Republicans Say/Do The Stupidest Things
Last week when the Republicans were unable to keep up their ethics committee charade and were forced to roll back the corrupt ethics rule changes they had put in. I couldn't help but laugh. They were acting as if doing what they are supposed to do, have a non-partisan ethics committee, entails them to a pat on the back. It reminds me of a Chris Rock stand where he talks about, "ni%&ers are always taking credit for doing what they're supposed to do". In that case it was saying things like, "I ain't ever been to jail. You ain't supposed to go to jail, ni%&er! In the Republicans case they are saying look how good were are for leaving the ethics committee non-partisan. Well it's supposed to be non-partisan. There go the Republicans, taking credit for doing what they're supposed to do.
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 10:37 AM

 
How Big An Idiot Do They Think I Am?
I mean really. You have to be drinking the Neocon Cool-Aid to still believe anything that comes out of these two guys mouths, Pentagon Plays Down New Rise in Iraq Violence

At a news conference, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the level of attacks is about the same as it was a year ago, with the insurgency retaining the ability to surge. But he and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld cited other developments -- including a greater willingness by Iraqis to provide intelligence on insurgents and growth in Iraqi security forces and political institutions -- as evidence of improvement.

This article is worthless and the same old tired quotes that roll out every time. I can't believe the media doesn't call these two guys on this. Things are much better, except for the fact that there are as many attacks as this time last year? Why won't the reporter call them on this? Now they appear to be setting up the next big milestone to be when the government is actually formed then things will get better.

But yesterday we found out that the #1 reason for going to war in Iraq, WMD, is now officially false, we turn the now week long saga of another reason for going to war is completely false as well, Data shows record number of terror attacks in Iraq in 2004. It's just that your President that always says what he means and means what he says doesn't want to have to talk about what this report means. Namely that going to war in Iraq to stop terrorism was a ruse.
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 8:44 AM

 
No Shit?
Newflash #1
Weapons Inspector Ends WMD Search in Iraq

"As matters now stand, the WMD investigation has gone as far as feasible," Duelfer wrote in an an addendum to the report he issued last fall. "After more than 18 months, the WMD investigation and debriefing of the WMD-related detainees has been exhausted."

Newflash #2
Report Finds No Evidence Syria Hid Iraqi Arms

U.S. investigators hunting for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have found no evidence that such material was moved to Syria for safekeeping before the war, according to a final report of the investigation released yesterday.

Now can all you wing-nuts shut the F#$K up!
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 10:34 AM

 
Relative Period of Calm? My Ass!
Over the past couple of months -- since the, ahem, "election" in Iraq -- many Americans have let Iraq slip out of their consciousness. I don't want to sound alarmist but there is still a war going in Iraq, not to mention Afghanistan. If you want to know what's happening in Iraq I will recommend three places: Juan Cole, TomDispatch and Baghdad Burning. It may have been a relative calm for American soldiers, and to most of Americans that's all that matters, but Iraqis have still been dying at a furious pace. So, of course, the term relative calm is a relative term.

Here are a few articles that came out this weekend about Iraq that should be read:
Insurgent Violence Escalates In Iraq

Violence is escalating sharply in Iraq after a period of relative calm that followed the January elections. Bombings, ambushes and kidnappings targeting Iraqis and foreigners, both troops and civilians, have surged this month while the new Iraqi government is caught up in power struggles over cabinet positions.

Iraqi forces desert posts as insurgent attacks are stepped up

Iraqi army and police units are deserting their posts after the recent escalation in insurgent attacks, according to reports from around the country yesterday.

The end of a relative period of calm after the election has posed the first real test for the embryonic security forces since coalition troops started cutting back on their military operations in February.

Bloodied Marines Sound Off About Want of Armor and Men

Among those killed were Rafael Reynosa, a 28-year-old lance corporal from Santa Ana, Calif., whose wife was expecting twins, and Cody S. Calavan, a 19-year-old private first class from Lake Stevens, Wash., who had the Marine Corps motto, Semper Fidelis, tattooed across his back.

One other part in this article that I thought was interesting was this,

Capt. Kelly D. Royer took photos of Humvees in which his men died. He was removed from command, accused of being "dictatorial."

I think that is totally hilarious in the light of what this administration and it's lackeys are saying about John Bolton's style. I guess a Marine commander needs to be more diplomatic then the U. N. Ambassador?

One other thing to keep in mind. If there was, in fact, a "relative period of calm", why was there a "relative period of calm (RPC)"? Remember all the talk before the election in Iraq about the increase troop levels to help provide security for the election? Well those same troop levels are now being reduced. Could that be the reason the so called RPC is ending? So think about this: more troops better security, less troops worse security. Now does this administration want chaos or do they just not have enough troops to sustain that level of security? What do you think?
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 9:06 AM

 
It's Friday
Paul Krugman
Passing the Buck

According to the health organization, the higher costs of private insurers are "mainly due to the extensive bureaucracy required to assess risk, rate premiums, design benefit packages and review, pay or refuse claims." Public insurance plans have far less bureaucracy because they don't try to screen out high-risk clients or charge them higher fees

My Father has been telling me that the insurance companies are the root of all evil for decades.

Chris Floyd
Gut Check

That's how the system really works. All the guff about law, democracy and morality is just cornball for the yokels back home -- and for the cannon fodder sent off to die in the elite's commercial and dynastic wars. The Labyrinth -- that knotted gut of blood and bile -- has poisoned us all.

- posted by Mom/Dad @ 2:09 PM

 
Ostriches
Our governmental system was created because humans lie. Or because our founders believed that men in power, given the chance, will always lie. Therefore they put in a system with checks and balances. We've learned about checks and balances from the first time we took a government class about. Maybe we've heard about it too much. Meaning that like all of those rights in the Constitution and the first ten amendments, we now take them for granted and don't realize the price that has been paid for them over the preceding 225+ years. If you ain't checkin' it ain't bein' balanced.

The reason I bring all of this up is because I got a book in the mail the other day. My wife buys and sells things on eBay and the other day she bought me Jim Garrison's book, On the Trail of the Assassins. As I was reading through the introduction I came across an interesting couple of paragraphs. He's going through how he went from someone that blindly trusted his government to a person that believed his government murdered the president because he was going to change the Cold War foreign policy and also withdraw from Vietnam. He writes:

At the outset I must underscore the fact that the details of the assassination - who pulled a trigger, from what building, what kind of gun, and so forth - are no longer my primary concerns. The assassination was an enormously important event. But even more important, in my view, is what happened after - ratification by the government and the media of an official story that is an absurd fairy tale.

Immediately after the assassination, the federal government and the major media adopted the posture of two giant ostriches, each unyielding to reason, each with its head firmly lodged in the sand. Having ratified the lone assassin theory, they refused to acknowledge any facts that might discredit it and attacked anyone who offered a different explanation.

It was not too difficult to figure out what their dilemma was. For the government and the major media to have acknowledged what virtually everyone knew (that Kennedy had been fired at by a number of guns) would have put an end to the sacred pretense that the President's assassination was a chance occurrence. To have acknowledged a conspiracy would have led inevitably to the question of why it had occurred. There then would have followed recognition that there had been powerful opposition in the government to President Kennedy's efforts to end the Cold War. His desire to withdraw from Vietnam, for example, would have been revealed. Correspondingly, the role of those who dragged us into nine years of war in Vietnam also would have become clearer.

This lays out a formula of how our government and media sucks the people in when they have to do something that they see "have" to be done. We have a line - Saddam has WMD, Abu Ghraib was a "few bad apples", It was 19 dudes that did 9/11, etc.. - the government and the media say it's so and anyone that disagress with it is a conspiracy theorist. The American people stopped thinking quite a while ago. Maybe it was the assassination of JFK that started it, I doubt it though. It's a Straussian dilemma. Do you believe the people know what's best for themselves? Well our country hasn't been run that way for a long time, maybe..probably never was.


the reason I bring all of this up is because, in case you forgot, there is still a war going on in Iraq, Guerrillas Shoot down Helicopter, Killing 11 (6 Americans). There are still many, many people dying over there. I know, I know, the American casualties are way down. Tell that to this soldiers family. (If I Google their name and find a local news story on them it really humanizes them and makes me realize exactly how horrible this war really is). Not to mention the Iraqi's that continue to die in much higher numbers. The reason(s) we went there and stay there are all bullshit! Your government and the media, those same ostriches, will not acknowledge that fact. Because if they did they would have to explain what is really going on.

A couple from Naomi Klein:
Smoking while Iraq burns and You asked for my evidence, Mr Ambassador. Here it is
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 9:30 AM

 
Best Article On Bolton Today
Fred Kaplan of Slate
Is John Bolton Going Down?

It's a good guess that one of two things is going to happen in the coming days and weeks: Either Bolton goes down—or we start learning a lot of unpleasant things about Sen. George Voinovich.

I love that ending. Watch your back Sen. voinovich and we in the opposition should be ready to come to his defense.
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 3:13 PM

 
Amazing
This is truly amazing, Bush administration eliminating 19-year-old international terrorism report.

According to Johnson and U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the issue,statistics that the National Counterterrorism Center provided to the State Department reported 625 "significant" terrorist attacks in 2004.

That compared with 175 such incidents in 2003, the highest number in two decades.

The statistics didn't include attacks on American troops in Iraq, which President Bush as recently as Tuesday called "a central front in the war on terror."

Do you think this would have happened if the study showed that terrorism was going down?

Still believe it was just "a few bad apples"? Soldiers' 'Wish Lists' Of Detainee Tactics Cited

"This situation is made worse with messages from higher echelons soliciting lists of alternative interrogation techniques and the usage of phrases such as 'the gloves are coming off,' " he wrote.

- posted by Mom/Dad @ 8:16 AM

 
Steve Clemons has the latest on John Bolton, If Chafee is 20 Points Down, Bolton Will Take Him Lower.

The headlines of the future today, Future Shock.

E. J. Dionne today reinforces the fact that DeLay's main problem, and the Republican Party's as well, is that he is finally becoming well known throughout America, One of the fears I have of Tom DeLay eventually going down is that he will be made a scapegoat and the many, many others involved will go unotice. Who are they? Joe Conason has the details, DeLay’s ‘Moral’ Defenders Ignore His Sleazy Allies
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 10:51 AM

 
LAT Tries To Minimize DeLay's Family Problem
In an attempt to make DeLay's problems look like "everyone" does it the Los Angeles Times gives us this article, Political Payrolls Include Families. They try and show that by stating:

At least 39 members of Congress have engaged in the controversial practice of paying their spouses, children or other relatives out of campaign funds, or have hired companies in which a family member had a financial interest, records and interviews show.

Wow that's shocking, isn't it? They also say up front that the practice is not illegal. They also refer to it as a "bipartisan practice" which makes it seem like both parties endorse it. I think what they should have said is that members from both parties do this. So I guess the main thrust of this story is that it's not illegal and both parties do it so this is not a story.

There are a couple of things, I think, that were not mentioned in this story that should have been. It's a difference in degree. None of the people mentioned have made the amounts of money that DeLay's wife and daughter made. The others family members in some cases took pay cuts to come work for their family members campaign. Some even ran other campaigns before. I guess it's the fact that more than likely without the Tom DeLay connection for these two they would not be making this kind of money working on someone else's campaign that wasn't their husband or their father's.

Clearly, to me, this is the least of DeLay's problems. Illegal corporate campaign contributions used to steal state legislative seats in order to redraw Congressional districts is much worse. But just because others are doing it and to a lesser degree doesn't mean that his family isn't abusing the system either.

Here is the original story from the NYTPolitical Groups Paid Two Relatives of House Leader and here is the latest from OffTheKuff, Checking in on the DeLay barrage
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 1:39 PM

 
It's everywhere, but if you haven't read it yet go read it
Let them eat bombs

In the UK there may now be 3.6 million children living below the poverty line, and 12.9 million in the US, with no prospect of either government finding any cash to change that. But surely this is a price worth paying, if it means that George Bush and Tony Blair can make any amount of money available for bombs, shells and bullets to improve the lives of Iraqi kids. You know it makes sense.

This woman, I know, is in serious pain. But it's always refreshing to hear someone lay it out like this.
Our Country Has Been Overtaken By Murderous Thugs

My son was killed in Iraq on this day one year ago, the same day of April on which Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. From a jail in Birmingham, on April 16 1963 Dr. King wrote these words: "We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence.......of the good people."

[and]

Is there yet an American who can not clearly see that Dick Cheney...whether it be 1975 or 2005...will say whatever he thinks is required to ultimately cause wealth and power to move to himself and to his friends?

[and]

Is there anyone in America who cannot yet see that Donald Rumsfeld is a liar...that he, as with Hitler and Stalin....will say anything so long as he thinks it will help shape the world to his own liking?

[and]

As soft-spoken and sincere-sounding as Paul Wolfowitz is, is there yet any sane adult in this country who's skin does not crawl when this murderous liar opens his mouth and speaks? Am I the only person in this room who clearly sees that Paul Wolfowitz is a threat to our nation's security...and to peace on our beloved earth?"

You may think that's extreme but just imagine if it was your child.
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 2:53 PM

 
Stalin? Wisdom? Greatest Political Figure Of The 20th Century?
Holy shit! Don't conservatives have strange heros?

"Here again I draw on the wisdom of Stalin. We're talking about the greatest political figure of the 20th century. He had a slogan, and it worked very well for him whenever he ran into difficulty. 'No man, no problem.'"

[and]

The audience laughed, and Vieira repeated it. "'No man, no problem.' This is not a structural problem we have. This is a problem of personnel."

Someone had to ask, Is That Legal? This, of course, is from a Christofascist gathering of Republicans that occurred last weekend. It of course had one of those great Karl Rove/Frank Luntz-esgue wing-nut tested titles, Confronting The Judicail War on Faith. The next quote is from, Michael Schwartz, the longtime right-wing operative who now serves as Senator Tom Coburn's chief of staff, made The Hammer sound soft:

"This problem that we're dealing with fundamentally is a question of sovereignty," he said. He went on to argue that, "when the Supreme Court says that there is a right to kill babies in the Constitution and therefore we can't have laws against that, or there is a right to commit buggery in the Constitution and we can't have laws against that," it implicitly asserts that "the people have no right to make laws."

As long as the Supreme Court purports to "grade the papers of Congress" -- in other words, to evaluate its laws -- "it is counter to the very basis of this republic." Thus, until America throws out the principal of judicial review, "it is a sick and sad joke to claim we have a Constitution."

Now I'm not sure where Mr. Schwartz went to school but I'm pretty sure he got at least as good if not a better education than me. I can still remember back to grade school where we learned: The President exectutes the laws, Congress passes the laws and the Supreme Court interprets the laws. You can call it grading papers if you want Mr. Schwartz but no matter how you slice it the Judiciary is, and is supposed to be and independent CHECK on the other two branches of government. Maybe he should spend a little time here, Congress For Kids.

It is not surprising that these wing-nut wackos are saying these kind of shameful things. It's also not surprising that Stalin is one of their heros. The aim of these people (listed below) and their believers is to completely destroy the confidence in the judiciary. Just like this administrations aim to destroy confidence in the media. The other not-so-surprising thing in all of this is the lack of coverage in the MSM therefore giving these people legitimacy. This should be getting at least as much coverage as Trent Lott did.

Executive Committee: (Judeo-Christian Council on Constitutional Restoration) or {JCCCR})
Rev. Jerry Falwell
Michael Farris (Home
School Legal Defense Association)
former Vatican Ambassador Ray Flynn
Alveda King (King for America)
Rabbi Daniel Lapin (Toward
Tradition)
Ron Luce (Teen Mania)
Dave Meyer (Joyce Meyer
Ministries)
Fr. Frank Pavone (Priests for Life)
Dr. Rick
Scarborough (Vision America. Interim Chairman, Judeo-Christian Council for
Constitutional Restoration)
Phyllis Schlafly (Eagle Forum)
Thomas Smith (America 21)
Mike Valerio

Read this article in The Nation. Also familiarize yourself with the Constitution Restoration Act of 2004 and Christian Reconstructionists/Dominionists. They have perverted the Christian religion into a cult of freaks. I never thought I would see believers in Jesus Christ have such nice things to say about Stalin.
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 8:45 AM

 
John Bolton (PBU15)
A man that thinks the US should be the only member of the Security Council and also thinks it would be OK to lop of the top 10 floors of the UN building should not be the United States Ambassador to the United Nations! Period! Steve Clemoms at The Washington Note has all things John Bolton.
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 2:09 PM

 
Frank Rich Nails It!
A Culture of Death, Not Life

It takes planning to produce a classic chapter in television history. "We've rehearsed," Thom Bird, a Fox News producer, bragged to Variety before Pope John Paul II died. "We will pull out all the stops on this story."

He wasn't kidding. On the same day that boast saw print, a Fox anchor, Shepard Smith, solemnly told the world that "facts are facts" and "it is now our understanding the pope has died." Unfortunately, this understanding was reached 26 hours before the pope actually did die, but as Mr. Smith would explain, he had been misled by "Italian reports." (Namely from a producer for Sky Italia, another fair-and-balanced fief of Rupert Murdoch.) Fox's false bulletin - soon apotheosized by Jon Stewart, now immortalized on the Internet - followed the proud tradition of its sister news organization, The New York Post, which last year had the scoop on John Kerry's anointment of Dick Gephardt as his running mate.

- posted by Mom/Dad @ 8:12 AM

 
What a piece of shit Senator Mel Martinez is. The Only question I have for the Orlando Sentinel is, when this happens again will his third strike mean he's out?!

Media Matters does a day by day on how this right-wing lie gets spread. If anyone knows it's David Brock, Dissecting a right-wing smear. This is a case study on how all the wing-nut liars latch on to the same point. The funny part is that now that everyone knows they were wrong, dare I say lying, will they acknowledge it?

Thank God all of those Republicans in power are for a "Culture of Life" right? Hunger-Based Lines Lengthen at the Faith-Based Soup Kitchens

The budget debate in the Republican-run Capitol presents a Hobson's choice between the House's five-year, $30 billion-plus in program cuts for the poor and the Senate's $2.8 billion in cuts - one-tenth the pain, but focused most heavily on nutrition programs. The compromise cuts are likely to lean toward the House, levying more than their fair budget share on the poor, even as President Bush and the G.O.P. leaders argue that still more upper-bracket tax cuts are somehow justifiable.

For some reason, call me crazy, I don't think would give tax cuts instead of helping the poor!

The Carpet Bagger Report takes it to Bubble Boy:

Bush’s very expensive bubble, which carefully shields the president from any kind of dissent, is pretty tough to pop. Nevertheless, the top two Dems in Congress are doing their level best to lure our shy president out of his shell to deal with Americans who aren’t pre-screened sycophants.

Pelosi and Reid have a challenge for the "war" President

Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid sent the following letter to President Bush today, inviting him to participate in a National Town Hall on Social Security, to hear all sides of the debate. Democrats have been traveling across the country listening to the concerns of their constituents about Social Security privatization, holding hundreds of open town hall meetings. The Democratic Leaders would like to work with the President to ensure that he too, hears from those who oppose privatization, not just handpicked participants who support his plan.

- posted by Mom/Dad @ 8:37 AM

 
Just Remeber
A Nice Story
A Personal Glimpse of the Pope's Belief in Life

Pope John Paul II is widely viewed as having been a man of unshakable convictions that some found old-fashioned or rigid. But perhaps he offered his truth with the same simplicity and directness he showed in proffering tea and bread and shelter from cold to an abandoned Jewish girl in 1945, when nobody was watching.

It was based in the belief that, as he once put it, "a degradation, indeed a pulverization, of the fundamental uniqueness of each human being" was at the root of the mass movements of the 20th century, Communism and Fascism.

- posted by Mom/Dad @ 3:06 PM

 
I Wish John Cornyn Wasn't A Senator From My State
Senator Cornyn Embarrasses Texas and Himself
The Judges Made Them Do It

The need to shield judges from outside threats - including those from elected officials like Senator Cornyn - is a priceless principle of our democracy. Senator Cornyn offered a smarmy proclamation of "great distress" at courthouse thuggery. Then he rationalized it with broadside accusations that judges "make raw political or ideological decisions." He thumbed his nose at the separation of powers, suggesting that the Supreme Court be "an enforcer of political decisions made by elected representatives of the people." Avoiding that nightmare is precisely why the founders made federal judgeships lifetime jobs and created a nomination process that requires presidents to seek bipartisan support.

If Republicans had any sense of decency left they would make this man leave office.
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 2:39 PM

 
What Is The Payment That Fits This Crime?
I think the issue that needs to be looked into when this whole DeLay mess shakes out is the fact that illegal campaign activities were undertaken in order to win the majority in a state legislature so that Congressional districts could be gerrymandered. Now that might sound like a just good old political gamesmanship but think about it. If these lines are not redrawn in Texas the Republicans would have gained no seats in the House in 2004. Texas went from 17(D) 15(R) to 21(R) 11(D). In the 108th Congress it was 229(R) 205(D). Now in the 109th it's 232(R) and 202 (D). If you take away the 6 gerrymandered seats it would be 226(R) and 208(D) actually a 1 seat pick-up for the Democrats.

Now if these seats were redrawn because of gains made in the state legislature and as a direct effect of Tom DeLay's illegal campaign activity doesn't that seem like cause to nullify that map? Think about it this way. What is stopping a powerful politician in the future from sacrificing their seat for the good of their party? So a member of congress, for example Tom DeLay, uses illegal means to keep his party in power. And what will his and his party's punishment be? His party will not have to give back what has been obtained illegally, state legislative and US congressional seats. And the member of congress? Banished to a life of high paying lobbying. What a punishment!

DeLay's Latest Scandals
Political Groups Paid Two Relatives of House Leader

The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay's political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and separate fund-raising records in Mr. DeLay's home state, Texas.

A 3rd DeLay Trip Under Scrutiny

A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements.

- posted by Mom/Dad @ 11:31 AM

 
The Iraqis Are Getting Our Media And They Know It Sucks!
Baghdad Burning
American Media...

I have a suggestion of my own for a reality show. Take 15 Bush supporters and throw them in a house in the suburbs of, say, Falloojeh for at least 14 days. We could watch them cope with the water problems, the lack of electricity, the check points, the raids, the Iraqi National Guard, the bombings, and- oh yeah- the ‘insurgents’. We could watch their house bombed to the ground and their few belongings crushed under the weight of cement and brick or simply burned or riddled with bullets. We could see them try to rebuild their life with their bare hands (and the equivalent of $150)…

- posted by Mom/Dad @ 9:06 AM

 
Time To Play Catch-Up
Iraq is still a major mess, no matter that the MSM doesn't see fit to talk about it anymore. Juan Cole has this weekends news from there. He also has a post about a conference call with bloggers that Wesley Clark had today. Remember there is still a War Going On In Iraq.


There is a question everyone needs to know the answer to. That question is, If Tom DeLay is the most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives why didn't he become Speaker of the House after Newt Gingrich was forced to resign? It's because the Republicans know that every day that Tom DeLay's face is on the TV or on the front page is a good day for the Democrats. Tom DeLay does the ugly, corrupt, illegal work of the Republican Party. If he is being exposed than the whole party is being exposed. That is why I believe his days are numbered. One reason is because he got the kiss of death from Cheney over the weekend, Cheney Calls DeLay’s Conduct Inappropriate. Sooner of later, when it becomes obvious that he cannot win reelection, he will resign so they can get a Republican in his seat before the next election. It may be sooner than you think, DeLay is losing support, poll finds.

Why media ownership matters

Americans believe these lies not because they are stupid, but because they are good media consumers. Our media have become an echo chamber for those in power. Rather than challenge the fraudulent claims of the Bush administration, we've had a media acting as a conveyor belt for the government's lies.

Republican Senator Lies
WMD Commission Continues the Stonewall for Bush

On Thursday, President Bush's commission on weapons of mass destruction intelligence released a 692-page report that harshly criticizes the US intelligence establishment. It notes that "the Intelligence Community was dead wrong in almost all of it pre-war judgments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. This was a major intelligence failure." That's no news flash. The Senate intelligence committee issued a report last July that said the same. But like the Senate committee, Bush's commission--cochaired by Judge Laurence Silberman, a Republican, and former Senator Chuck Robb, a Democrat--ignored a key issue: whether Bush and his aides overstated and misrepresented the flawed intelligence they received from the intelligence agencies. As I wrote about days ago, Senator Pat Roberts, the Republican chairman of the intelligence committee, promised last summer that his committee would investigate the administration's prewar use (or abuse) of the WMD intelligence after the 2004 election, but more recently Roberts backed away from that vow, claiming such an inquiry would now be pointless.

Pointless for corrupt Republicans like yourself Senator. It's very important for the American people, like myself. It's all Curveball's fault.

Here's a new Social Security website to check out, ProtectYourCheck.org.
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 7:28 AM