

Last year, the top executives at the 15 largest oil companies earned a total of $512.9 million, the study said. That figure includes the $95.1 million awarded last year to William Greehey, chief executive officer of Valero Energy Corp., the largest U.S. refiner, took home, including salary, bonuses, restricted stock and exercised stock options. Raymond, who retired in January as chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil, the most profitable U.S. company, collected $69.7 million.

Oil executives help manage the bottom lines as well as directing investments in oil and gas as well as fossil fuels, said John Felmy, chief economist at the American Petroleum Institute in Washington.

``They are paying dividends, buying back stock, and managing their businesses well,'' Felmy said. ``Their CEOs should be fairly compensated.''

The groups also examined the pay of defense contractors' chief executives. The top executives at defense contractors and military suppliers have benefited from the boom in government spending since Sept. 11, 2001, and the war in Iraq.

As a group, the CEOs of the 34 defense contractors have received total compensation of just under $1 billion since 2002. The highest-paid executive in the group was George David, the chairman and CEO of United Technologies Corp., the maker of Pratt & Whitney jet engines and the Sikorsky helicopters. David received $31.9 million last year, the study said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Vineeta Anand in Washington at vanand1@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: August 30, 2006 00:17 EDT
Link

Yeah, so all the excuses in the world can be made for high gas prices.....the truth is right there. Who knows what we'd be paying for if we didn't have our puppets in the Oil producing world.

Republicans fail to woo top candidates

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent 1 hour, 58 minutes ago

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Click on Katherine Harris' Senate campaign Web site and look for the blog.

"This section will be updated soon," reads a message — dated May 29.

A Web site 100 days out of date is hardly the worst of it for Harris, whose political wounds, many of them self-inflicted, make her the poster woman for Senate Republican recruiting woes. Missed opportunities, stumbles and bad breaks in a half-dozen states or more in 2005 have tilted the map toward the Democrats in ways that are still unfolding.

"In every single state where they were challenging one of our incumbents they did not get their first choice and in many cases they did not get their second," said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, head of the Democratic campaign committee.

As a result, he said, "we can spend our time and money challenging their incumbents."



Link to rest of the story

Cassie Campbell retires from Team Canada

8/30/2006 10:30:04 AM

CALGARY (CP) - Captain Cassie Campbell announced her retirement from the Canadian women's hockey team Wednesday.

The 32-year-old from Brampton, Ont., is the only Canadian hockey player, male or female, to captain a national team to two Olympic gold medals, which she did this year in Turin, Italy, and in 2002 in Salt Lake City.

She has represented Canada in seven world championships and three Olympic Games, winning six world titles and two Olympic gold medals. She has 32 goals and 68 assists in 157 career games for the national team.

Campbell told The Canadian Press in July that she was leaning towards retirement, but wanted to be sure before hanging up her hockey skates.

The five-foot-seven, 150-pound forward made it official in a statement from Hockey Canada.


Link to the rest of the story

One of the all time greats. Had a great career for Canadian National team.

Conan introduces Stewart and Colbert at the Emmys

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

The Colbert Report - 2006.08.14 - Jon's On Notice

The Comedy Central/Fox News Feud
Jon-Stephen check-in: Stephen's in the studio......or is he?
The Daily Show - 2006.08.09 - Check-in with Stephen Colbert

The Comedy Central/Fox News Feud
The Daily Show - 2006.08.10 - Apologize to Geraldo

The Comedy Central/Fox News Feud

Iran's president calls for TV debate with Bush

Iran's president calls for TV debate with Bush

POSTED: 9:43 p.m. EDT, August 29, 2006

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called on U.S. President George W. Bush to participate in a "direct television debate with us," so Iran can voice its point of view on how to end problems in the world.

"But the condition is that there can be no censorship, especially for the American nation," he said Tuesday.

The White House called the offer to debate Bush a "diversion" from international concerns over Iran's nuclear program, Reuters reported.

During a news conference in Tehran, Ahmadinejad also blamed "special concessions" granted to the United States and Britain as "the root cause of all the problems in the world."

"At the Security Council, where they have to protect security, they enjoy the veto right. If anybody confronts them, there is no place to take complaints to."

His comments came two days before a deadline set by a U.N. Security Council resolution for the Islamic republic to suspend uranium enrichment or face possible sanctions.

Link to rest of the story.

I love world leaders who speak the truth.

Arabic T-shirt Keeps Man off Plane

Posted on Aug 29, 2006

An Iraqi architect at JFK airport was wearing a shirt that read “We Will Not Be Silent” in Arabic and English. Security officers said it was upsetting other passengers, and said he couldn’t board until he turned it inside out or put on something else. He chose the latter. (h/t: Raw Story)

This is pretty ridiculous: if security guards were worried that he was a terrorist, a new shirt wouldn’t have thwarted his plot. And if they didn’t suspect he was a terrorist, why can’t he wear a shirt of protest?

WNYC:

... JARRAR: I grew up and spent all my life living under authoritarian regimes. and i know that these things happen. But I’m shocked that they happened to me here, in the U.S. Especially that I moved from Iraq because of the war that was waged in Iraq under titles like democracy and freedom.

Link



Credit once again to Truth Dig.

Bush On Katrina One Year Later: "It's Amazing"...

Bush On Katrina One Year Later: "It's Amazing"...

The New York Times | ANNE E. KORNBLUT and DAVID STOUT | Posted August 28, 2006 09:55 PM


bush2web.jpg

AP

On the eve of the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush returned to the devastated Gulf Coast today promising to continue federal assistance, and eagerly pointing out signs of progress.

"It's amazing, isn't?" he told a gathering under a sweltering sun. "It's amazing what the world looked like then and what it looks like now"...

... Mr. Bush delivered his remarks at an intersection in a working-class Biloxi neighborhood against a carefully orchestrated backdrop of neatly reconstructed homes. Just a few feet out of camera range stood gutted houses with wires dangling from interior ceilings. A tattered piece of crime scene tape hung from a tree in the field where Mr. Bush spoke. A toilet seat lay on its side in the grass.

Mr. Bush praised the optimism and grit of the people of Mississippi, and he reaffirmed his belief in neighborly cooperation as well as government help. "A year ago, I committed our federal government to help you," he said. "I said we have a duty to help the local people recover and rebuild. I meant what I said."

Link to rest of the Article.

Holding critical of 'first-world hypocrisy'

Former player extends support to Inzamam

Holding critical of 'first-world hypocrisy'

Cricinfo staff

August 28, 2006



Inzamam's disciplinary hearing is scheduled for the end of September and Michael Holding feels that stating cricket laws as absolute is pointless. Every law has room for flexibility © AFP

Michael Holding, the former West Indies fast bowler, lent his support to Inzamam-ul-Haq, saying that Darrell Hair was "insensitive" to have penalised Pakistan for ball-tampering.

"I have absolute and all sympathy with [Pakistan captain] Inzamam-ul Haq. If you label someone a cheat, please arrive with the evidence," Holding wrote in India Today, a leading weekly news magazine. Holding felt that most umpires would have said something to the fielding captain and given the offending team a warning of some kind. "Then if the tampering continued, they would have been totally justified in taking action.

"There is a double standard at work in cricket and this episode has only highlighted it. When England used reverse-swing to beat the Australians in the 2005 Ashes, everyone said it was great skill. When Pakistan does it, the opposite happens, no one thinks it is great skill. Everyone associates it with skullduggery.

"When bombs go off in Karachi and Colombo everyone wants to go home. When bombs go off in London, no one says anything. That is first-world hypocrisy and we have to live with it."

Holding said that seeing the cricketing law as the absolute and final truth was pointless. Every law, he wrote, has room for flexibility. "I read a prime example recently in the British press. It said that by law, you can be fined for parking within the yellow lines in England. If you do that to run into a chemist to buy emergency medicines, a sensible policeman would more than likely tell you about the law but it's unlikely a ticket would be forthcoming."

The executive board of the ICC is scheduled to meet on September 2 in Dubai to discuss the ball-tampering issue further. Inzamam's disciplinary hearing for Pakistan's actions of ball-tampering and bringing the game into disrepute in the fourth Test against England at The Oval will take place around the end of September.



Cheney Chooses Chief Propagator of False Iraq-9/11 Link To Be Official Biographer

Cheney Chooses Chief Propagator of False Iraq-9/11 Link To Be Official Biographer

Vice President Cheney — “the man running the country” — is now working on an official biography.

But don’t hold out any hope that the biography will offer any revealing insight into “Dick Cheney’s dark, secretive mind-set.” The author of the book, according to U.S. News, will be Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes:

We hear that the Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes is hot on the case and plans to publish a bio titled, naturally enough, Cheney as early as next spring. “I’m not a historian,” Hayes fesses up.

No, Hayes is not a historian. What are his qualifications? He’s a journalist who has cultivated close ties within the White House and has become the go-to source for insiders seeking to peddle false claims on Iraq. Here are some highlights of Hayes’ record:

1. This January, Cheney was asked by then-Fox News radio host Tony Snow, “Were there links to — between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda?” Cheney answered, “Well, I think Steve Hayes has done an effective job in his article of laying out a lot of those connections.” Hayes wrote an article entitled “Dick Cheney Was Right” about the Vice President’s effort to connect Saddam to 9/11. But even President Bush said most recently that Iraq had “nothing” to do with 9/11.

2. In 2003, Hayes declared “case closed” in an article purporting to show the links between bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Cheney recommeneded it to the Rocky Mountain news as the premier source of information on the issue. (”[Y]ou ought to go look is an article that Stephen Hayes did in the Weekly Standard here a few weeks ago…That’s your best source of information.”) Hayes relied on a classified Defense Department memo produced by Douglas Feith. The Defense Department shot down Hayes’ article, stating the Feith memo was “not an analysis of the substantive issue of the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda, and it drew no conclusions.”

Each and every one of Hayes’ attempts to link Iraq to 9/11 have been thoroughly discredited, but he continues to push the argument. It’s quite fitting that Cheney chose him to be his official biographer.

Link

Why is a sitting Veep working on his own biography?

George Allen Loves Black People


I like how this picture can now be found on the front page of George Allen's Campaign Website.

9/11 Attacks not on Bin Laden's FBI Most Wanted Notice?

Bin Laden, Most Wanted For Embassy Bombings?

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is a longtime and prominent member of the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list, which notes his role as the suspected mastermind of the deadly U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa on Aug. 7, 1998.

But another more infamous date -- Sept. 11, 2001 -- is nowhere to be found on the same FBI notice.

The curious omission underscores the Justice Department's decision, so far, to not seek formal criminal charges against bin Laden for approving al-Qaeda's most notorious and successful terrorist attack. The notice says bin Laden is "a suspect in other terrorist attacks throughout the world" but does not provide details.

The absence has also provided fodder for conspiracy theorists who think the U.S. government or another power was behind the Sept. 11 hijackings. From this point of view, the lack of a Sept. 11 reference suggests that the connection to al-Qaeda is uncertain.

The Rest of the article can be found here.

Anti-pork bill held up in secret

Anti-pork bill held up in secret

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- The big mystery in Washington this summer is the identity of the lawmaker who put a secret hold on a sunshine bill aimed at stemming pork-barrel spending.

Efforts to smoke out the obstructer is taking place on a Web site called Porkbusters.org, which so far has cleared about a quarter of the Senate from suspicion, the Washington Times reports.

The measure being held up would create a searchable database allowing any interested party to see the name and amount of every federal grant, contract or award of $25,000 or more.

Blogs on both sides of the political spectrum are demanding action on the bill, which is in limbo because of a hold order.

Holds are an unofficial part of Senate parliamentary tradition that allow a single senator to block a measure anonymously.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has promised to try to win passage of the measure when Congress returns from its break next month.


Link

This database actually becoming a reality would really shock me. Not that it will matter as nobody will bother to follow up on it anyways.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Pavano has two broken ribs following car accident

Monday, August 28, 2006


Carl Pavano
Pavano
NEW YORK -- Yankees pitcher Carl Pavano has a pair of broken ribs, sustained in a mid-August car accident that the oft-injured right-hander didn't tell the team about until last weekend. Pavano, who hasn't played in the major leagues since June 27, 2005, due to shoulder, back, buttocks and elbow injuries, is scheduled for a medical checkup Tuesday and remains on track to make his final rehabilitation start Wednesday for Triple-A Columbus at Durham.
"Of course I'm angry. ... I've got an army of people here that we provide to put our players in the best position possible to succeed, and I don't want anybody to sabotage that by holding back. And clearly here, for a period of time that took place."
-- Brian Cashman
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman was unusually pointed in his remarks about Pavano, who signed a $39.95 million, four-year contract with the Yankees as a free agent before the 2005 season and went 4-6 with a 4.77 ERA in 17 major league starts before going on the disabled list. "I think it's obviously frustrating, disappointing. There's a lot of words which would come to mind," Cashman said. "Of course I'm angry. ... I've got an army of people here that we provide to put our players in the best position possible to succeed, and I don't want anybody to sabotage that by holding back. And clearly here, for a period of time that took place." New York had hoped Pavano possibly would be able to rejoin its rotation this week, filling the spot opened when Mike Mussina "I needed a doctor's opinion on what kind of treatment I needed," he said. "I figured the best thing to do was come clean with it and get the right treatment." went on the disabled list last week with a strained right groin. Pavano and Cashman both expressed hope that this latest injury wouldn't keep Pavano from rejoining the major league team when rosters expand this week. "I still want to pitch and get through this," said Pavano, who has been trying to come back from surgery on May 25 to remove a bone chip from his right elbow. Pavano said he was hurt early Aug. 15 in West Palm Beach, Fla., when on a rainy night his car hit a puddle, spun out of control and hit a truck that was at a stop sign. "There was no ambulance or anything. I was able to walk away from it," Pavano said. "I had my seat belt on. I think that's the area where maybe I got injured, is where the seat belt was." Pavano lives in West Palm Beach and had permission to go home, Cashman said. Pavano said his lack of performance with the Yankees led to his decision not to initially inform the team. "It's been pretty frustrating for not only the city, the team, my teammates, myself, management," he said. "It just seems like it's one thing after another. I'm not impervious to this because I make a lot of money and I play baseball." After the accident, Pavano pitched four shutout innings that night for Class A Tampa at Brevard County, the first of three rehab starts. "It just seems like there's a lot of distractions that are caused by me that go around with the team, and I figured that, at the time, it was something I could get through," he said. "I felt all right. I knew something was wrong, I didn't know the extent of it, but I figured that I'd pitch through it and it would get better. I just didn't seem to get better, and that's the only reason why I really went to the team." Pavano pitched six innings for Columbus last Friday and told the Yankees of the accident the following day. A scan then revealed the injury. Cashman rejected the notion that Pavano told the team then because he didn't want to pitch again at the major league level. He said Pavano threw a side session Monday. "We have had players play with this issue before," Cashman said.



This guy just needs to wrap himself in a bubble and not leave his bed.....he can't take two steps without hurting himself.
Link

Gore lashes out at media consolidation

Gore lashes out at media consolidation

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press WriterMon Aug 28, 7:03 AM ET

Former Vice President Al Gore said Sunday ever-tighter political and economic control of the media is a major threat to democracy.

Gore said the goal behind his year-old "interactive" television channel Current TV was to encourage the kind of democratic dialogue that thrives online but is increasingly rare on TV.

"Democracy is under attack," Gore told an audience at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. "Democracy as a system for self-governance is facing more serious challenges now than it has faced for a long time.

"Democracy is a conversation, and the most important role of the media is to facilitate that conversation of democracy. Now the conversation is more controlled, it is more centralized."

He said that in many countries, media control was being consolidated in the hands of a few businesspeople or politicians.

Gore said in Italy much of the media is owned by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. In Russia, President Vladimir Putin has stifled dissent on television, and in South Africa, Gore said, dissent "is disappearing, and free expression is under attack."

In the United States "the only thing that matters in American politics now is having enough money to put 30-second commercials on the air often enough to convince the voters to elect you or re-elect you," he said. "The person who has the most money to run the most ads usually wins."

Gore lost the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush in disputed circumstances. Current TV was launched last year amid much skepticism, but anticipated the tide of user-generated content now sweeping the media world.

His long-standing warnings about the threat from global warming have reached a mass audience thanks to "An Inconvenient Truth," a slick, stark movie that has become one of the most successful documentaries in U.S. history.

Gore's renewed popularity, and his high-profile book and movie tours across the United States, have spurred speculation of a White House run in 2008. He denied it again Sunday.

"I don't have any plans to be a candidate, I don't expect to be a candidate," he said. "I really do not expect ever to be a candidate again."

Gore said there was a link between control of the media and a lack of political action to control climate change.

"Questions of fact that are threatening to wealth and power become questions of power," he said. "And so the scientific evidence on global warming — an inconvenient truth for the largest polluters — becomes a question of power, and so they try to censor the information."

Link

Carter says Blair subservient to Bush

Carter says Blair subservient to Bush

Mon Aug 28, 7:00 AM ET

Former President Jimmy Carter accused Tony Blair on Sunday of being "subservient" to the White House, saying the British prime minister failed to constrain America on Iraq.

"I have been surprised and extremely disappointed by Tony Blair's behavior," Carter said in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

"I think that more than any other person in the world, the prime minister could have had a moderating influence on Washington — and he has not," added Carter, who opposed the war in Iraq. "I really thought that Tony Blair ... would be a constraint on President Bush's policy toward Iraq."

Blair has been Bush's closest international ally on Iraq, and Britain has the second most troops there after America.

Carter said in many countries he has visited, people equate U.S. and British policy.

"It's a shameful and pitiful state of affairs, and I hold your British prime minister to be substantially responsible for being so compliant and subservient," Carter said.

Blair committed Britain to the war even though public opinion was strongly against it. He was re-elected last year — but with a sharply reduced Parliamentary majority, and the war has damaged his credibility among Britons.

Some speculated when the war began that Blair had decided to back Bush publicly in order to maintain his behind-the-scenes influence on Washington. But he has always denied suggestions that he committed to the invasion of Iraq for any reason other than that he believed it was the right thing to do.

Daily Show - Double VIsion

The perfect portrayal of American Media.
London Bombings (Daily Show from 7/11/05)
Crude Awakening

8/8/06
Jon Stewart Elaborates on Bush's Moral Hypocrisy

From July 22 2006 I believe
Colbert Report: 'Knowledge of War is Bad for You'

From May 16th 2006
The Word: Hell, Yes!

From the broadcast of December 2005 in response to Hugo Chavez's offer of discount heating oil for New York and other US cities.

Bush vs Bush

This is from The Daily Show....it was on some time in the Summer of '05 I believe.

Link

Sunday, August 27, 2006

The Colbert Kid (Have I mentioned how great YouTube is?)

Link 1



Link 2

'Democracy is under attack': Gore

'Democracy is under attack': Gore

Sun Aug 27, 3:50 PM ET

Former US Vice-President Al Gore warned an audience at the Edinburgh International Television Festival that "democracy is under attack".

The former presidential candidate said television networks in the world's biggest and most powerful democracies must do more to foster debate, which he said was crucial for democracy to flourish.

"In my country and others around the world democracy is under attack," the 58-year-old said.

Gore, who was also in Edinburgh partly to promote his film and book about climate change, both titled "An Inconvenient Truth", continued: "There's a feeling in the US on the part of many that the way democracy operates today is very different from the system we learned about in school."

He said that democracy, which he described as a "conversation", was now "more controlled and centralised", and that the most important role of the media was to facilitate democracy.

Gore said American politicians were spending their time raising funds at small gatherings and cocktail parties because, "the only thing that matters in American politics now is having enough money to put 30-second commercials on air to persuade the voters to elect or re-elect you."

The Internet, however, "offered the promise of recreating a meritocracy of ideas" and while not yet creating the wave of change that has been anticipated, had been "creeping into the TV domain".

Commenting on the US-led war in Iraq, increasingly opposed both by American politicians and grass-roots activists, Gore said: "It's been a long time since the US Senate or members of the House of Representatives had a feeling that what was said made any difference at all."

Questioned as to whether he thought US President George W. Bush, who defeated him in the 2000 presidential elections, was stupid, Gore replied: "I don't think he's unintelligent at all. He's incurious ... there's a puzzling lack of curiosity


Link

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Ann Coulter gets owned......again.

Ann Coulter gets her freak on

H-C-Coulter-cries2.jpg Whenever Ann is faced with the reality that Osama hasn’t been caught yet by this administration–well–Poor Ann. Kirsten Powers actually responds to Coulter’s ridiculous line that Afghanistan is going swimmingly and brings up the fact that Osama is still alive and well. Coulter then plays her usual Clinton card and freaks. "Sean, help me–Sean, where are you? Sean, these mean people are talking…I can’t get my 10,000 words of Liberal hate speech in…I’m melting." Michael Brown didn’t mind that Hannity talked over him during the segment..

Video-WMP Video-QT

H-C-Coulter-cries1.jpg

H-C-Coulter-cries.jpg



Credit to Crooks and Liars

Some fun stuff from theonion.com

War-Torn Middle East Seeks Solace In Religion

The Onion

War-Torn Middle East Seeks Solace In Religion

JERUSALEM—Millions of Middle Easterners are turning to one thing to make sense of the seemingly endless violence between Israelis and Arabs: religion.



U.S. Dedicates  Billion To Undermining Gates Foundation Efforts

The Onion

U.S. Dedicates $64 Billion To Undermining Gates Foundation Efforts

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Tankers carrying millions of vials of the AIDS virus departed for Africa today as part of an effort to stop the charitable organization's onslaught of relief.



The Onion

Ken Griffey Jr. Diagnosed With Hamstring Cancer

CINCINNATI—Just days after the Reds centerfielder learned that his father Ken Sr. has prostate cancer and his mother Birdie would be...



Randy Johnson Asks Chien-Ming Wang For Some Pitching Advice For A Pitcher Friend Of His

The Onion

Randy Johnson Asks Chien-Ming Wang For Some Pitching Advice For A Pitcher Friend Of His

NEW YORK—Yankees pitcher Randy Johnson asked his teammate and fellow pitcher Chien-Ming Wang Tuesday for some pitching advice that was...




 Payment To Sponsored Child Withheld To Teach Child A Lesson

The Onion

$18 Payment To Sponsored Child Withheld To Teach Child A Lesson

FAIRFAX, VA&mdashSave-A-Child father Gene Anderson says Mtumbe needs to learn to save for his future and not spend money on every childish little whim.



The Onion

Outgoing Commissioner Tagliabue Expected To Pardon Dennis Miller Before Leaving Office

NEW YORK—Although Paul Tagliabue will not address speculation concerning possible forgiveness of former color commentator Dennis Miller's...



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CNN website to replay Sept. 11 coverage

CNN website to replay Sept. 11 coverage

Last Updated Fri, 25 Aug 2006 18:37:35 EDT

American cable news network CNN will mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by replaying their coverage of that day's events on the internet.

Viewers will be able to watch how the events unfolded starting at 8:30 a.m. ET, minutes before the first reports of an airplane hitting the World Trade Center. The feed will run in real time, matching the broadcast of five years ago, until midnight.

CNN is making its online video service, CNN Pipeline, free for the day. Normally viewers pay $2.95 US a month or $24.95 US a year for four separate video feeds.

In order to prevent an online viewer from accidentally clicking onto the coverage, the replay feed for the attacks will be covered with a notice instructing users to enter only if they wish to watch. Another feed on the site will feature live coverage of memorial services.

"They have the power to determine the best way for them to remember the anniversary," said David Payne, senior vice-president and general manager of CNN.com.

The Sept. 11 attacks are not the only American tragedy to be replayed in the next month.

CNN and the major networks are planning extensive coverage next week to commemorate the Hurricane Katrina disaster last year. Among the programs are NBC's Katrina: The Road Long Back, which airs on Monday, and Fox News Channel's blanket coverage, titled America's Challenge: Rebuilding the Gulf, beginning on Saturday.

Filmmaker Spike Lee's four-hour HBO documentary, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, will also air in its entirety on Tuesday, Aug. 29, the date Katrina made landfall.

With files from the Associated Press

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Inquiry Opened Into Israeli Use of US Bombs

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Inquiry Opened Into Israeli Use of US Bombs
By David S. Cloud
The New York Times

Friday 25 August 2006

Washington - The State Department is investigating whether Israel's use of American-made cluster bombs in southern Lebanon violated secret agreements with the United States that restrict when it can employ such weapons, two officials said.

The investigation by the department's Office of Defense Trade Controls began this week, after reports that three types of American cluster munitions, anti-personnel weapons that spray bomblets over a wide area, have been found in many areas of southern Lebanon and were responsible for civilian casualties.

Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman, said, "We have heard the allegations that these munitions were used, and we are seeking more information." He declined to comment further.

Several current and former officials said that they doubted the investigation would lead to sanctions against Israel but that the decision to proceed with it might be intended to help the Bush administration ease criticism from Arab governments and commentators over its support of Israel's military operations. The investigation has not been publicly announced; the State Department confirmed it in response to questions.

In addition to investigating use of the weapons in southern Lebanon, the State Department has held up a shipment of M-26 artillery rockets, a cluster weapon, that Israel sought during the conflict, the officials said.

The inquiry is likely to focus on whether Israel properly informed the United States about its use of the weapons and whether targets were strictly military. So far, the State Department is relying on reports from United Nations personnel and nongovernmental organizations in southern Lebanon, the officials said.

David Siegel, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy, said, "We have not been informed about any such inquiry, and when we are we would be happy to respond."

Officials were granted anonymity to discuss the investigation because it involves sensitive diplomatic issues and agreements that have been kept secret for years.

The agreements that govern Israel's use of American cluster munitions go back to the 1970's, when the first sales of the weapons occurred, but the details of them have never been publicly confirmed. The first one was signed in 1976 and later reaffirmed in 1978 after an Israeli incursion into Lebanon. News accounts over the years have said that they require that the munitions be used only against organized Arab armies and clearly defined military targets under conditions similar to the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973.

A Congressional investigation after Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon found that Israel had used the weapons against civilian areas in violation of the agreements. In response, the Reagan administration imposed a six-year ban on further sales of cluster weapons to Israel.

Israeli officials acknowledged soon after their offensive began last month that they were using cluster munitions against rocket sites and other military targets. While Hezbollah positions were frequently hidden in civilian areas, Israeli officials said their intention was to use cluster bombs in open terrain.

Bush administration officials warned Israel to avoid civilian casualties, but they have lodged no public protests against its use of cluster weapons. American officials say it has not been not clear whether the weapons, which are also employed by the United States military, were being used against civilian areas and had been supplied by the United States. Israel also makes its own types of cluster weapons.

But a report released Wednesday by the United Nations Mine Action Coordination Center, which has personnel in Lebanon searching for unexploded ordnance, said it had found unexploded bomblets, including hundreds of American types, in 249 locations south of the Litani River.

The report said American munitions found included 559 M-42's, an anti-personnel bomblet used in 105-millimeter artillery shells; 663 M-77's, a submunition found in M-26 rockets; and 5 BLU-63's, a bomblet found in the CBU-26 cluster bomb. Also found were 608 M-85's, an Israeli-made submunition.

The unexploded submunitions being found in Lebanon are probably only a fraction of the total number dropped. Cluster munitions can contain dozens or even hundreds of submunitions designed to explode as they scatter around a wide area. They are very effective against rocket-launcher units or ground troops.

The Lebanese government has reported that the conflict killed 1,183 people and wounded 4,054, most of them civilians. The United Nations reported this week that the number of civilian casualties in Lebanon from cluster munitions, land mines and unexploded bombs stood at 30 injured and eight killed.

Dozen of Israelis were killed and hundreds wounded in attacks by Hezbollah rockets, some of which were loaded with ball bearings to maximize their lethality.

Officials say it is unlikely that Israel will be found to have violated a separate agreement, the Arms Export Control Act, which requires foreign governments that receive American weapons to use them for legitimate self-defense. Proving that Israel's campaign against Hezbollah did not constitute self-defense would be difficult, especially in view of President Bush's publicly announced support for Israel's action after Hezbollah fighters attacked across the border, the officials said.

Even if Israel is found to have violated the classified agreement covering cluster bombs, it is not clear what actions the United States might take.

In 1982, delivery of cluster-bomb shells to Israel was suspended a month after Israel invaded Lebanon after the Reagan administration determined that Israel "may" have used them against civilian areas.

But the decision to impose what amounted to a indefinite moratorium was made under pressure from Congress, which conducted a long investigation of the issue. Israel and the United States reaffirmed restrictions on the use of cluster munitions in 1988, and the Reagan administration lifted the moratorium.


Credit to truthout.com

GOP Candidate Says 9/11 Attacks Were a Hoax

Link to Original story

GOP Candidate Says 9/11 Attacks Were a Hoax
By Albert McKeon
The Nashua Telegraph

Thursday 24 August 2006

A Republican candidate for this area's congressional seat said Wednesday that the U.S. government was complicit in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In an editorial board interview with The Telegraph on Wednesday, the candidate, Mary Maxwell, said the U.S. government had a role in killing nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center and Pentagon, so it could make Americans hate Arabs and allow the military to bomb Muslim nations such as Iraq.

Maxwell, 59, seeks the 2nd District congressional seat. The Concord resident opposes the incumbent, Charles Bass of Peterborough, and Berlin Mayor Bob Danderson in the Republican primary Sept. 12.

Maxwell would not specify if she holds the opinion that the government stood by while terrorists hijacked four domestic airliners and used them as weapons, or if it had a larger role by sanctioning and carrying out the attacks.

But she implicated the government by saying the Sept. 11 attacks were meant "to soften us up ... to make us more willing to have more stringent laws here, which are totally against the Bill of Rights ... to make us particularly focus on Arabs and Muslims ... and those strange persons who spend all their time creating little bombs," giving Americans a reason "to hate them and fear them and, therefore, bomb them in Iraq for other reasons."

She said this strategy "would be normal" for governments, citing her belief that the British government - and not the Germany military - sank the Lusitania ocean liner in 1915. The deaths of Americans on the cruise liner helped galvanize U.S. support to enter World War I, and benefited England, she said.

In turn, the Sept. 11 attacks "made the ground fertile" for more stringent laws, such as the Patriot Act, and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, Maxwell said.

Near the end of the interview, Maxwell pounded her fist on the table and asked editors of The Telegraph why they weren't publishing more stories about the government's role in the terrorist attacks or proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Maxwell has no political experience. She lived abroad for the past quarter-century with her husband, George, a pediatrician, and only recently returned to the U.S., she said.

In the hour-long interview, Maxwell spoke at length about Constitutional law, U.S. law, nuclear weapons proliferation, and other domestic and foreign policy issues.

Maxwell said the U.S. should withdraw from Iraq. She also questioned whether Congress authorized the war and said its members can't explain that 2002 vote. (Congress authorized the use of force to defend this country's security and enforce United Nations resolutions on Iraq.)

"Legally, we shouldn't have gone to Iraq if Congress can't explain why," she said.

Maxwell described herself as a strict Constitutionalist, a candidate who wants to bring the country "back to basics." The Constitution grants more power to the legislative branch than the other two branches, but Congress has allowed the executive and judicial branches to diminish its influence, she said.

She also said the U.S. shouldn't immerse itself in the international community by signing trade and security pacts. These agreements have weakened national sovereignty, she said.


Credit to truthout.com



Jon Stewart vs. Rockey

Jon Stewart vs. Rockey

TDS-Katrina-Anniversary_0001.jpg

Jon Stewart took a good look at Rockey, the Katrina survivor who met with Bush this week, on The Daily Show last night.

Video - WMV Video - QT

Stewart: "Wow, ‘Mission Accomplished’! You got the President to meet with you, his arch friend. Wow! All you news folks were right. He is just like Cindy Sheehan, except a life-long Republican"

As Attytood points out, Rockey is a Republican and even a former GOP candidate:

(Read the rest of this story…)


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Friday, August 25, 2006

Stewart Slams Bush's "Desperate Soundbites" At Press Conference...

Veradictum | Posted August 24, 2006 03:36 PM
READ MORE: George W. Bush
dailyshow.jpg

From veredictum.com/

Must watch piece from Keith Olbermann

George Bush and the Politics of Terror

By Larry Johnson

Wed Aug 16th, 2006 at 04:41:58 PM EDT :: Bush

As George Bush said, "Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me --- you can't get fooled again." Or, how about the old saying, "if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, it's a duck." Why the snark? Just watch the Keith Olbermann's brilliant presentation - which shows conclusive, indisputable evidence that George Bush and his minions have used bogus terrorist threats to distract public attention from embarrassing political news - and you too will become a member of the reality-based community (thanks to John Amato at Crooks and Liars for posting this up).

Ten. Count em. Ten separate incidents where the Bush administration issued public warnings of imminent attacks that subsequently turned out to be non-existent or misleading. George Bush is the boy who cried Wolf, Wolf, Wolf, Wolf, Wolf ... and no end is in sight.

Olbermann deserves an Emmy and a Pulitzer for this report. He's done a public service. He has blazed a trail the rest of the media, print and electronic, ought to follow. Just as Edward R. Murrow confronted the red-baiter Senator McCarthy, Olbermann has performed a similar service to America by standing up to the fearmongering of Bush. Please ensure your friends and relatives see this piece.

Larry Johnson has his own blog, NoQuarter: www.NoQuarter.typepad.com

Bush Contemplates Rebirth of Dictatorship for Iraq

Bush Contemplates Rebirth of Dictatorship for Iraq
By Matthew Rothschild
August 17, 2006

There was a big clue planted at the bottom of the very long lead article in The New York Times of August 17.

That story noted the alarming rise in insurgent attacks against American and Iraqi forces.

The number of IEDs in July was 2,625, just about twice what it was back in January, when Zarqawi was still prowling around.

Clearly, his death did nothing to slow the pace down or snuff out the insurgency.

The shelf life of Bush propaganda is only about one week these days.

Maybe Chalabi is waiting in the wings still—or some other Saddam wannabe.

Bush appears to be taking applications.

But back to the clue.

The last three paragraphs of this story revealed that “senior administration officials . . . are considering alternatives other than democracy,” according to a military expert who was just briefed at the White House.

Hmmm, “alternatives other than democracy.”

My, what can those be?

Monarchy? Dictatorship?

In that same edition, The New York Times ran a headline about the death of the brutal Paraguayan strongman Alfredo Stroessner, proclaiming him to be a “colorful dictator.”

That’s an obscenity. According to Amnesty International, “During Stroessner's military dictatorship, gross and systematic violations of human rights occurred. Amnesty International repeatedly expressed concern to the Paraguayan Government about long-term prisoners of conscience and allegations of torture, ‘disappearance’ and death in custody of political prisoners, as well as reports of prolonged detentions of political opponents.”

(For a glimpse at the horrors he committed, go to http://www.amnestyusa.org.)

The Bush Administration may be looking for an Iraqi Stroessner, or another, more reliable Saddam.

That may have been what Cheney and Rumsfeld had in mind all along. From the very beginning, they wanted to install in power Ahmad Chalabi and his groups of exiles roosting in the Iraqi National Congress, writes George Packer in his book The Assassin’s Gate. When the situation in Iraq began to deteriorate, Cheney blamed those in the Administration who refused to go along with this plan.

“In the fall of 2003, Dick Cheney approached his colleague Colin Powell, stuck a finger in his chest, and said, ‘If you hadn’t opposed the INC and Chalabi, we wouldn’t be in this mess,’ ” Packer reports.

Maybe Chalabi is waiting in the wings still—or some other Saddam wannabe.

Bush appears to be taking applications.


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Bush Eyes Iran at Press Conference

Bush Eyes Iran at Press Conference
By Matthew Rothschild
August 22, 2006

At Bush’s press conference Monday, he made two things clear. First, there’s no way he’s getting us out of Iraq.

“We’re not leaving, so long as I’m the President,” he said.

As part of his ever-changing justification for being in Iraq, he did mention the dirty little three-letter word oil, interestingly enough.

This was Bush the Deluded speaking, the messianic militarist who believes he’s writing the final history of the region, or at least transcribing God’s wishes for it.
Here’s what he said: “A failed Iraq . . . would give the terrorists and extremists an additional tool besides safe haven, and that is revenues from oil sales.”

I guess he thinks it’s OK to refer to Iraq’s vast oil supplies now, three and a half years after launching the war, whereas it would have been too crass to mention them before.

But it makes little sense to suggest that Iraqi nationalists would hand over their oil to Al Qaeda, which is blowing up innocent people. If the U.S. leaves, the Iraqis—Sunnis and Shiites alike--are more likely to go after Al Qaeda, not less.

That likelihood doesn’t fit into Bush’s script, though.

But attacking Iran does, and that was the second ominous noise that Bush made on Monday.

Bush warned a couple times of the “danger of a nuclear-armed Iran.”

Asked about Tehran’s influence, he said, “Iran is obviously part of the problem. They sponsor Hezbollah. They encourage a radical brand of Islam. Imagine how difficult this issue would be if Iran had a nuclear weapon.”

He called Iran “a central part of creating instability, trying to stop reformers from realizing dreams.”

Then he fused Iran and Iraq together, joining the Islamic state and the failed state into one single enemy.

In broken syntax, he laid it out: “The question facing this country is will—do—we, one, understand the threat to America? In other words, do we understand that a failed, failed states in the Middle East are a direct threat to our country’s security? And secondly, will we continue stay engaged in helping reformers, in working to advance liberty, to defeat an ideology that doesn’t believe in freedom? And my answer is, so long as I’m the President we will.”

In response to a question about Tehran’s growing influence, despite his efforts to curb it, he said, most threatening of all: “The final history in the region has yet to be written.”

This was Bush the Deluded speaking, the messianic militarist who believes he’s writing the final history of the region, or at least transcribing God’s wishes for it.

And his transcription machine is an F-16.


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Wrong War, Wrong Word

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This article can be found on the web at
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060911/pollitt


Subject to debate by Katha Pollitt

Wrong War, Wrong Word

[from the September 11, 2006 issue]

If you control the language, you control the debate. As the Bush Administration's Middle Eastern policy sinks ever deeper into bloody incoherence, the "war on terror" has been getting a quiet linguistic makeover. It's becoming the "war on Islamic fascism." The term has been around for a while--Nexis takes it back to 1990, when the writer and historian Malise Ruthven used "Islamo-fascism" in the London Independent to describe the authoritarian governments of the Muslim world; after 9/11 it was picked up by neocons and prowar pundits, including Stephen Schwartz in the Spectator and Christopher Hitchens in this magazine, to describe a broad swath of Muslim bad guys from Osama to the mullahs of Iran. But the term moved into the mainstream this August when Bush referred to the recently thwarted Britain-based suicide attack plot on airplanes as "a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists." Joe Lieberman compares Iraq to "the Spanish Civil War, which was the harbinger of what was to come." The move away from "war on terrorism" arrives not a moment too soon for language fussbudgets who had problems with the idea of making war on a tactic. To say nothing of those who wondered why, if terrorism was the problem, invading Iraq was the solution. (From the President's August 21 press conference: Q: "But what did Iraq have to do with September 11?" A: "Nothing." Now he tells us!)

What's wrong with "Islamo-fascism"? For starters, it's a terrible historical analogy. Italian Fascism, German Nazism and other European fascist movements of the 1920s and '30s were nationalist and secular, closely allied with international capital and aimed at creating powerful, up-to-date, all-encompassing states. Some of the trappings might have been anti-modernist--Mussolini looked back to ancient Rome, the Nazis were fascinated by Nordic mythology and other Wagnerian folderol--but the basic thrust was modern, bureaucratic and rational. You wouldn't find a fascist leader consulting the Bible to figure out how to organize the banking system or the penal code or the women's fashion industry. Even its anti-Semitism was "scientific": The problem was the Jews' genetic inferiority and otherness, which countless biologists, anthropologists and medical researchers were called upon to prove--not that the Jews killed Christ and refused to accept the true faith. Call me pedantic, but if only to remind us that the worst barbarities of the modern era were committed by the most modern people, I think it is worth preserving "fascism" as a term with specific historical content.

Second, and more important, "Islamo-fascism" conflates a wide variety of disparate states, movements and organizations as if, like the fascists, they all want similar things and are working together to achieve them. Neocons have called Saddam Hussein and the Baathists of Syria Islamo-fascists, but these relatively secular nationalist tyrants have nothing in common with shadowy, stateless, fundamentalist Al Qaeda--as even Bush now acknowledges--or with the Taliban, who want to return Afghanistan to the seventh century; and the Taliban aren't much like Iran, which is different from (and somewhat less repressive than) Saudi Arabia--whoops, our big ally in the Middle East! Who are the "Islamo-fascists" in Saudi Arabia--the current regime or its religious-fanatical opponents? It was under the actually existing US-supported government that female students were forced back into their burning school rather than be allowed to escape unveiled. Under that government people are lashed and beheaded, women can't vote or drive, non-Muslim worship is forbidden, a religious dress code is enforced by the state through violence and Wahhabism--the "Islamo-fascist" denomination--is exported around the globe.

"Islamo-fascism" looks like an analytic term, but really it's an emotional one, intended to get us to think less and fear more. It presents the bewildering politics of the Muslim world as a simple matter of Us versus Them, with war to the end the only answer, as with Hitler. If you doubt that every other British Muslim under the age of 30 is ready to blow himself up for Allah, or that shredding the Constitution is the way to protect ourselves from suicide bombers, if you think that Hamas might be less popular if Palestinians were less miserable, you get cast as Neville Chamberlain, while Bush plays FDR. "Islamo-fascism" rescues the neocons from harsh verdicts on the invasion of Iraq ("cakewalk...roses...sweetmeats...Chalabi") by reframing that ongoing debacle as a minor chapter in a much larger story of evil madmen who want to fly the green flag of Islam over the capitals of the West. Suddenly it's just a detail that Saddam wasn't connected with 9/11, had no WMDs, was not poised to attack the United States or Israel--he hated freedom, and that was enough. It doesn't matter, either, that Iraqi Sunnis and Shiites seem less interested in uniting the umma than in murdering one another. With luck we'll be scared we won't ask why anyone should listen to another word from people who were spectacularly wrong about the biggest politico-military initiative of the past thirty years, and their balding heads will continue to glow on our TV screens for many nights to come. On to Tehran!

It remains to be seen if "Islamo-fascism" will win back the socially liberal "security moms" who voted for Bush in 2004 but have recently been moving toward the Democrats. But the word is already getting a big reaction in the Muslim world. As I write the New York Times is carrying a full page "open letter" to Bush from the Al Kharafi Group, the mammoth Kuwaiti construction company, featuring photos of dead and wounded Lebanese civilians. "We think there is a misunderstanding in determining: "'Who deserves to be accused of being a fascist'!!!!"

"Islamo-fascism" enrages to no purpose the dwindling number of Muslims who don't already hate us. At the same time, it clouds with ideology a range of situations--Lebanon, Palestine, airplane and subway bombings, Afghanistan, Iraq--we need to see clearly and distinctly and deal with in a focused way. No wonder the people who brought us the disaster in Iraq are so fond of it.

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