Turn This Bus Around!

2007-01-24T03:10:00.000-05:00

Untied, We Fall

While I could not stomach the man sufficiently to watch Bush's State of the Union address live, I would like to direct any interested parties to a video resource the people at ThinkProgress.org have put together: an annotated State of the Union.

There one can watch the sickening affair in its entirety, or skip to sections of the speech by selecting from the scroll of facts and rebuttals offered below the inset screen.

Probably not the best topic for me to touch on while trying to wind down, but I did want to point it out, especially with him not only pushing more disaster in Iraq as thousands more are being thrown into the meat grinder in an attempt to salvage Dubya's legacy, but in coming up with supposedly helpful health initiatives that flatly ignore the realities of acquiring health insurance for people who already have health issues.

The insurance industry must be kissing photos of the shrub today as they contemplate the soaking they'll give the US public as millions potentially line up, one by one with no leverage, to see what inadequate health coverage they can negotiate for themselves. This is a sham and a national shame. A responsible government, a government in touch with the reality of its citizens, would easily see the merits of a single-payer system in which the federal government takes the role currently set on the business-owner and uses the awesome leverage so many millions of people represent to negotiate the best plans for every citizen. Health care should not be some job perk.

Those who insist that this would mean the government administering our health care are, to be kind, grossly ignorant and apparently highly open to suggestion by lousy media outlets and the talking points of some big money interests. They would be no more administering our healthcare than our current employers are, and unlike our current employers the federal government would have and immensely longer and more powerful lever with which to secure for us the best deals. Instead, Bush offers almost meaningless tax cuts and a plan that will leave each of us isolated.

A push towards Health Savings Accounts, much like the attempts to scuttle Social Security and replace it with by your own bootstraps individual retirement plans*, is the rhetoric of the healthy and the wealthy and those who've bought into this as a false point of pride. Please, don't be tricked into seeing these things as matters of personal worth, as if we're talking about "hand-outs." That message is originating with the people who have the most to lose, both directly in wealth and indirectly in status.

It's frustrating. It's aggravating. It's appalling.

...and it's not the way I'm going to settle myself in for a scant few more hours (at best) of sleep before getting up again to get the kids off to school and myself to work.

*I'm not dismissing the value of individual retirement accounts to help secure a brighter future -- I'm in a retirement plan myself, with money being withheld from every paycheck -- but the promise of Social Security should not be systematically marginalized until it, a withered husk of what it once was, is buried by the powerful minority who never had much use for it.

2006-11-29T16:54:00.000-05:00

Single-Payer Healthcare

Here's one overview of the Single-Payer proposal, including point by point refutation of the myths most often brought up by those who oppose it.

Also, here is a Single-Payer FAQ from Physicians For A National Health Program.

No further comment at this time, just something I wanted to make note of and something to perhaps be referenced when writing your representatives in Washington.

The every man for himself approach seen in the United States is a national disgrace.

2006-11-11T13:16:00.000-05:00

Following the Money, Tracing the Policies

I'm pleased to see that there are some who will be focusing on where the money went in the Iraq War, etc., and re-forming the subcommittee on oversight and investigations as a first step.

As the piece notes, it will be important that forward-looking, positive legislation on other matters be going on at the same time, but there's no reason some people can't set about uncovering the details of what's been going on while the Bush administration was given a rubber stamp for policy decisions, a fat checkbook and nothing more than softball questions to follow it up.

2006-11-10T19:04:00.000-05:00

A little more about Robert Gates

Just something to consider.

Soon after Robert Gates was nominated as the replacement for Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense, I know that most of the immediate buzz I was catching about him was harking back to the Iran-Contra affair and hearings -- though some of it was actually positive, noting that he came off more in a positive light than a negative one in some respects, and at least demonstrated the capacity for contrition -- but this morning I read about another connection, one that worries me more.

A little story about an odd little company called VoteHere.

Nothing more to add to the Gates connection at the moment, just some information to put in the pot. How important this is depends upon how much one believes the voting system was hacked, especially in '02 and 04, and if so how complicit Gates would have to have been.

2006-11-10T07:49:00.000-05:00

Thoughts forward

In part I've been too busy to go looking around at the political bloggers, and in part I've wanted to take in what has and hasn't changed with this week's developments, organizing some of it in my own mind before looking for what others have been thinking.

So, with an extremely busy workday ahead for me, this is a relatively quick outline post for me to come back to and consider later.

With Pelosi becoming the Speaker of the House of Representatives in January, the largest number of female representatives ever in the House and, I believe, the same for the Senate, with 16 women set to be present among the one hundred there, I'm sure there are things being written about what this might mean to the direction of government. Hopefully people are having more sense than to dust off the "The Year of the Woman" sign, something that always ends up backfiring and which is entirely too limited and trophy-like. Please, ladies and feminists of all genders (someone will be offended if I write "both"), let's leave the trophy mentality to the old boy's club and on the shelf of things that make us go "ow."

The new Democratic majority is sweeping in as a reformist wave, so the future is now theirs to lose much as was the case with the GOP wave 12 years ago. While I wouldn't suggest directly resurrecting the structure of the Contract With America, coming in with a bullet list agenda, prospective committees being formed now, is highly adviseable. Let's hope this batch of Democrats, riding in against a "culture of corruption" much as the GOP reps and senators did in '94, manage to stay cleaner longer than those across the aisle did in the 90's. Part of that is our job. We elected our representatives, it's up to us to establish connections to them and monitor their actions. If you just sit back and wait for change, or for them to fail, then when things go wrong you share part of the blame. Throwing your hands up and walking away isn't an answer, though if the people you voted for didn't get elected, well, then I understand. I had the likes of Rick Santorum "representing" me for years, and there was no bridge to span that gulf.

The War in Iraq (and let's not forget the situation in Afghanistan) is going to be a huge matter, and one that GOP strategists are (somewhat ironically) counting on to leave a bad taste in the mouth of voters with respect to the Democrats over the next two years. It's a mess, and the idea of "victory" is something that will simply have to be re-crafted. The invasion and occupation of Iraq was a huge mistake, undertaken for a raft of wrong reasons - whether one chooses to see them as lies (the view I hold) or honest mistakes. Stating and restating that frequently will be key. Approaching it as a mess to be cleaned up, pinning those responsible with the gimlet stare of an accusatory eye each time a particularly messy spot situation is being handled. The big trick with The War will be in finding the most artful way of removing ourselves from the chaos done in our name, leaving behind the most stable political and economic situation we can.

Since the confirmation of John Bolton is happily dead, the person they do confirm will be key, as shifting matters to more international oversight has to be part of the solution.

While moving ahead on important, forward-looking issues, the Democrats cannot simply let what's happened go by the boards without action. Nancy Pelosi has already all but sworn that impeachment of Bush isn't "on the table," and while that rankles part of me I understand the rationale behind it. The GOP's relentless witchhunt of the Clintons through the 90s wasted not only many millions of dollars but priceless time and opportunity to deal with vitally important issues. It would be a mistake to squander the coming two years that way. However, it is essential that at least one hungry committee be formed to follow the money that's been flowing into the black hole of Iraq, and have an accounting made of what disappeared to the billions that may as well have been handed out in checks signed out to "Cash", seeing who had control of it last before it vanished, and in finding out just what our troops and the citizens of the countries we invaded and occupied have actually gotten for our dollars from the civilian contractors (ie war profiteers) who've prospered so mightily from this misadventure. Follow the money and we might not only get some of it back (though, yes, that'll be a more symbolic victory than a real one because the procedure will take money) but that's a worthwhile path to be on if we're interested in finding and prosecuting those who lied to us and stole from us not simply money but priceless time and irreplaceable lives.

Items such as reinstating the Inheritance Tax, pulling the shunts out of the Social Security tank (which have been siphoning momentary surpluses out of what should be a sacred pool of public trust and misspending them on other items) so that its promise can be restored, should also be quickly on the table.

Taking some significant steps towards the healthcare crisis in this country is vitally important, starting with using the power of millions of people that the federal government is supposed to represent to negotiate (and they can get as much into gunboat diplomacy as possible as far as I'm concerned) lower prices for prescription drugs for US citizens. If this means a trade-off in caps on damage claims when something goes wrong with a drug's usage then so be it; no one said this would be a path strewn with rose petals. Any step we can take towards providing an HMO style healthcare program for every U.S. citizen - much the same system as many of us get via our employers, but with the federal government becoming the one paying the management organization instead of it coming directly from our employers - is better than one away from it. If we can blow billions upon billions of dollars on a place we shouldn't be where we're losing lives, then we damn well can spend them over here saving and improving lives. We have to bring as many positive things as we can out of this Iraq mess, and I'm hard pressed to think of a better one than this.

Don't let the naysayers win this time. If they say it won't work, point out that while they have their limitations HMOs have been working reasonablly well for millions of people for years now (My wife and I have had two children and a great deal of medical care via them over the past 16 years.) If people have fallen for the propaganda that "some government bureaucrat" will be deciding whether or not we can have a given medical procedure remind them that under the current system some insurance company bureaucrat's been making that call. It we set it up so that instead of hundreds of thousands of separate employers are having to deal with insurance companies we have the power of the federal government behind it, better terms can be negotiated, the options should only increase and become less expensive, and the growing degree economic slavery many such as myself find ourselves in -- if you have dependents with pre-existing medical conditions the prospect of changing jobs takes on a horrible new dimension -- will be shattered. Yes, it will be absolutely vital that we not allow the federal department in charge of this bloat into a self-serving, money-sucking bureaucracy, but that's part of what management is all about. As citizens in a democratic republic we have to stop blaming everyone else while throwing our hands up like Pilate's, fresh from the basin, and at least try to manage the people we've hired to make things work.

2006-11-08T21:44:00.000-05:00

Snapshot Update or Whiplash Update?

A new graphic from shortly after 5pm today, showing the small, but substantial changes from about 12 hours earlier.

But now... we're getting a confusing report from the AP: Democrats take control of Senate... and I have to admit I was a little confused. Had they suddenly counted both of the Independent seats as Democrats? Apparently so, based on reports that the independents caucused with the Democrats.

Montana's senate seat was ceded to the Democrats, but despite the headline the Virginia election could still be going for the long haul, and good for them. It's important to be sure that all the votes are counted, and I have no idea what the absentee ballot situation is there. We have plenty of time to be sure about the result.

The election still has me a little off-balance, so I'm happy we have some time to look into the rising players on the political front. I've barely gotten anywhere with it, though the attention on Nancy Pelosi is proving an interesting start.

2006-11-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

A Win In Progress?

(Quick, pre-work, nary the time for links, almost post-election post)

Seeing where the remaining seats fall (VA and MT still awaiting Senate decisions and 13 House seats going down to tiny margins) will tell part of the tale (check here for updates to the map), though even if both Senate seats were to go to the Democrats there are sizeable flies in the ointment.

The biggest of the flies is Benedict Lieberman, who would then be a position of great power as an "independent" vote potentially deciding the balance.

Aside from that, many of the Democrats who won spots are self-described conservative to moderate Democrats, and they'll have to be weeded through one by one to see what's actually meant by that. Having read pseudo-Dem Ford's stances months ago I wasn't terribly shaken by his failure to win in Tennessee, though the practical matter of a Senate with a Democratic Speaker, too, would have had substantial advantages even if he wasn't wholly on our team.

The House under Democratic control provides the party the opportunity to take a stand and choose directions. Dubya's veto pen is more likely to get a workout over the remaining two years. I'm still far more worried about the reality-altering power of his signing statements.

The GOP will (doubtless, they're already writing the copy, leaving key elements open as their own form of Mad Libs game) take every opportunity to claim the Democrats have no plan and try to undercut them as nothing more than obstructionists and detractors. It will largely lie to the new House to set the direction, since the Democrats in the Senate will still, ultimately, almost certainly remain under a GOP thumb.

I might not be a big fan of the tune, but I do like the theme. A little music for thought for many in the new congress set to be sworn in come January, perhaps?

Sure, it'll still be a battle, but given the nonsense Congress was tied up with in persecuting Bill Clinton with in the '90s this path should be a no-brainer -- certainly more of one than waterboarding, Dick.

Here in PA, most of the voting went my way, with Santorum and Weldon ousted by Casey and Sestak, respectively. You can depend upon me to be prodding each of them now that I believe I have representatives who actually come close to representing me.

2006-11-07T07:07:00.000-05:00

The Day

Well, it's election day, and as I look at the latest aggregate polls and see so many races down to a few percent either way I am once more haunted by thoughts of election fraud (see previous post) and what GOP puppeteer Karl Rove said about having "THE math" with respect to who would win today. I can't help but wonder how much of his math are figures already typed into machine code, waiting to be entered (or just as likely already entered, awaiting only a trigger) into key electronic voting machines.

My wife and I will be voting this afternoon, after I take a family member to a doctor's appointment, doing our part to change the imbalance of power in the House and Senate.

2006-11-05T09:24:00.000-05:00

Is the fix already in? Again?

Despite the polls indicating that Democrats will be handily retaking the House of Representatives and are teetering around the tipping point in the Senate (though traitorous Joe Lieberman is likely to take a win and is no one to be counted on by Democrats), too many races are going to teeter on a 3% or so margin, something that could be (again) easily stolen by True Believers with their finger on code hacks (quaintly referred to here as "glitches") in electronic voting systems.

That the GOP and spinmeisters tried to make so much hash out of Kerry's botched joke was a positive point for me, as it demonstrated how desperate they were to find something other than their own actions on display.

Presumably, today and tomorrow we're supposed to be too busy dancing in the streets because Saddam's been sentenced to hang, and how - depending upon how quickly the nine-judge appeals panel works through their deliberations, which could be as long as the appellate judges wish - he could be executed within days. Once they make their decision, whenever and whatever that will be, the results have to be implemented within 30 days. That none of this is of any real importance to what's happening over here is largely a matter of perception; those who have been duped otherwise, well, it'll be important to them.

2006-11-04T13:36:00.000-05:00

The New American Reich

As I read of accounts such as this one, about how the Bush administration doesn't was a terror suspect who was held for years in a secret CIA prison from even speaking with a civilian attorney about the torture methods used on him. I'll reprint the complete story below, then step back in to pose a question afterwards.

U.S.: Detainee Shouldn't Be Allowed to Tell Attorney About CIA's Interrogation Techniques

By MATT APUZZO

WASHINGTON Nov 4, 2006 (AP)— A suspected terrorist who spent years in a secret CIA prison should not be allowed to speak to a civilian attorney, the Bush administration argues, because he could reveal the agency's closely guarded interrogation techniques.

Human rights groups have questioned the CIA's methods for questioning suspects, especially following the passage of a bill last month that authorized the use of harsh but undefined interrogation tactics.

In recently filed court documents, the Justice Department said those methods, along with the locations of the CIA's network of prisons, are among the nation's most sensitive secrets. Prisoners who spent time in those prisons should not be allowed to disclose that information, even to a lawyer, the government said.

"Improper disclosure of other operational details, such as interrogation methods, could also enable terrorist organizations and operatives to adapt their training to counter such methods, thereby obstructing the CIA's ability to obtain vital intelligence that could disrupt future planned terrorist attacks," the Justice Department wrote.

The documents, which were first reported by The Washington Post, were filed in opposition to a request that terror suspect Majid Khan should be given access to an attorney. Khan, 26, immigrated from Pakistan and graduated high school in Maryland.

According to documents filed on his behalf by the Center for Constitutional Rights, Khan was arrested in Pakistan in 2003. During more than three years in CIA custody, Khan was subjected to interrogation techniques that defense attorneys suggest amounted to torture.

President Bush acknowledged the existence of the CIA system in September and transferred Khan and 13 other prisoners designated as "terrorist leaders" to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Under a law passed last month, they are to be tried before special military commissions and may not have access to civilian courts.

The Center for Constitutional Rights is among several advocacy groups challenging that law. They say the Constitution guarantees prisoners a right to challenge their detention.

The Justice Department argues that civilian courts no longer have jurisdiction to intervene in the case. They say keeping details about the CIA program secret is essential because national security is at stake.

"Information obtained through the program has provided the United States with one of the most useful tools in combating terrorist threats to the national security," the government argued in court documents.

"It has shed light on probable targets and likely methods for attacks on the United States, has led to the disruption of terrorist plots against the United States and its allies, and has gathered information that has played a role in the capture and questioning of senior al-Qaida operatives," it said.

Gitanjali S. Gutierrez, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, responded in court documents Friday that there is no evidence Khan has classified information. Gutierrez accused the administration of using national secrecy concerns to "conceal illegal or embarrassing executive conduct."

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton has not indicated when he will rule.

Now, my question: If this person (and who knows how many others) have been held for years, subject to whatever hideous torture methods the CIA and some of our slimy international allies' secret police could come up with, why is he still merely a "suspected terrorist"?

If waterboarding, etc. actually work, then this guy would have spilled all his secrets. He's been out of what any sensible person would know is a complex, shifting maze of operatives for years, so it isn't as if he's going to have any recent intel. So, either the methods they're using -- methods they're afraid of having disclosed by one of their victims -- are ineffective... or this "suspect" innocent, and now simply too embarrassing for this administration to allow to return to the light of day?

Have people disappeared into a system, like Vietnamese prison camps, where some simply will never return because of what they would have told the world?

Please, people. Be sure to vote Tuesday.

We have to begin to stop this national disgrace, this international nightmare, soon. To fail to act is to share in the crimes.

2006-10-31T19:57:00.000-05:00

Careful, Dick...

The american people (and especially the Democrats) can smell fear.

via Wonkette, a Mid-Atlantic Shredding Services truck was spotted heading for the Cheney compound at the Naval Observatory.

Oh, to think that the tide might finally begin to turn, and maybe one day members of this administration might be up on charges -- it's best not to get my hopes up too high and soon. These people are practiced at burying their dirty deeds, but even if we can just get rid of them it'll be a wonderful change.

2006-10-22T14:26:00.000-04:00

LETTER FROM PAT TILLMAN'S BROTHER

I wanted to pass along this timely letter from Kevin Tillman, brother of Pat Tillman.

KEVIN TILLMAN - It is Pat's birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice... until we get out.

Much has happened since we handed over our voice:

Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be
liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can't be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.

Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.

Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt
policy of torture became the fault of a few "bad apples" in the military.

Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet. It's interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat.

Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.

Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.

Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.

Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.

Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.

Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.

Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.

Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.

Somehow torture is tolerated.

Somehow lying is tolerated.

Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.

Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.

Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.

Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.

Somehow the most reasonable, trusted and respected country in the world has become one of the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted countries in the world.

Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.

Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.

Somehow this is tolerated.

Somehow nobody is accountable for this.

In a democracy, the policy of the leaders is the policy of the people. So don't be shocked when our grandkids bury much of this generation as traitors to the nation, to the world and to humanity. Most likely, they will come to know that "somehow" was nurtured by fear, insecurity and indifference, leaving the country vulnerable to unchecked, unchallenged parasites.

Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat's birthday.

2006-10-19T16:47:00.000-04:00

(Olive Drab) Green Acres

Speculation is rising as to what the Bush plans are for a 98,840-acre ranch recently bought in Paraguay, protected by a nearby, semi-secret U.S. military base - with some 500 military personnel having been granted exemptions from war crimes prosecution by the Paraguayan government (Scroll down to story #25.).

Speculations range to everything from another secret interrogation site to thoughts of eventual conflicts over water rights and recollections of where the nazis ran off to once their regime collapsed.

Steve O, over on Bring It On!, does a quick job of ticking off the key links to get matters rolling, while Wonkette starts at Steve O's piece and runs with it at length.

It's a bizarre, oddly entertaining development, including the bits that appear to show 24 year old Jenna Bush possibly acting as an agent for the family, though she had UNICEF as a reasonable cover story.

The thought of el Jefe and entourage potentially fleeing as war criminals is a tad too delicious an aroma for me to bite the bait -- currently placing it in the too good to be true section -- but something's definitely brewing.

2006-10-10T11:49:00.000-04:00

Bloody October Surprise?

I just noticed over on Buzzflash that the U.S. build-up in the Gulf continues off the coast of Iran.

Is a military srike on Iran - or, being even more cynical, trying to provoke a strike against our military - going to be part of the GOP strategy for holding onto power?

More on the general build-up.

2006-10-05T20:26:00.000-04:00

Why... He Can Do Anything!

Yes, our mystifying, magical el Jefe continues to stretch the credibulity of onlookers and amazingly increases the nightmarish surrealism of the Bush regime. Supreme Overlord Dubya is asserting once again that he can pretty much write anything into law via his magical signing statement pen.

I can't help but keep feeling as if I should be waking up any moment. After years of this one would think I'd get over it, but, no, Bush and his administration continue to forge new frontiers of should-be-fantasy.

2006-10-03T06:30:00.000-04:00

"Good Morning, Terrorist"

As I lamented last week, recently-passed legislation threatens many. Hail, Dubyus! (on October 2nd) provides a nice overview of it, including some links, to which I will add another op-ed piece from a Yale professor of law and politics.

The header line is something reported by one of the people who had been taken into custody early on and had made it out of Guantanamo, describing what at least one of the guards said to him while he was in captivity. It was an audio interview, something heard while driving, so I can't easily dig up the reference. It is something that stuck in my mind, though.

2006-10-01T20:54:00.000-04:00

So... It really IS Vietnam again

While football screwed up the schedule terribly for us on the East Coast, this week's 60 Minutes featured an interview with Bob Woodward (portions of the video are available there, too) concerning his third book on the Bush presidency, State Of Denial: Bush At War. (Transcript of the interview is included below.)

Essentially, Woodward has worked on this for the past two years, interviewing everyone involved who would talk with him, including people in the Bush White House. He's learned that not only has the level of violence been escalating over the past two years despite what the Bush administration has been claiming, but he's seen that their own intelligence experts are projecting increasing levels of violence through 2007. Upon learning what Woodward would be presenting to him and asking about, Bush refused to meet with him.

Also -- and I know this came out in the news a little earlier -- it's been shown that Henry Kissinger is back as a frequent and welcome visitor to the White House with the same "Victory is the only exit strategy" message he was feeding the Nixon administration.

Here's the transcript:

Bob Woodward: Bush Misleads On Iraq
Tells 60 Minutes About His Book 'State Of Denial'

(CBS) President Bush's former chief of staff, Andy Card, said the Bush presidency will be judged by three things: “Iraq, Iraq, Iraq.” Bob Woodward, of Watergate fame, has just completed his third book on the Bush presidency, “State of Denial.”

Woodward spent more than two years, interviewed more than 200 people including most of the top officials in the administration and came to a damning conclusion. He tells Mike Wallace that for the last three years the White house has not been honest with the American public.

"It is the oldest story in the coverage of government: the failure to tell the truth," Woodward charges.

Asked to explain what he means that the Bush administration has not told the truth about Iraq, Woodward says, "I think probably the prominent, most prominent example is the level of violence."

Not just the growing sectarian violence — Sunnis against Shias that gets reported every day — but attacks on U.S., Iraqi and allied forces. Woodward says that’s the most important measure of violence in Iraq, and he unearthed a graph, classified secret, that shows those attacks have increased dramatically over the last three years.

"Getting to the point now where there are eight, 900 attacks a week," he says. "That’s more than 100 a day—that is four an hour. Attacking our forces."

Woodward says the government had kept this trend secret for years before finally declassifying the graph just three weeks ago. And Woodward accuses President Bush and the Pentagon of making false claims of progress in Iraq – claims, contradicted by facts that are being kept secret.

For example, Woodward says an intelligence report classified secret from the Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded in large print that "THE SUNNI ARAB INSURGENCY IS GAINING STRENGTH AND INCREASING CAPACITY, DESPITE POLITICAL PROGRESS."

And “INSURGENTS RETAIN THE CAPABILITIES TO…INCREASE THE LEVEL OF VIOLENCE THROUGH NEXT YEAR.”

But just two days later a public defense department report said just the opposite. “Violent action, will begin to wane in early 2007,” the report said.

What does Woodward make of that?

"The truth is that the assessment by intelligence experts is that next year, 2007, is going to get worse and, in public, you have the president and you have the Pentagon [saying], 'Oh, no, things are going to get better,'" he tells Wallace. "Now there’s public, and then there’s private. But what did they do with the private? They stamp it secret. No one is supposed to know," says Woodward.

"Why is that secret? The insurgents know what they’re doing. They know the level of violence and how effective they are. Who doesn’t know? The American public," he adds.

"President Bush says over and over as Iraqi forces stand up, U.S. forces will stand down. The number of Iraqis in uniform today I understand is up to 300,000?" Wallace asks.

"They’ve stood up from essentially zero to 300,000. This is the military and the police," Woodward replies.

"But, U.S. forces are not standing down. The attacks keep coming," Wallace remarks.

"They’ve stood up and up and up and we haven’t stood down, and it’s worse," Woodward replies.
John Negorponte knows it’s worse. He’s the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, and according to Woodward, Negroponte thinks the U.S. policy in Iraq is in trouble – that violence is now so widespread that the U.S. doesn’t even know about much of it; and that the killings will continue to escalate.

"He was the ambassador there in Iraq and now he sees all the intelligence," Woodward says. "I report he believes that we’ve always going almost back to the beginning, miscalculated and underestimated the nature of the insurgency."

Why?

"There’s this feeling, 'How can a bunch guys running around putting improvised explosive devices in dead animals and by the side of the road in cars, cause all this trouble," Woodward says.

Woodward reports that a top general says Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has so emasculated the joint chiefs that the chairman of the chiefs has become “the parrot on Rumsfeld’s shoulder.”

And, according to Woodward, another key general, John Abizaid, who’s in charge of the whole Gulf region, told friends that on Iraq, Rumsfeld has lost all credibility.

"What does that mean, he doesn’t have any credibility anymore?" Wallace asks.

"That means that he cannot go public and articulate what the strategy is. Now, this is so important they decide," Woodward explains. "The Secretary of State Rice will announce what the strategy is. This is October of last year." She told Congress the U.S. strategy in Iraq is "clear, hold and build."

"Rumsfeld sees this and goes ballistic and says, 'Now wait a minute. That’s not our strategy. We want to get the Iraqis to do these things.' Well it turns out George Bush and the White House liked this definition of the strategy so it’s in a presidential speech he’s gonna give the next month," Woodward tells Wallace. "Rumsfeld sees it. He calls Andy Card, the White House chief of staff and says 'Take it out. Take it out. That’s not our strategy. We can’t do that.' Card says it’s the core of what we’re doing. That’s two and a half years after the invasion of Iraq. They cannot agree on the definition of the strategy. They cannot agree on the bumper sticker."

"General John Abizaid, commander of all U.S. forces in the Middle East, you quote him as saying privately a year ago that the U.S. should start cutting its troops in Iraq. You report that he told some close Army friends, quote, 'We’ve gotta get the f out.' And then this past March, General Abizaid visited Congressman John Murtha on Capitol Hill," Wallace says.

"John Murtha is in many ways the soul and the conscience of the military," Woodward replies. "And he came out and said, 'We need to get out of Iraq as soon as it’s practical' and that sent a 10,000 volt jolt through the White House."

"Here’s Mr. Military saying, 'We need to get out,'" Woodward continues. "And John Abizaid went to see him privately. This is Bush’s and Rumsfeld’s commander in Iraq," Woodward says.

"And John Abizaid held up his fingers, according to Murtha, and said, 'We’re about a quarter of an inch apart, said, 'We’re that far apart,'" Woodward says.

"You report that after George W. Bush was reelected, his chief of staff, Andy Card, tried for months to convince the president to fire Don Rumsfeld. Why?" Wallace asks.

"To replace him. Because it wasn’t working. Card felt very strongly that the president needed a whole new national security team," Woodward says.

"You write Laura Bush was worried that Rumsfeld was hurting her husband. Andy Card told her the president seemed happy with Rumsfeld. And the first lady replied, quote, 'He’s happy with this but I’m not.' And later she said, 'I don’t know why he’s not upset,'" Wallace remarks.

"What’s interesting, Andy Card, as White House chief of staff every six weeks set up a one on one meeting with Laura Bush. Set aside an hour and a half to talk about what’s going on, what are the president’s anxieties? Smart meeting," Woodward explains. "And in the course of these sessions the problem with Rumsfeld came up. And she voiced her concern about the situation."

But Dick Cheney wanted Rumsfeld to stay. Why?

"Well, Rumsfeld’s his guy," Woodward says. "And Cheney confided to an aid that if Rumsfeld goes, next they’ll be after Cheney."

Cheney stunned Woodward by revealing that a frequent advisor to the Bush White House is former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who served Presidents Nixon and Ford during the Vietnam War.

"He’s back," Woodward says. "In fact, Henry Kissinger is almost like a member of the family. If he’s in town, he can call up and if the president’s free, he’ll see him."

Woodward recorded his on-the-record interview with Cheney, and here’s what the vice president said about Henry Kissinger’s clout: "Of the outside people that I talk to in this job I probably talk to Henry Kissinger more than just about anybody else. He just comes by and I guess at least once a month," Cheney tells Woodward. "I sit down with him."

Asked whether the president also meets with Kissinger, Cheney told Woodward, "Yes. Absolutely."

The vice president also acknowledged that President Bush is a big fan of Kissinger.

"Now, what’s Kissinger’s advice? In Iraq, he declared very simply:
'Victory is the only meaningful exit strategy.' This is so fascinating. Kissinger’s fighting the Vietnam War again. Because in his view the problem in Vietnam was we lost our will. That we didn’t stick to it," Woodward says.

He says Kissinger is telling the president to stick to it, stay the course. "It’s right out of the Kissinger playbook," Woodward says.

In his book, published by CBS sister company, Simon & Schuster, Woodward reports that the first President Bush confided to one of his closest friends how upset he is that his son invaded Iraq.

"The former President Bush is said to be in agony, anguished, tormented by the war in Iraq and its aftermath," Wallace says.

"Yes," Woodward replies.

Asked if the former president conveys that message to his son, Woodward says, "I don’t know the answer to that. He tells it to Brent Scowcroft, his former national security advisor."

"You paint a picture, Bob, of the president as the cheerleader-in-chief. Current reality be damned. He’s convinced that he’s gonna succeed in Iraq, yes?" Wallace asks.

"Yes , that’s correct," Woodward says.

Woodward interviewed President George W. Bush for the first two books for hours.

"And do you know what? There are people who are gonna say, look Woodward is savaging President Bush because he wouldn’t see him for this book," Wallace remarks.

Woodward says that's not true. "He did not, and I asked. And I made it very clear to the White House what my questions were, what my information was. What could he say? That the secret chart is not right?" Woodward says. "That these things that happened in these meetings didn’t occur? They’re documented. I talked to the people who were there. Your producer, Bob Anderson, has listened to the tapes of my interviews with people to make sure that it’s not just kind of right, but literally right. This is what occurred."

And Woodward says that no matter what has occurred in Iraq, Mr. Bush does not welcome any pessimistic assessments from his aides, because he’s sure that his war has Iraq and America on the right path.

"Late last year he had key Republicans up to the White House to talk about the war. And said, 'I will not withdraw even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me.' Barney is his dog," Woodward says. "My work on this leads to lots of people who spend hours, days with the president."

"And in most cases they are my best sources. And there is a concern that we need to face realism. Not being the voice that says, 'Oh no, everything’s fine,' when it’s not," Woodward adds.

2006-09-30T09:33:00.000-04:00

It's the Weekend. Time For Home.

It's a day largely of fiscal responsibilities and family time here, so I'm just going to note that The Poor Man Institute's come back with an installment of The Keyboard Kommandos, and then move on to some links covering of the recent page scandal down in Florida and the House of Representatives.

Considering how much hay was made of sexual "scandals" between consenting adults in the late '90s then here's hoping the story concerning Republican Representative from Florida Mark Foley and an underage page manages to not only drag him down but the GOP's leadership in the House, who were reportedly informed of it almost a year ago, and which is now being spun into damage control mode, especially in the wake of Foley's resignation and everyone is backing away from it saying they didn't know anything until now. Billmon caps it off as it stands.

2006-09-29T21:22:00.000-04:00

Talk about a conflict of interest...

Alberto "The Inqguistor" Gonzales cautioning judges on interfering in any of el Jefe's dictates. I suppose I'd be inclined to tow that same line if I was backing someone who's misled a nation into war, authorized torture programs and violated both domestic and international law.

It's amazing the incredible powers the Constitution allows the President to do just by saying so -- and with the incredible power of his magic signing statement pen!

Why, this must be the warm feeling the people of Cuba have when they sit rapt in awe of what Fidel can do!

Can we ever look forward to this house of razor sharp cards being collapsed?

2006-09-29T18:21:00.000-04:00

Another Sad, Sad, Week For the Nation

...and another event we'll have a difficult time explaining to our grandchildren.

"Why didn't you take to the streets? Why didn't you revolt?" they'll wonder aloud, wondering how we could have been so gutless as the Senate knuckled under, granting Dubya (even more) dictarial powers, and taking a steaming dump on 900 years of civilized history by revoking rights of habeus corpus.

Glenn Greewald did a running update of it all day Thursday, starting off with an excellent - and suitably grim - overview of what has happened, is happening, and what it means.

Twelve so-called Democrats voted in favor of the final bill. Remember them well:

Carper (Del.), Johnson (S.D.), Landrieu (La.), Lautenberg (N.J.), Lieberman (Conn.), Menendez (N.J), Pryor (Ark.), Rockefeller (W. Va.), Salazar (Co.), Stabenow (Mich.), Nelson (Fla.), Nelson (Neb.)

And remember kindly Rhode Island Republican Chaffe, who was the only Republican to vote against it.

When will this long, national nightmare be over?

Maybe that advice from Animal House to begin drinking heavily is a good call?

With two Bush nominees added to their ranks, can we even count on the Supreme Court to overturn this mockery?

2006-09-29T13:45:00.000-04:00

Well, you know, by this point I have no excuse for being surprised by the depths the bullying thugs behind the Republican Party will sink to, but I suppose I should count it as a victory of my humanity that I've retained the capacity for outrage.

It all started with an email from a well-intentioned, unfortunately too easily fooled former co-worker this morning.

The shame of the shameless, it is as follows (though I've removed some of the "dramatic" spacing between lines. It starts with a lie -- well, maybe not. Perhaps whoever sent it considers G.W. Bush as his friend -- and goes downhill from there. I have recreated the formatting and color choices from the email.

As you read through it -- I'll do you the honor of presuming upon your intelligence and not having to provide a running commentary -- note how they go from a tragic circumstance to folding in "God, country and home" and then attempt to get people to embrace without naming it the Republican Party which has apparently thoroughly embraced the color red as their own. Note that even here in PA, where former football player and token candidate Lynn Swann is running as the GOP's candidate for governor, above and partially slipped between the a and first n of his name on the campaign banners is our very own Keystone State -- in red. (A hideous concept to conjure with.)

(An aside, it occurs to me that the GOP embracing red means that the rest of us can resurrect all those old feelings we had through most of the Cold War when red = Communism. They've handily swapped out one Evil Empire for another. We probably should thank them.)

The blatant use of the color red, and the over the top usage of it in the little dedication speech at the bottom, is reinforced by the only spot in the piece where they use the color blue -- a color that from the past two national elections has become synonymous with the Democratic Party as we looked at the national maps to see where fools, fraud and Dieboldt stole some key elections -- when they advise those "...who couldn't care less to hit the delete button."

It's amazingly juvenile and obvious, but experience continues to show that millions of americans are taken in by such ploys. So, I'm spotlighting this abomination -- this attempt to build their party on lies and the corpses of our fallen men and women in the armed forces -- in the hopes that you'll pass it on and watch for this and similarly scurrilous items in the the In folders of your family, friends and co-workers. Point it out to them and be sure they have an opportunity to get angry at this offensive, galling tactic.

The wretched rest of this post is their work, not mine:

I'm passing this on from a friend.

Last week, while traveling to Chicago on business, I noticed a Marine sergeant traveling with a folded flag, but did not put two and two together. After we boarded our flight, I turned to the sergeant, who'd been invited to sit in First Class (across from me), and inquired if he was heading home.

No, he responded.

Heading out I asked?

No. I'm escorting a soldier home.

Going to pick him up?

No. He is with me right now. He was killed in Iraq I'm taking him home to his family.

The realization of what he had been asked to do hit me like a punch to the gut. It was an honor for him. He told me that, although he didn't know the soldier, he had delivered the news of his passing to the soldier's family and felt as if he knew them after many conversations in so few days. I turned back to him, extended my hand, and said, Thank you. Thank you for doing what you do so my family and I can do what we do.

Upon landing in Chicago the pilot stopped short of the gate and made the following announcement over the intercom.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to note that we have had the honor of having Sergeant Steeley of the United States Marine Corps join us on this flight. He is escorting a fallen comrade back home to his family. I ask that you please remain in your seats when we open the forward door to allow Sergeant Steeley to deplane and receive his fellow soldier. We will then turn off the seat belt sign."

Without a sound, all went as requested. I noticed the sergeant saluting the casket as it was brought off the plane, and his action made me realize that I am proud to be an American.
So here's a public Thank You to our military Men and Women for what you do so we can live the way we do.

Red Fridays.

Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the "silent majority." We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking numbers. We are not organized, boisterous or overbearing.

Many Americans, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of America supports our troops. Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday -- and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that ... every red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar, will wear something red.

By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make the United States on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers. If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, coworkers, friends, and family, it will not be long before the USA is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once "silent" majority is on their side more than ever, certainly more than the media lets on.

The first thing a soldier says when asked "What can
we do to make things better for you?" is ..."We needyour support and your prayers." Let's get the word outand lead with class and dignity, by example, and wearsomething red every Friday.

IF YOU AGREE -- THEN SEND THIS ON.

IF YOU COULDN'T CARE LESS -- THEN HIT THE DELETE BUTTON. IT IS YOUR CHOICE.

WE LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE, ONLY BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE!!

2006-09-28T09:54:00.000-04:00

A little attention...

...is due for Hail Dubyus!, which handily hits the issues both with a political cartoon and comments linking to news stories.

From pegging softball interviews and party line "news" programs, to the "compromise" on torture and detainee rights and who it's really intended to protect, he does a nice job of spotlighting and encapsulating the issues.

2006-09-27T18:40:00.000-04:00

Unlucky Sevens

Health insurance costs rise 7.7%, twice the rate of inflation. More signs of another disastrously failed direction the nation's been taken in by the Bush administration.

Citizens should have health coverage, including precription plans, as part of being a citizen. Pitting workers against their employers and tying specific employment to specific plans is a recipe for disaster that's already poisoning millions.

The "health savings account" plans this vile administration has pushed, and turn people into "savvy consumers" of healthcare are at worst a cynical sham and at best ignorance on the part of a ruling class that rivals "let them eat cake." It's so much like the economic policies where they convince the simple-minded that they're their friends by saying "It's your money" when what they're really saying is "we got ours, you have to fend for yourselves."

Telling people that they're being given opportunities to buy the kind of healthcare they need ignores the simple fact that the vast majority of the people in this naion cannot reasonably afford the healthcare they need.

We cannot afford this trend to continue. This is not the path of a civilized nation, not the demeanor of a civilized government to its citizens. This is how a haughty elite treats those it sees as beneath it.

We need new leadership. We need a new plan. We need a government that exists for the betterment of its citizens. Not one that sees us as grist for the mill, beasts of burden, or simply as a burden.

If HMOs work, then a single-payer plan - the government - can assume the role currently taken by hundreds of thousands of businesses across the nation. Monies will still come in from businesses and in taxes from us, and we may have to pay a little more in taxes up front, but it can be done. It must be done.

The next time you hear someone say "socialized medicine" as if it were the name of the boogeyman or something to be spat out and reviled, be aware that you're most likely hearing someone who's been brainwashed by the repetitious liars serving a ruling elite, or are perhaps even members of that elite themselves.

2006-09-27T18:09:00.000-04:00

Gas Prices Manipulated
To Aid GOP
Power-Holding Bid?

Some food for thought, supporting the suspicions many of us have concerning a political agenda behind the sudden drop in oil prices being suspiciously timed as part of an attempt to make potential voters less angry about their circumstance and feel more secure in how their world is being run. (Full text below.)

TREASURY SECRETARY'S FIRM MAY HAVE PLAYED MAJOR ROLE IN GAS PRICE DROP

LE METROPOLE CAFÉ - In yesterday's WSJ in Section C there is a very,very interesting item in the article, Some Investors Lose Their Zest ForCommodities. The article notes that over that past few months, commodityfunds have been liquidating commodity holdings. But here's the stunner:

"Consider the Goldman Sachs commodity index, one of the most popular vehicles for betting on raw materials. In July, Goldman Sachs tweaked the index's content by cutting its exposure to gasoline. Investors tracking the index had to adjust their portfolios accordingly – which sent gasoline futures prices tumbling."

Prior to Goldman's July GSCI revision, unleaded gas accounted for 8.45%of the GSCI. Now unleaded gas is only 2.30%. This means commodity fundshad to sell 73% of its gasoline futures to conform to the reformulatedGSCI. . .

Here we have Goldman, qua keeper of the commodities index, manipulating
markets simply by adjusting index components. It is noteworthy inseveral respects.

First, we are used to the notion of them front running
market sensitive information announced by third parties, but here aglorified hedge fund - albeit one dominating central banks and financeministries worldwide - maintains market-moving indices itself. . . .

Second, it lends credence to the theory that the current well-publicizedcommodities decline is just a well-timed, well-orchestrated head fake tobenefit the incumbents in the run up to the midterm elections - someonenoted recently that Bush's ratings vary inversely with gas prices...

The suspicion's been with me since at least September 7th, so it was interesting to me to see some buttressing of the argument.

2006-09-26T15:12:00.000-04:00

Choose Your Own Report
By G.W.B. as told through John Negroponte

Ooo, an "angry" President Bush declared he'd have portions of the National Intelligence Estimate report declassified and released so as to stop all the speculation and all attempts "...to confuse the American people about the nature of this enemy."

So, not wanting to have us "confused" in the wrong direction, he's having his Director of National Security "declassify the report's kepy findings." Well. There you go. (Updated)

All this happened during a meeting with (U.S. puppet strongman) Afghan President Hamid Karzai, or, rather, the press conference afterwards.

Addition: Here's a link to the "key judgements" currently published on the dni site.

The document's been apparently written since April, something that becomes suspiciously clear as one sees the sections talking about Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, both as a key target and danger.

Whose decision it was to determine which judgements were "key" in a report that took two years to compile is, of course, a key question.

As almost an aside, I can't be the only one to be repeatedly creeped out to see "The Homeland" referenced - much less multiple times - in print, can I? It's one of a variety of phrases I grew up hearing in movies and bad tv shows when some Soviet agent or nazi would invoke nationalistic sentiments.

2006-09-26T08:19:00.000-04:00

"Our tone should be crazed"

Last night, another excellent Must Read Special Comment from Ken Olbermann, this time over the Bush administration's failures and their and FOX News proxy attempts to blame the Clinton administration for 9/11. (Over on The Poor Man is the video of this speech. Thanks, Highlander, for pointing that out.)

If it weren't for the fact that so many weak-minded, almost by definition ill-informed people get their view of the world via the FOX News (sic) machine, what's been happening would be hilarious, albeit black, comedy.

2006-09-25T21:35:00.000-04:00

Be Sure

Election Day is November 7th. Register if you're not already, and help be sure others are registered, too. GoVote makes it easy.

If you're not sure if you're registered, look up your state's Department of State website; they should have some mechanism to allow you to check. It'll be a local county office or official.

As an example, here's ours in Pennsylvania... where I also see that October 10th is the cut-off for registration. Don't let November fool you by seeming so far off.

Be sure.

2006-09-25T21:17:00.000-04:00

So, Which Was It, Gentlemen?

Always to be counted on, Thom Hartmann's brought an interesting historical perspective to the recent cave-in to the Bush Admninistration by Senators John McCain, John Warner and Lindsey Graham in their abandonment of a defense of habeas corpus.

...and ultimately finds himself wondering if they were threatened with something or simply have been submerged in the political mire for so long that they lack integrity.

Either way, Thomas Jefferson would be ashamed or at least appalled.

2006-09-25T20:56:00.000-04:00

Oh, And Rummy? The Military's Talking Again

(and Oh, a related update)

...and they don't have a great deal positive to say about how Iraq's been handled.

But, hey, Rummy! Kentucky's Senator Mitch McConnell thinks you're the cat's pajamas, so who cares what actual military commanders who served in the region have to say?

And, oh... the current Army chief of staff needs billions more to continue doing what's already underway.

2006-09-25T20:39:00.000-04:00

Hey, George! God On Line Two

So, I see that G.W.'s own church is urging a pull-out of US troops from Iraq.

Jim Winkler, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, said that protesting the war is similar to the church's work to promote other social movements. The church took prophetic positions on civil rights, women's rights and nuclear disarmament before Congress acted, he noted.

"It has taken time for Congress to catch up," Winkler said. "We may be seeing another example of that."

2006-09-25T07:49:00.000-04:00

Where We Are

Not time for much else this Monday morning, so I thought I'd post a few markers to help us see where we are, looking back and ahead, briefly.

This weekend brought us news that by Friday of last week the total number of US military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan had matched the lives lost in the 9/11 attacks: 2,973. Not that we want to tie the two so closely, since Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 or any terrorist threat to the U.S., but considering that it was repeatedly used as the rallying point it's not something we can dismiss.

I'm discouraged that despite many strong and serious reservations there's little to no sign of a fight coming from any Democrat over the sham "compromise" deal reached last week, wherein the White House still got what it wanted (a continued license to engage in torture) while the GOP got to play human rights advocates via a small group of Republican resistors headed by Senator John McCain.

"It only takes 30 seconds or so to see that the Senators have capitulated entirely, that the U.S. will hereafter violate the Geneva Conventions... and that there will be very little pretense about it," according to Marty Lederman, an international law professor at Georgetown University School of Law, who suggested that the White House had gotten the better of the rebels.

Please keep in mind that deals of this type are part of an ongoing effort to retroactively save the skins of Bush and other top administration officials by retroactively decriminalizing activities that could, currently, see them up for prosecution.

Meanwhile, we're closing in on the mid-term elections and for a variety of reasons even some Republicans are becoming wary of electronic voting machines. Maybe a select few of them are justifiably afraid. A gambler who's gained from loaded dice is going to be more prone to worry in the future about others discovering the trick and using it to their advantage. Machines without a paper trail - including a viewing window so a voter can see how his or her vote was recorded - should not be in use anywhere.

2006-09-24T20:51:00.000-04:00

And this is a surprise to... who?

Okay, old news by this evening, but then again the conclusion of the report was old news to anyone who'd been following reality: A classified intelligence report concludes that the Iraq War has worsened the terrorist threat to the United States.

The matter's covered in more detail at Daily KOS, and the election implications and political reaction is looked over on Common Dreams.

2006-09-24T18:00:00.000-04:00

Tyger, Tyger...

I'm going to join Mark Gibson in promoting a piece by Peter B. Gillis on the nature of the "appeasement" propaganda the Bush administration is handing us in this run-up to war with Iran. Nicely stated.

It's definitely worth spreading around.

2006-09-24T16:19:00.000-04:00

In the Near Future...

A look at a world that might not be too far off?

But, boy, won't this protect us from The Terrorists!

Some days I can almost understand part of what drove Ted Kaczynski.

2006-09-23T17:05:00.000-04:00

Focus

While I don't expect I'll be taking on a greater focus as a political hack - there are so many others who do a much more thorough job of it, I'll likely just take this as an opportunity to focus more attention on those worthies.

Primarily I decided that political posts were being ignored in such a catch-all blog as my main one (Miraclo Miles), which is generally more of a pop culture, comics, Heroclix, etc. affair. Worst case, this will sit here neglected.