Right on the heels of Bush in his spiffy military garb, several papers are investigating Bush’s National Guard Service (or rather his lack thereof) during the Vietnam War. Here is some complete coverage of the NY Times, Washington Journal and Globe reports:
Daily Howler Investigation, part 1
Daily Howler Investigation, part 2
Daily Howler Investigation, part 3
The White House is attempting to block the publication of at 900 page congressional report on the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. They’re claiming that it contains sensitive intelligence information, yet that information is readily available elsewhere on the internet and has been discussed in print and broadcast previously. Excerpt:
The Bush administration also consistently have fought identifying top officials, including the president and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, who may have received warnings in 2001 that bin Laden’s network planned to hijack commercial aircraft. As a result, the report includes vague references to ‘senior administration officials.’
Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush! Fraud, Enron, Bush!
U.S. Stands up in favor of rape, forced pregnancy, domestic violence.
“The American delegation joined with Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Libya and others in efforts to delete a phrase – included in previously agreed-upon UN statements dating back a decade – that calls on countries to condemn violence against women and “refrain from invoking any custom, tradition or religious consideration” to avoid the obligation to stop the violence.
It joined objections to a passage about women in armed conflict, aligning itself with fundamentalist regimes in trying to change a reference to “forced pregnancy” – listed along with murder, rape, systematic rape and sexual slavery as by-products of war and societies emerging from conflict. The term “forced pregnancy” is seen by some anti-abortion groups as a pretext for promoting abortion.”
“We helped ourselves to the buffet and then sat down to begin eating our dinner. I was just about to tell Asher how I’d eaten there before and how delicious the vegetable curry was, but I never got a chance. All of a sudden, there was a terrible commotion and five NYPD in bulletproof vests stormed down the stairs. They had their guns drawn and were pointing them indiscriminately at the restaurant staff and at us.”
So the moral of this story is, if you’re not a terrorist, and if you don’t eat in any Indian restaurants, you have nothing to worry about.
Garner: Americans Should Beat Chests with Pride:
The retired general overseeing Iraq’s postwar reconstruction said on Wednesday that his fellow Americans should beat their chests with pride at having toppled Saddam Hussein (news – web sites) without destroying the country’s assets.
(Except for those crappy 5,000-year-old artifacts in the Iraqi National Museum. But who gives a shit about those as long as the oil wells are safe?)
As always, Molly writes an excellent column, this time on one of my favorite subjects, the Mystery of the Disappearing Weapons of Mass Destruction. “In the weeks before Gulf War II, the United States told the world Saddam Hussein was hiding mobile chemical laboratories, drones fitted with poison sprays, 15 to 20 Scud missile launchers, 5,000 gallons of anthrax, several tons of VX nerve gas agent and between 100 tons and 500 tons of other toxins, including botulinum, mustard gas, ricin and sarin. Also, we said he had over 30,000 illegal munitions. So far, we have found bupkes.”
For about the third time in the last month I’ve been called a lefty, and I’m getting pretty shitty about it. Actually, I think the most recent quote was “It would be hard for any man to be to the left of your political views.” To which I replied: “either you don’t know shit about politics or you don’t know shit about my political views, one of the two.” So if you’re really interested in finding out where I am, and where you are in comparison to me, take the political compass quiz.
Then check out where you are on the grid, compared to me. As you can see, it isn’t hard for anyone to be to the left of my political views. Gandhi is, for one.
Read the full remarks he made to the Associated Press here. They are more shocking than the edited quotes that appeared elsewhere. This man should not be in a leadership position in a political party.
