THE MOTHER OF ALL FLIP FLOPS

I was going to post about possible ways to observe the Mother of All Flip Flops, but I’m delaying that to highlight stories that have emerged within the last 48 hours.

Big Bush supporters Sinclair have decided that uttering the names of troops who have died in combat in Iraq is “political”. At issue is the 04/30/04 Nightline installment, The Fallen, where Ted Koppel will read the names of the troops who have died in Iraq since the Mission Accomplished photo op. (Read ABC’s outline of the controversy.) Apparently Sinclair’s definition of what’s “political” depends on whether something makes George W. Bush look bad. But reading the names of the fallen on the anniversary of the vainglorious Mission Accomplished extravaganza isn’t political, any more than is reading the names of the September 11 dead on that anniversary. Standards of human dignity shouldn’t depend on which party holds power.

I don’t want to hear from chickenhawks about John Kerry’s medals or that his injuries weren’t severe enough. The discussion is repulsive to me. Every last vet deserves respect and gratitude, period, even the ones whose service was no more painful than being the most boring thing they ever did. Kerry is a legitimate hero, who put his life on the line to rescue his unit. Shame on any Bush shill or Republican in Congress who attacks this service, tries to diminish it, or allows attacks to occur without stepping forward and asking, At long last, have you no decency?, because gaining brief partisan advantage is more important to them than giving a vet his due.

One reason I protested Gulf Junior even harder than I protested Gulf Daddy was that I deeply feel we shouldn’t wage war without fully understanding what we ask of people by doing so. We ask for the risk and sacrifice of their lives but also for something more: that they put their humanity on the line by killing others or taking prisoners, or being taken themselves. Iraqis and the Arab world around them are witnessing the reintroduction of prison torture, complete with rape rooms and mass graves in Fallujah:

The people of Fallujah carried their dead to the city’s soccer stadium and buried them under the field on Friday, unable to get to cemeteries because of a U.S. siege of the city. As the struggle for Fallujah entered a fifth day, hundreds of women, children and the elderly streamed out of the city. Marines ordered Iraqi men of “military age” to stay behind, sometimes turning back entire families if they refused to be separated. “A lot of the women were crying,” said Lance Cpl. Robert Harriot, 22, of Eldred, N.Y. “There was one car with two women and a man. I told them that he couldn’t leave. They tried to plead with me. But I told them no, so they turned around.” (04/09/04 AP Navarro/Qader Saadi)

You may remember that one of the themes of the Mission Impossible photo op was liberating Iraqis from all that.

A big reason this administration and its supporters have no compunction abut treating the dead and wounded in war with disdain is that they are enabled by fawning courtier press that shields them from criticism. They are supposed to be alert watchdogs who serve the people the president is also supposed to serve, but the White House Press Corpse has become a lazy, toothless pack whose only expertise and interest seems to be licking their own balls. We have a president who can do the following without fear of exposure and widespread outrage from public and press:

They [George and Jeb Bush] were out of view as reporters dodged fire ants, and within minutes moved within view of the cameras. A reporter asked the president about allowing Baathists into the Iraqi leadership, what message it sends to the Iraqi people. The president, now tieless and dressed in gray slacks and a light blue shirt, ignored the question and kept pulling weeds. Jeb stayed in the background. At one point, President Bush addressed an AP writer, referring to the young volunteers he had watched: “Put this on the wire. These people are from all over the country.” (04/23/04, 2:46pm entry in Ryan Lizza’s Campaign Journal)

The most bizarre irony of the Mission Accomplished flip flop has to be that Bush now routinely refers to the people he was supposedly liberating as if they were the enemy, and the people he was liberating them from as his allies. Very few asslicks in his courtier-press, even though increasingly disgruntled, will point that out, though it should color the first paragraph of any news they transmit.

There is no war one can always win, even as Bush is attempting to do here, showing “resolve” by always moving the goalposts to suit his needs of the moment. WMDs no WMDs, what’s the difference? Regime change is the thing. Now everyone’s pretending this is really about 911 again.

Troops are dying in appalling numbers and in deference to the latest goalpoast shift, Bush’s big donors regard the reading of their names as inconvenient. Meanwhile, Bush is wishing his new allies, Ba’ath thugs good luck in subduing the citizenry of Fallujah, the goalpost moved once again. The thugs’ new master won’t be challenged by his court scribes, who’ll give him PR points for castigating their acolytes even while enabling new atrocities now. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss! This is a war Bush can’t lose! That’s because you’ll never find him risking anything, for all his talk of bold decisiveness. Anyone can look in control when all they do is spin whatever happens by saying that was part of the plan all along.

But losers there will be. I’ve learned from the vets in my own family and from working with refugees, many of them survivors of military torture, that the wounds of war can be longer than lifelong. The sickening experience of fighting in war and being exposed to it in any way can be like a perfidious virus. Like the contagion of diseases that form plagues, you don’t know who’ll catch it. It can passed between casual friends, marital partners or through generations of a family. If a military family is lucky, healing from war wounds can bring the family closer together and add tensile strength to family ties. Families can be blown apart suddenly, as if they stepped on a landmine. No one can predict if this will happen — no one can even tell if the family environment is mined.

A psychic war wound can be an ugly scar that, like a physical one, eventually stops being painful but may shock and horrify people who witness it unprepared. It can burden the one carrying it with occasional awkwardness or a deep persistent shame. It can be something they wear it like a badge of honor that sets them apart from the average or something that wanes in their awareness as they matter-of-factly work and live around it.

I know that the most fundamentally decent person I ever met or am likely to know, my grandfather, was needlessly stained by the shame of war throughout his life. He confided to me that his greatest regret was killing a young soldier who was almost the mirror image of himself — in age, demeanor, fear and confusion — rather than finding a way to say, even on the battlefield, let’s lay down our arms and work instead to end this madness.

Here’s the thing: war never doesn’t hurt. There’s probably a more grammatical way to say it less truthfully; I’d rather err on the side of meaning. There is always sacrifice in war. It’s always painful. Big or small, it will come from many many people and long after the mission really is accomplished beyond a politician’s transient concerns.

The reasons for waging war should be clear cut and straightforward. The justifications should be understood in advance, as should the price to be paid. War shouldn’t be sold like a cheap used car or unveiled like a Fall Product.

The cost of waging war should be shared by all, but those who promote war should be at the vanguard of accepting responsibility, always. Last for the applause, first for the condemnations, until every last grunt and their families have been personally thanked first. It’s called leadership.

If it’s shown that war has been waged on a faulty premise and that people have been hoodwinked, willingly or by accident, those responsible should make amends and not try a new bait and switch. They shouldn’t, as Bush is doing now, scurry around like a cockroach grabbing any missed crumbs while avoiding getting crushed under a heel. Or, like Cheney just tried to do, misrepresent the content of his speech at a college just to grab an opportunity to bash a political opponent.

Out of one side of his mouth, Bush condemns the torture of prisoners, yet he keeps the “unlawful enemy combatants” in his care separated from their human rights while letting his administration extract the maximum use from them, even if it’s only propaganda (see James Yee). He does as great a disservice to his prisoners as he has done to the “private contractors” specifically hired to dodge Geneva Convention definitions of combatants. He strips them all of their humanity.

I used to think that giving a limb or one’s life was the ultimate sacrifice. I’ve increasingly come to believe that there are worse things to lose. Those scared, foolish, arrogant stupid, burned out parties committing torture have lost touch, perhaps permanently, with their humanity.

They have their cheerleaders among those who regard war as a game or a TV show, their masters among the chickenhawk brigades happily earning money or fattening their egos with this optional war. The Codpiece in Chief is the most arrogant of fatheads, the biggest coward strutting among them, their Great Leader. I don’t know how or even if this group is ever judged or how they’ll pay, if at all — whether it will be by a court convened by the world body, by history or by their own consciences deep at night. It’s still unknown, and humanity is hard to quantify.

But many already have measurably paid for this war, with limb and life.

And when there’s a chance to acknowledge these most generous who have served and paid, we should take the time to hear their names, deeds and circumstances.

Saying and hearing their names isn’t politics. It’s decency. It’s humanity. So many people have become disembodied from that. Let’s not be separated from ours. Whatever you think the ultimate sacrifice is in war, please watch Nightline tonight and pay your respects in your particular way. If you missed the broadcast, please read about the fallen by going to the Nightline page.

Notes and links in the extension. Copy edits made online so apologies for any disruptions.
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Wartime Prez comes out from behind Hughes’ big pants to hide behind Cheney’s

“You would never see LBJ, Reagan, Bush Sr. or Clinton sitting there with the vice president in a hearing like this. They wouldn’t have even thought of it. They were rugged and independent. Their personalities wouldn’t have allowed it.” – James Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University in Washington (04/29/04 Chicago Trib/Zeleny)

Today’s profile in courage

After an exhausting week and $10 million attacking John Kerry’s outstanding military service from behind Karen Hughes’ voluminous 80’s tapered pants …

Exactly a year after snapping on a codpiece to declare major combat operations over …

And challenging terrorists to “bring it on” and fire at soldiers who, unlike him, actually showed up to serve …

And imperiously thumbing his nose at allies who could provide a real multinational presence in Iraq acceptable to the local populace …

Causing the tragic additional deaths of 669 troops …

Which our Great Leader has tried to hide by forbidding media coverage because it might make him look bad …

Yet disgracefully uses their memory for fundraising and to label his critics as unpatriotic …

He now faces his greatest challenge: hiding behind Dick Cheney and desperately hoping the 9/11 probe asks the VP and not him uncomfortable questions.

• If it’s the CIA’s fault, why did their explicit warnings about Osama bin Laden compel the pResident to take what was nearly the longest vacation in presidential history?
• Why does the pResident continue to bury Clinton administration documents related to counterterrorism, even though Clinton and Gore have asked for their release to the probe?
• Why does the pResident continue to blame the Clinton administration?
• Why is pRresident Bush appearing with Cheney and why do they refuse to testify under oath?
• Since they’re not under oath and it’s only a “meeting” to explain the pResident’s “attitudes” about terra, why will the pResident have three attorneys present?
• On what fucking planet would anyone with sparking synapses regard the worst pResident of the worst administration in history as the only option for national security?

Meet the original president baby by the inimitable Tom Tomorrow, who appears every Monday in Salon. Non-subscribers have to see an ad first. Tom Tomorrow is also archived here at Working for Change.

Check out related quotes and attributions in the extension to this post.
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Hey, Iraqis! Rally around the … WTF???

Among the many complaints about the new Iraqi flag introduced yesterday was that indigenous Iraqis had no say in whether the original one should be discarded, much less the design of the new one. “This is a new era,” said Hamid al-Kafaei, the spokesman for the Iraqi Governing Council yesterday. “We cannot continue with Saddam’s flag.” Apparently, the so-called “coalition” didn’t consult anyone. “So far, we haven’t received anything about this from Baghdad,” said Igor Novichenko, who is in charge of such matters in the UN’s protocol unit. Among local Iraqis, reactions range from the disgusted:

Dhurgham, a 23-year-old student, said: We cheered Iraqi footballers under that flag for a long time. I feel it represents me as an Iraqi. I don’t like this new flag. It does not look Iraqi. It is more like the Turkish or Israeli flags. The main reason I don’t like it is that it comes from the Americans. (04/28/04 Independent UK)

To the violently disgusted:

What gives these people the right to throw away our flag, to change the symbol of Iraq? asked Salah, a building contractor of normally moderate political opinions. It makes me very angry because these people were appointed by the Americans. I will not regard the new flag as representing me but only traitors and collaborators.

Although the CPA’s claims that the new design is from a contest winner, the designer himself revealed that he was unaware of any contest.

The new flag is the work of an Iraqi artist resident in London called Rifat Chadirji whose design was the best of those considered. He is also the brother of Nassir al-Chaderchi, the chairman of the IGC committee charged with choosing a new flag for Iraq. I had no idea about a competition to design the flag. “My brother just called me and asked me to design a flag on behalf of the IGC. Nobody told me about a competition,” Mr Chadirji told The Independent yesterday. (04/28/04 Independent UK)

But this may be a situation where the CPA isn’t lying, only mostly-lying. There was something of a contest, but it was restricted to the same creative geniuses that came up with the bold plan to invade an unarmed nation to disarm them of non-existent weapons, the military plan to smack around the citizenry for an indefinite period of time and the sensitive cultural strategies to make them like it. Here’s what Sadly, No!’s crack team of muckrakers discovered.

This is Iraq’s original flag, rendered in red, green and black, the three colors of Islam. The color scheme predates the regime of Saddam Hussein but the Arabic text, which says Alu Akbar, or “God is Great”, was added by Hussein when he became more serious about his religion. Iraqis regard the flag as their own rather than Hussein’s or the Ba’ath party’s, and don’t understand why the occupation’s representatives, the CPA, discarded it without consulting them.No one is sure why designing a new flag was a priority over, say, revealing just exactly who Iraq will be be turned over to in 8 weeks.

The new Iraqi flag features two parallel blue stripes along the bottom, at first thought to represent the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but on closer analysis more evocative to Iraqis of the vise-like grip unarmed Iraq is under from nuclear-armed US and Israel. The yellow strip in between represents the Kurds, the only Iraqi community that fully supports the US presence, nestled within the protection of the WMD-possessing presences in the region. This amounts to a flagular neener neener from the Kurds to the 80 percent of Iraqis who are Arabs and not represented on the flag. The blue crescent, symbolic of Islam, but not rendered in Islamic colors of red, black or green, serves to remind Iraqis that they can be forced to do anything, even accept the doo-wop classic Blue Moon by The Marcels as the national anthem, if the occupiers so desire.

This modified version of the discarded original flag was proposed by an anonymous corporation. The following is from their contest proposal:

“We hope to bridge two cultures using a shared love of wholesome fresh-baked goodness, representing family, and convenient petroleum-based artificial frozen doughlike matter, representing the oil of Iraq and the dough our corporation can make from it. The crescent roll incorporates the logo of Islam rolled in dough, also representing the potentially huge profits available to us in this huge market if observant Muslims associate serving crescents with their daily prayer breaks — something they must do up to five times a day. The friendly little mascot, which sports a traditional Shiite turban and white beard, is just like a little tribal elder. He’s a friendly, familiar figure, especially to children. He’s always hanging around the kitchen, making inane comments and getting in the way but there’s nothing you can do about it, also representing family.”

A frustrated State Department official reminded assembled reporters holding free boxes of the product that religions don’t “have logos”, and tersely declined to comment when they asked why he hated the wholesome fresh-baked goodness of hot crescent rolls. A Bush campaign spokesperson and influential presence on the judges’ panel said that a big donation hinged on the the flag’s slogan being changed from “Allah is great!” to “Crescents are great! Hoo hoooooooo.” At this point several reporters from Arab media walked out in protest, apparently in a hatred of our freedoms and love of fresh-baked wholesome goodness.

PNAC members of the Pentagon’s influential citizens’ advisory clique celebrated so loudly when they saw the Israeli flag included among the final entries that they didn’t hear it was only there for color comparison to the eventual winner.

Still, they were overjoyed to see the official PNAC contest entry among the finalists. It shows the Star of David, representing Israel, and an adorable gas pump, representing the role of the new Iraq in the Middle East, displayed together like two happy new friends existing in great joy and mutual respect, apparently holding hands.

Secretary Rumsfeld’s personal entry reflects the fabulous success of his efficient, low-cost military strategy for occupying a strategic Muslim country unilaterally, with a light, flexible force that won’t cost the taxpayer anything if you don’t count the ballooning $200 billion it’s cost to date. The crescent moon of Islam, rendered in black, represents the Iraqi oil resources which will happily fund the occupation and reconstruction.

The bar represents, literally, a bar, normally forbidden in Muslim countries (which ban alcohol use) but which will soon become a familiar sight as thirsty G.I.’s drown their sorrows over being stuck in a never-ending occupation of a hot, hostile desert land. The bar also represents the many stripper poles which will appear with the permanent military presence. The crescent moon on the pole signifies the grateful Iraqi women who will take advantage of these exciting new job opportunities that culturally free them from the dreary masculine professions of architecture and engineering they previously filled but are now being done by American men. (The moon is a traditional symbol of women in religions and myths throughout the now hugely safer world.) The line of stars represents the occupying soldiers confidently holding off the Iraq insurgency all around them, represented by the two red stripes. “No, our boys aren’t surrounded by bloodthirsty insurgents” Rummy told reporters. “The Iraqis are gathered like people watching a glorious, patriotic parade and the red represents the rose petals they’re gonna damn well throw even if we have to mow every motherlovin’ one of them down and use the flowers from their goddamn funerals.”

The CIA entry uses an experimental pictographic language called Happy Fun Picto-Speak to represent phonetically the pronunciation of Iraq on the familiar backdrop of the original flag. Intelligence services working in the region hope to retrain the population to write and speak certain phrases using Happy Fun Picto-Speak to make spying on them easier.

Shortly after the CIA entry was unveiled, Al Jazeera aired an entry rendered in Happy Fun Picto-Speak from an anonymous Iraqi citizens’ group, proposing to fly it as the interim flag until every last member of the foreign occupying forces leaves Iraq. CIA analysts continue to be baffled but any spooks reading this can find the answer in the extension.

Update: An older and wiser person corrected me on the name of the group that sang Blue Moon. Not my era, but doo-wop sounds great to me. (My ears enjoy time travel.)
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For lovers only

In response to the countless* pleas asking, “Will you promise never to waver from your shrill librul bitching about politics, current events and our rapidly declining culture?” I have to say, Sadly, No!

Sometimes, you just have to take time out to admire the resilience of tradition in the face of societal decay and, well, get a little schmoopy about it.

One Slightly Used Wedding Gown. Only worn twice: Once at the wedding and once for these pictures.

*actually, two

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INQUISITOR MINDS WANT TO KNOW!

I never mentioned my personal preference for a presidential candidate here because I didn’t want to stack the race unfairly, but also because I had a hell of time hearing everyone’s ideas. It’s not that Democrats didn’t have them. Turns out they had (and still have) a lot of good solutions for cleaning up The First Vacationer’s mess: you could look it up. It’s just that the candidates themselves were so teeming with teensy tiny flaws, each requiring explosive front page coverage (but then ending up being bogus), the news media never got around to covering their actual ideas. And who can blame them?

If it’s disgusting and exhausting to hear about every terra-lovin’ teensy flaw, imagine how disgusting and exhausting it must be to cover! Judith Dean wore sneakers to go shopping! Wesley Clark put on a turtleneck sweater — update! it’s his brother-in-law’s! update! the auditorium was cold! WHADDANASSHOLE! Kerry has a French cousin (probably not far from Tom DeLay’s family tree) and is almost as rich as just about everyone in the Bush administration! What a privileged snob! Kerry’s haircut costs twice as much as Bush’s! (Somehow, I couldn’t get someone from the snooty salon at the Watergate to come to my house for $30. Could Dub be getting a freebie cause it’s his dad’s loyal stylist and $30 bucks is the shitty tip? Nahhh.)

So after wall to wall coverage of the latest “scandal”, I was still annoyed, without quite knowing why, to learn that Kerry released his outstanding military records within 48 hours of promising to do so, a clear flip flop or elitist assholery or something — I still don’t know — but the RNC screeching was so tiresome to hear it’s clear why the media is still mad at Kerry for causing it. CNN dedicated round the clock coverage to this shortcoming, including a roundup a full week later.

[CNN] DANA BASH: And Kelli [Arena], you know, and the Bush campaign aides that I talked to say that the fact John Kerry released these records this week is just one more example of how he simply can’t stay on offense, that he’s back on defense. What did he want to talk about this week? The environment, the fact that the president has, in his view, a terrible environmental record. And instead what are we talking about? His military records. What is your sense of how they think they’re doing inside the Kerry campaign in terms of staying on the offense? (04/24/04 CNN On the Story)

That’s Dana Bash still talking about it and talking about it and asking White House aides why she’s still talking about it and they’re saying, “Because we’re making you.” (Wow, how many creeps did she blow to get inside stuff like that? And she’s so reverent, too.) If Kerry would only show the dependable heroic resolve of George Bush, who again promised to release the full records of his unexplained AWOL drunken/druggie years but hasn’t, just like he’s dependably done for eight solid years now, Dana Bash might respect Kerry’s manliness too.

But Kerry’s latest teensy bogus flaw strikes me as quite serious. Apparently some obscure foreign guy who has nothing to do with presidential politics thinks that Kerry is unfit to touch the Eucharist. His pro-choice stance is clearly more scandalous than Catholic Republicans’ pro-choice stance, as no investigations have been launched by three big media sources on whether a foreigner is nitpicking their sacramental access. I learned about Kerry’s heresy from CNN (the Communion News Network), Nedra Pickler at the AP (the Acclesiastical Press) and the NYT (New York Testament) while trying to find some news in the news.

The AP article, headlined “Kerry’s church known for liberal stance” might as well read, “Pit-bull eats Baby Jesus’s face off”. Liberal?!? Everyone knows Jesus is a fat-cat loving pewter-balled fuck-you Republican!

The congregation includes gay couples, whose adopted children are baptized there, unlike in some other Boston parishes. In November, its leaders refused to read aloud during Mass from a letter opposing gay marriage, as requested by the Massachusetts bishops. … “It’s not St. Around-the-Corner,” Deskur said. “It’s an intentional community that draws people from all over Boston. It tries to make sure that everyone feels welcome and that everyone participates in the liturgy.” …

The Paulist Center began a support group for divorced Catholics that has since been replicated in churches across the country. The center also hosts a group for bisexual, gay and lesbian Catholics, as well as a program for lapsed Catholics who are considering a return to the flock. The center helped launch the Walk for Hunger, a now annual fund-raiser for soup kitchens across the region, and has held funeral Masses for homeless people who die without family or loved ones. (04/25/04 AP/Peter, Pickler)

Unbefuckinglievable. A place of worship that offers comfort to pariahs instead of throwing rocks at them. No wonder this scandal had to be exposed! You don’t read headlines about Bush’s religious scorecard, just guarantees that he’s a religious holy guy. Actually, you don’t read any judgments about Bush’s practices from the AP, certainly not the fact that he doesn’t actually practice much of the time.

But then, as a Bush campaign spokesbot said, Kerry’s views on abortion were “outside the mainstream” and the president “supports a culture of life,” so one understands why Kerry has to be treated like a dangerous weirdo. It’s not like a million women from all over the world would gather in a show of support for reproductive rights or anything. But if Kerry’s assault on the sacrament of communion disappoints Father Ed Gillespie and his boss, the divinely appointed Judger Guy of All Faiths, it’s nothing to how bummed I feel.

I’m a single-issue voter and Eucharist-touching happens to be THE issue. As a recovering Catholic, I believe that rough, brutish handling of the body of Christ is plain wrong. It’s the Body of Christ, for chrissake! I’m leery of any presidential candidate who’d smack it around like a pulp-fiction thug because it would be like literally smacking the Baby Jesus around, calling him names and making him cry. And that’s what the RNC and the faith-based news is reporting. They must be accurate, because it’s a serious charge that people of faith don’t make lightly and news sources of integrity would never repeat if they were false.

So I’m only glad I found out in time. Who’s John Kerry to act like a drunken coke-snorting AWOL national guardsman of the filth-based seventies around the Baby Jesus anyhow? What kind of depraved elitist shithead does stuff like bully Lil’God?

[CNN's] KELLI ARENA: Kel, really, really quick — the news from the Vatican about if you’re a pro — pro-choice candidate, maybe you can’t receive communion. We know that Kerry is a catholic. How will this play out?

KELLY WALLACE: Well, a high-ranking cardinal in the Vatican speaking out. He was asked a question, saying a Catholic politician who supports abortion rights, should he be denied — he or she be communion? And this cardinal yes, that person is not fit. But got very, sort of a little more vague when asked specifically about John Kerry.This is an issue now before U.S. bishops who are not expected to sort of issue any decision until after the presidential election. John Kerry, though, just yesterday, and before the big march tomorrow, saying he supports a woman’s right to choose. Catholics, Kelli, as you know, make up about one quarter of the U.S. population. So it will be interesting to watch how this issue plays out in the presidential campaign.

KELLI ARENA: All right. Well, we’re going to switch gears. One question that we’ve heard a lot of this week: is there an increased risk of a terrorism attack during this election campaign? I’m back ON THE STORY right after this. (04/24/04 CNN On the Story)

I had sought Kerry’s solace after the RNC exposed Howard Dean’s deeply rooted evil — he changed congregations and went to the church further down — and the creeping Rasputin-like madness that compelled the utter whackjob to raise his voice to be heard over an enthusiastic crowd.

I’m grateful for the second rescue. Clearly it’s time to support Bush, who has solved all murky flip-floppy issues of worshipping according to conscience by cutting out the middleman. He is the guy. He is the one. God said so. End of story. Shaddap.

“There is a higher father that I appeal to. – GWB (Plan of Attack)

“I get to declare war. Not you or anyone else.” – GWB (Bush at War)

Presidents don’t have to answer questions if terrorists crash their planes into the Constitution and we have total anarchy, which you can see by looking around you. I’m sold.

Kerry, meanwhile, has these crackpot elitist ideas that he’ll be representing voters, if you can believe it, so it’s “yap yap yap”, explain explain explain, policy policy policy. Then I have to weigh his answers and decide if he’s the kind of guy who can do some good — eccch, I’m thinking too much already.

With the new faith-based news services telling me straight out who the RNC says is good or evil, I can just tune out the yappeta and go back to everyday stuff like worrying about losing my job, my healthcare, my lunch and my sanity. Plus, no one calls me elitist.

Update: fixed a broken link, corrected a quote attribution

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“Bush Beware. When women vote, Democrats win.”

Title quote from Camryn Manheim, one of the speakers firing up the March for Women’s Lives. “George Bush, meet the third rail of American politics,” she told the largest march in history, well over a million.

Manheim also addressed Republican women and men present and told them to take their party back to sanity. Hard to tell from the audio, but it sounded like the pro-choice GOP was there in abundance and enthusiastic about the prospect. The BushCo intimidation of media and politicians on the Hill can’t reach Republican voters who aren’t automatically going to go along with an extremist agenda. (And what would they gain being vocal about it in this climate?) And for all that’s been written about NASCAR dads, they’re not really a sizeable demographic compared to professional women (of all political stripes) in an age-group that remembers life before Roe v. Wade.

I heard a very interesting interview with a spokesman for the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights. 78% of Americans believe one can be religious and pro-choice, the RCRR spokesman told Pacifica Radio. They regarded legislation such as Bush’s ?Unborn Victims of Violence Act? an attack not just on reproductive rights and women’s and children’s health, but a radical attack on freedom of religion and conscience. (From the RCRR website): In a nation that is admired for religious tolerance, imposing religious views is the wrong thing to do. … An RCRC clergy counselor testified at a U.S. Senate hearing that many women benefit from compassionate, nonjudgmental ?all options clergy counseling? and that stigmatizing women who have abortions is psychologically harmful.

I’ve been alarmed and disgusted at how the Bush administration has chipped away at women’s rights, steamrolling appalling legislation through, from the gag rule to elevating fetal rights over women’s rights. A pregnant woman can now be charged with a crime for objecting to treatment that elevates fetal safety over hers. The “Unborn Victims of Violence Act” also criminalizes pregnant women who may not have access to pre-natal care, or who becomes pregnant during an addiction to drugs or alcohol at a time when treatment programs are shutting down — blowback from Bush’s tax cuts.

This is a radical reframing of the debate, folks.

It’s not just about the choice to have or not have an abortion and does life begin at conception. Reproductive rights brings real issues of health and life back into the debate: availability of birth control, compassionate counseling that addresses the woman’s religious beliefs and doesn’t overrepresent one extremist point of view (ie, abstinence or marriage, end of discussion.)

Reproductive rights means pre- and post-natal care expanded to include access to substantial child care. It speaks to young people who don’t want to be martyred to STDs because of someone else’s beliefs. It also speaks to gay couples and issues of guardianship and adoption. Zealots whose fetal compassion evaporates once they achieve their objective of stopping an abortion can’t get away with cynically representing themselves as “pro-life” while also targeting programs for the health of impoverished women and children.

I don’t think Bush has a war chest big enough to fight off this flank.

Update: There was also a very organized networking and registration drive at the march. This wasn’t just a collection of million-plus warm bodies, but people who travelled many many miles to be there. We’re looking at a million-plus mobilized activists.

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Join the March for Women’s Lives

If your feet can’t join the hundreds of thousands of people from around the country and around the world who are Marching for Women’s Lives in Washington, DC today (04/25/04), you can still take part by letting your voice, your support, and your message be heard that you won’t let a minority of zealots take away our reproductive rights.

It’s a health issue, a civil rights issue, and an issue of privacy. It’s a matter of keeping church and state separate. My feet can’t be in Washington today, but my fingers will be on the march, posting new material throughout the day, and my ears will be tuning in periodically for updates:

Live coverage from Pacifica KPFK
Hear the 1:00pm rally live from Cspan
IndyMedia has audio coverage and online updates here at DC IndyMedia

In the meantime, get acquainted with who’s on the front lines of this fight for freedom, how our rights are being eroded and by whom, and what you can do to stop them. Tune back in throughout the day for news, views, resources and snark but in the meantime, find out more here:

ACLU March for Women’s Lives
ACLU: Tell ten friends
ChoiceUSA, Young People’s All-Access Contingent
The Planned Parenthood March Page
Meet the Feminist Majority
Join 34 Million Friends
Who needs these guys making over our lives? (Flash animation.)

Update: added some audio links

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Kerry announces Clinton as running mate; Wingnut heads explode

The Kerry campaign’s announcement of funk legend George Clinton as JFK’s running mate sent wingnuts into a frenzy of confusion on the weekend, most unfamiliar with the unique experience of having rhetoric remotely based on fact. Rightwing pundits and pols who have continually insisted that Hillary Clinton intended to run as VP in ‘04 or as a presidential candidate in ‘08, despite her numerous weary denials, are shifting gears to use the George Clinton announcement to claim complete vindication.

“If we were 1/1000th right about this, imagine what else we might be one thousand percent right about,” said an unnamed White House head of state, pausing to glare down some spontaneous snickering from assembled media. While many conservative information sources got busy replacing the word “Hillary” with “George” in their online archives to claim retroactive vindication, others worked around the clock tweaking gender-specific pronouns in existing innuendo about Clinton’s predilection for black female sexual partners.

Radio host Rush Limbaugh scheduled an emergency broadcast to denounce Clinton’s recent drug arrest and demand immediate imprisonment, calling the lengthy period before a trial namby pamby pandering to the unwholesome liberal influence rotting away the foundation of a moral Christian society. “If this is the kind of drug-crazed lunatic the Scumocrats are going to run against our Great Leader, the American people will Just Say No!,” he thundered.

Limbaugh has claimed that his own drug arrest was persecution for having a winning personality and haunting masculine beauty, and that the many alcohol and drug-related incidents in the President’s past were not only medically necessary, but heroic as well. Once Bush’s numerous DUIs could no longer stay under wraps, his PR experts have refined the explanation that the incidents resulted from driving to a Stuckey’s out of concern that the rest of his party, passed out after massively vomiting earlier, might wake up hungry. Limbaugh compared the arrests to getting wounded in action while rescuing a Band of Brothers from enemy fire and being awarded a Purple Heart, only deservedly. “Unlike some people,” Limbaugh added with the deft subtlety that has made conservative hypocrisy so enjoyable tolerable over the years.

While campaign watchers speculated about how the Clinton announcement affected a potential Kerry cabinet, the RNC focused on issues most important to their constituents. French-descended Tom DeLay, head of the RNC’s substantial Frenchy Hatin’ Hair Oppo squad, was yanked off obsessing over Kerry’s haircut and roots and put to work find damaging material on Clinton’s hairstyle.

DeLay’s team came back with evidence that African hair is a different texture from Caucasian or Asian hair because of a flatter cuticle, which might make it more susceptible to dryness and breakage when exposed to chemical relaxers and hot irons or pulled into tightly woven cornrows and extensions. DeLay quickly coordinated with Karl Rove to associate any Afrocentric grooming with weakness of character and a danger to national security. Look for DeLay to work sly references about split ends and French braiding into the week’s talking points but, as usual, offer no substantial comments or recommendations on policy.

Willie Horton footage from past campaigns may be spliced into future Bush/Cheney ads. There’s no word yet on whether the recycling will affect any slogans, currently variations on the themes that Bush believes the children are the future, because evil hates freedom in the future, which the children are, in a big friendly land that’s hard to defend from the freedom of evil in, and perhaps on, the future. Also, democracy, bigtime and make no mistake. Steadily, about the evil of freedom in a time of change, no matter what.

Despite the Kerry campaign’s announcement of the purveyor of bigass funk classics like Atomic Dog and Aquabooty for veep, some in the RNC’s Psychic Friends Network continue alternately to insist that Hillary Clinton is running, and beg for her to do so. Experts fear their psychic faculties got a little fried from months of reporting moment by moment changes in Saddam Hussein’s thoughts and feelings, though strangely never able to give his physical location. The network continues to maintain close telepathic connections to Saddam’s WMDs, though unable to pinpoint those, either.

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Weekend Waffles, compliments of the Waffler in Chief

These Bush Waffles and Flip Flops relate only to some of the past week’s biggest headlines. The stack from the fraction of time the “war president” has not been on vacation or fundraising would carbo-load one post to danger levels, so let’s see how this introductory stack works out.

First, Bush Lies: Candidate Bush promised he wouldn’t erode women’s reproductive rights, allowing him to campaign disguised as a “moderate” (which was why the election was close enough for to steal.)

Then, Bush Flip Flops: pResident Bush passes legislation banning partial-birth abortion.

First, Bush Lies:: Candidate Bush promised he wouldn’t erode women’s reproductive rights, allowing him to campaign disguised as a “moderate”.

Then, Bush Flip Flops: pResident Bush passes legislation regarding fetuses harmed during the commission of a crime, with vague wording intentionally designed to open the door to challenge a woman’s right to choose.

First, Bush Lies: Candidate Bush promised he wouldn’t erode women’s reproductive rights, allowing him to campaign disguised as a “moderate”.

Then, Bush Flip Flops: Bush cuts funding to family clinics abroad that provide abortion information to patients requesting it, obliterating health care entirely in some regions. Ignoring the advice of his own expert panel, he withdrew long-standing support for the world’s primary multilateral provider of voluntary family planning services including contraceptives, pre- and post- natal care and HIV/AIDS prevention services around the world. As many of these clinics are the only regional medical services available, his extremism has sentenced tens of thousands to sickness and death.

First, Bush Lies: Bush promised that the Clean Air Act would live up to its name.

Then, Bush Flip Flops: An Earth-Day letter from the National Council of Churches reveals that planned changes to power plant regulations will allow major polluters to avoid installing pollution-control equipment when they expand their facilities.

First, Bush Lies: “I have no ambition whatsoever to use [9/11] as a political issue.” (GWB, Jan/2002)

Then, Bush Flip Flops: His first ad lauded his leadership after Sept. 11 and included a brief image of firefighters carrying a flag-draped coffin from the World Trade Center site. White House aides … called the ad including the Sept. 11 images crucial to the story of Bush’s presidency.

The Bush administration recalibrates its standard of delicacy: “Quite frankly, we don’t want the remains of our service members who have made the ultimate sacrifice to be the subject of any kind of attention that is unwarranted or undignified,” said John Molino, a deputy undersecretary of defense.” (Presumably, he includes using them in for Bush campaign propaganda as an example of unwarranted or undignified attention.)

Then, Bush Flip Flops: The Loafer in Chief takes a couple of hours from his week-long vacation of hunting and fishing with big donors to exploit an injured soldier for a purple heart photo-op, even while his campaign deploys a longtime Republican operative to smear Kerry’s military service and one of three purple hearts (among other medals for valor).

Although mainstream media sources don’t bother to mention John O’Neill’s history as a longtime Republican operative, he is a law partner of then-Texas-Governor Bush’s counsel Margaret Wilson, and with ties to current White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and Enron. RNC head Ed Gillespie, prominently on display last week having seizures about Kerry’s military records, had to have known all of this as he was an Enron lobbyist, so his own statements about O’Neill coming forward on his own are complete lies. Kerry has often been asked (unfairly) to explain and the actions of parties outside his own campaign’s. President Bush should at the very least personally explain his campaign’s actions to the American people and the media. To approach the standard the RNC and the media have applied to Kerry, Bush should also explain the actions and statements of parties supporting him but outside his campaign, such as statements by right wing weblogs and conservative action groups.

O’Neill’s history and ties to parties covering up huge gaps and inconsistencies in Bush’s own military service record certainly warrant further investigation.

First, Bush Lies: He tells Tim Russert on Meet the Press that his complete military records are available, which is false, and then promises to release his entire military records. (Huh? If the records are out there, what is he promising to release?)

Then, Bush Flip Flops: His military records still have not been released in their entirety. Notably missing are records crucial to explaining his as-yet unexplained Absence Without Leave, reasons (medical or psychiatric) for failing to maintain his flight status, reasons for a lack of formal, mandatory investigation of this, and an explanation for alterations to the official record. Responses from the Bush administration and campaign have only misdirected enquiries. Statements from, eg, Laura Bush, who wasn’t present during the AWOL period, saying that her husband wouldn’t lie don’t cut it in the face of “President Nice Guy’s” attacks on Kerry’s fully substantiated and legitimately heroic military service.

KOS has researched what the lazy mainstream media couldn’t be bothered to before broadcasting the Bush campaign’s smears of Kerry, posted the distinctions and also provided more sourced details on the Bush campaign’s dirty trickster smearing Kerry’s outstanding service.

The Columbia Journalism Review’s look at the media pile-on to smear Kerry reveals a disturbing double standard: if the 48 hours between Kerry’s promise to release his records and actual release of records constitutes a flip flop, what does over four years of dissembling from George W. Bush over explaining and releasing his records constitute?

Some media enquires (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, for one) have been directed to the Pentagon — particularly enquiries relating to Lt. Bush’s fitness to serve, details of his “padded” discharge and mysterious grounding from flight — and turned away. Any media sources that have broadcasted the Bush campaigns attempts to smear Kerry should apply equal time and energy to finding out why taxpayer resources are now being used to obscure still-unanswered questions about the “wartime President’s” own service.

First, Bush Lies: In an attempt to gain support for his illegal invasion of Iraq, he falsely promised the world that the removal of Saddam Hussein would stabilize the region and make Israel safe.

Then, Bush Flip Flops: Now he’s chasing after faith-based WMDs in Iran, shaking his saber and claiming “they will be dealt with, starting through the United Nations” though the public record reveals Bush’s promise to use the UN to “disarm” Saddam Hussein of non-existent WMDs covered up well-advanced plans to invade Iraq regardless. (If this sounds frighteningly familiar, lock up your military-aged sons and daughters, because the swaggering, flag-draped war profiteers sure as hell aren’t sending their own.) If Bush was sincere about a WMD-free region, he wouldn’t have turfed a UN Security Council resolution (introduced by Syria and endorsed by the Arab league) to make the entire region verifiably WMD-free. Bush didn’t like the resolution because it meant Israel would have to get rid of its substantial stockpile of WMDs too.

First, Bush Lies: Preening during his Roadmap to Peace photo-op, the pRez claimed he supported the removal of Jewish settlements from Gaza and the West Bank.

Then, Bush Flip Flops: Bush endorsed Sharon’s intention to keep some settlements (and military) in the West Bank, depriving Palestinians of any real possibility to negotiate a contiguous, independent state.

First, Bush Lies: Bush promised Iraqis and the world that he would “debaathify” the government of all remnants of Saddam’s rulership, so that senior party officials would not return the country to a state of dictatorship.

Then, Bush Flip Flops: The Coalition Provisional Authority is now rehiring the same Baath Party thugs that Bush alleged (after his faith-based WMDs failed to turn up) he had invaded Iraq to remove.

(The shifting “justifications” for invading Iraq comprise several dozen Bush Flip Flops.)

First, Bush Lies: He said he wouldn’t “cut and run” from Iraq before establishing security and an interim government body that was representative and stable.

Then, Bush Flip Flops: Bush keeps saying the June 30th date for turnover is solid but he can’t name “the entity” Iraq is being turned over to. Military and political experts on the region and Iraqis themselves believe that Bush’s turnover date is cosmetic and relates more to his campaign concerns that actually delivering on his promises.

Update: Foolishly, I edited this online and on the fly, so apologies for any disruptions or bad links any visitors may have encountered in the meantime.

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Mulch brawl sullies Earth Day

Can we not have one Earth Day without some ugly, gardening-related incident wrecking total oneness with all living things? This is worse than the Escarola Riots of Aught-Three, when raccoons decimated my early crop of frilly endive.

The wife of Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont) was just accused:

[...] of hitting a woman in a dispute over mulch at a garden center, police said. … Baucus apparently was upset she did not get help loading the mulch into her car while the other woman was being assisted, a police spokesman said. Witnesses told police that Baucus put a bag of mulch behind the woman’s car, preventing her from leaving the store, and that after the exchanging words, allegedly struck the woman several times, police said. … The lawmaker acknowledged in a statement that there was a “situation” involving his wife. “We are trying to sort it out, going through the proper channels,” he said. “I stand by her 110 percent.” (04/21/04 USAT)

What will we tell the seedlings?

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The War on Terra

Terra

This we know:
The earth does not belong to man
Man belongs to the earth.
This we know:
All things are connected like
The blood which unites one family.
All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the earth
Befalls the sons of the earth.
Man did not weave the web of life;
He is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web,
He does to himself.
(Chief Seattle)

It’s Earth Day, so be nice to Big Mama. She sustains us all, so let’s give back a little respect. Never has she needed your attention and care as much as now. Do some triage on your daily routine and see how you can reduce the toxicity that’s killing her. Applying a little imagination and diligence can makes a big difference; give what you can, however you can. Some suggestions:

Do your bit to get rid of that toxic Shit Midas befouling the Oval Office with his careening War on Terra. Everything he touches turns to crap. Not only has he gutted hard-won progressive measures for a cleaner, saner planet, he’s been the single most influential lobbyist for pestilence, war, famine, and death — the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. For someone who talks like the messianic head of a dead-enders’ cult, he’s awfully concerned with making money for his cronies at the expense of ecology and human rights. I DON’T THINK HE INTENDS TO LEAVE. Let’s make him. Send some time, skills or money the way of candidates or groups that will throw the bum out. Not a joiner? Low on green? At the very minimum, register to vote and exercise your franchise at election time. Encourage your friends and loved ones to do the same. He thinks he’s otherworldly and so do I: from Mars. Let’s send him.

If you’re not a Lean, Green Recycling Machine that carries canvas and net shopping bags as a rule, at least figure out ways to reduce your usage of paper and plastic. Buy your fruits and veggies loose and either put them in reusable net bags or reuse the plastic ones a few times (turn them inside out). If you’re only buying a few of an item, don’t bother with a bag at all. (What, that cantaloupe needs to be in a bag for a car ride?) Buy a couple of zip-foldable carryalls and put one in your car, briefcase, backpack, bike bag etc. so you always have one handy. Or buy reusable grocery bins for your trunk. (I’ve seen a lot more in use in Europe and South America.)

Get a healthier cultural diet.. Are you a voracious reader? See if you can do it paperlessly. Find out which of your favorite publications offer an electronic alternative for your handheld or desktop. Most new books are available in downloadable format for a variety of electronic readers, or in audio format. It’s hard to avoid being a consumer of contemporary culture. You don’t have to be a cultural hermit, but a little moderation’s good for the soul. Just do your bit to resist the massive production of plastic crapola that seems to accompany every new movie, concert series or TV show. It uses up earthly resources and pollutes every spare pore of space with advertising. You don’t need that plastic The Whole Ten Yards keychain. Don’t accept it just cause it’s free, cause it’s not. It costs a little chunk of your own uniqueness and independence, which is far more important to the health of the planet than promoting some transitory cultural non-event. And for Gaia’s sake, don’t buy the junk.

Want to use a non-polluting, cheap, abundant fuel in your life? Get off your duff and take a walk. Prolong your life by taking an after dinner constitutional with your sweetie, your kids, your pet or all of the above. If you live in a neighborhood that’s unsafe due to bad air quality or bad neighbor quality, devolve some of your chores to manual at least part of the time and translate some of your body’s vast oil reserves into elbow grease. Don’t run the dishwasher as often or wash small quantities by hand. Maybe do it in concert (literally) with a cultural option from the previous paragraph. Or, untether yourself entirely from the opiate teat and just let your mind wander. You won’t lose it, trust me, and it gives the hamster in the wheel a little break.

Exercise patience. We’ve become so accustomed to instant availability of anything we want, when we want it that momentary deprivation now represents a personal or societal catastrophy. Most of us now have more flexibility in how we run our lives but it’s also alarming to see excessive control of one’s immediate environment becoming a particularly toxic status symbol. Why do people drive around in mobile multiplex theaters? If you air-condition your home to meat-locker temperatures in the summer and blast furnace temps in the winter cause control gives you comfort, dial back to simple liveability and learn to adjust. Better yet, unless a physical ailment mandates it, recalibrate your comfort level to be more in tune with the real seasons. Go low tech unless you’re actually uncomfortable. Slightly chilly? Wear a sweater or amp up your physical activity. Hot? Have a cold beverage, slow down and use a hand fan.

Support your local small businesses, farmers, experts and services whenever possible. Don’t always make convenience or saving a few pennies the default. Most areas have some kind of growers’ co-op or local farmers’ market offering stuff that really tastes better than produce picked raw on another continent and ripened in a corrugated container. If you’re dining out, ask if any of the specials come from your immediate area. Buying locally implicitly cuts down resources used for transportation, and you’re contributing to the economic health and character of your village, town or neighborhood. And stay the hell out of WalMart. They treat their employees like dirt because customer attraction to saving what amounts to NOT VERY MUCH gives them carte blanche to treat people like indentured servants. Who wants to live like ants surrounding a concrete colossus?

For your own health and sanity, learn to cook at least rudimentary stuff that doesn’t involve a box, a powder flavor packet or a microwave. The more participation you have in creating what’s sustaining you, the healthier it is for body and soul. Boil an egg. Squeeze some juice. Steam some veggies. The more processed a meal is, the more resource-redundant its production and the more likely it contains a bunch of crap more relevant to its shelf life than yours. Eat something you’ve grown yourself, even if it’s some fresh herbs from a window box or veggies grown on your deck or yard, and teach your kids to to foster a plant or two. It plants within us a deep reminder to stay engaged with the rhythms of the planet. The enlivening power of connection has yet to be fully measured by science, but the effect that it can have on our well being is profound. Plus, we can all use the extra oxygen.

The Bush years got you stressed, depressed and freaking out? Positive engagement helps you, your community and the world at large. Disengagement empowers him, so start taking your country back by keeping alive your sense of what democracy really means. He’s not the boss. He’s supposed to be working for and representing us. Do what you can to restore the immune system of our democracy. Demand a free press and transparency and accountability from your representatives. We keep hearing that the Chimperor is the only thing protecting democracy and freedom, but his actions promote the idiotic mentality is that there’s only so much democracy to go around and therefore he must dispense it like a corrupt duke handing out fiefdoms. Don’t buy the lie that equality and dignity for a fellow human means that you lose out in some way. Keeping us scared and stupid means we all lose. It makes life easier for people who prefer to rule when their duty is to serve.

Make the extra effort to be kind to yourself, your loved ones, your space, your community. By this I don’t mean indulgence, but an act that in some way sustains the health and dignity of all of the above. If you believe, as I do, that fanaticism is killing this planet, fight it with small acts of sanity and kindness in your daily choices. We share more than a planet, we’re part of a greater whole we only understand in fragments. Let’s not destroy the earth under our feet stampeding into an idea of Heaven that increasingly resembles an exclusive nightclub.

Check out any Earth Day events in your region and participate. Got any tips to share? Please do — symbiosis is the essence of planetary health.

Update: Just wanted to add that your tips don’t have to be material in nature. Posting about any activities that enjoyably connect you to Terra are just as ecological.

Update: One of Earth’s natural wonders speaks out.

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The Stunt for Red October

The following dialogue has been simplified as much as possible in the hope that Republicans can see what they’re enabling by continuing to put Bush before party, party before constituents, and their own pathetic hypocritical treasonous asses before all else.

Until the above performers finish workshopping their new production on the Constitution, please revel in the Chimperor’s latest miserable failures. It’s time to stop pretending that libruls are “making” this news awful by not regarding it as super-fabulous.

Saudi Arabia has denied accusations in Bob Woodward’s latest book that it had reached an agreement with the White House to increase oil production closer to the Nov. 2 election, thus driving down gasoline prices. … [OPEC] of which Saudi Arabia is a leading member, had announced at the end of March that it would cut its crude oil production target by 4 percent. That decision was expected to push prices higher – and U.S. motorists already have been paying the highest prices in recent years for gasoline. (04/20/04 AP)

A Democratic congressman [David Obey, D-Wis, House Appropriations Committee] on Monday demanded to know whether the Bush administration transferred $700 million to Iraq war planning efforts out of counterterrorism funds without informing Capitol Hill. The Pentagon said it didn’t happen. A senior Defense Department budget official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Pentagon used a smaller amount of post-Sept. 11 counterterrorism money on projects that would aid the war on Iraq … [The Bob Woodward book] says President Bush “approved 30 projects that would eventually cost $700 million” by the end of July 2002 in preparation for the war, and that some of that money came from appropriations for the war on terrorism. (04/19/04 AP/Lumpkin)

At hearings Tuesday and Wednesday, the Senate and House armed services committees are to hear about current Iraq operations from Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers and State Department Undersecretary Marc Grossman. As of Monday, the Pentagon had not agreed to attend another hearing Thursday on how it intends to transfer political power June 30 to an as-yet unnamed Iraqi government. … [Lawmakers] faced constituents’ questions about Iraq. … Already, almost six in 10 of those surveyed say [Bush] does not have a clear plan for success in Iraq. (04/20/04 AP/Jelinek)

President Bush gave a chilly welcome to Spain’s new leader Monday, suggesting his abrupt withdrawal of troops from Iraq would give “false comfort to terrorists.” Bush said later he was sending diplomatic troubleshooter* John Negroponte to Iraq as America’s first post-war ambassador. … Zapatero has rejected claims that withdrawing troops would appear to be appeasing terrorists, saying his idea of removing them came long before the March 11 commuter-train bombings that killed 191 people in Madrid three days in advance of his election.** (04/20/04 AP/Hunt)

*death squad enabler, war criminal
**Note to Bush: other leaders get to have resolve.

The king of Jordan … postponed a White House meeting with President Bush this week … Bush’s statement after a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last week constituted a historic shift in U.S. policy, and Palestinian leaders accused the administration of undercutting the possibility of a negotiated settlement. Jordan is considered a key moderate ally of the United States and is one of only two of Israel’s Arab neighbors to have a peace treaty with the Jewish state. … The rift between the Bush administration and its moderate Arab allies over Bush’s statement on Israeli settlements is one of the worst to emerge in years – and has exacerbated the already tense relations between the United States and Arab countries over the war in Iraq. (04/20/04 AP/Halaby)

And no, party locksteppers are not supporting the troops by allowing the Miserable Failure to miserably fail in a bigger, more appalling downward spiral.

I am the wife of a soldier who was just officially extended yesterday. He has been in Iraq for nearly one year. He has proudly served his tour, and we were planning for his arrival home next week. Here’s a true story. A group of soldiers from his unit went to BIAP to wait for their return flight to Germany, where we are based. They were turned away and told that they were being kept in Iraq indefinitely. On the way back to their base in Baghdad proper, they were ambushed. The unit had their first casualty that night. My husband should have been with them, as he is one of their medics, but he was supposed to drive the ambulance to Kuwait the next day, so they told him to stay back and get some rest. I am sickened by this whole betrayal of trust and abuse of our volunteers. If Bush and Co. get reelected, start moving your military age men to Canada, because the draft will be reinstated. Nobody deserves this kind of a back stabbing. Least of all the men and women who have signed up to protect our country. This extension was a death sentence for that poor soldier. This extension cost three children their father. And it will cost much more. (From Catch.com)

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A copy editor to aisle 3 please, copy editor to aisle 3

So where are they going?

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Oh they talked about it alright…

Scott reminded us of President Bush’s all tough guy all the time approach
towards Iraq last Friday:

Remember that when we came into office, the President was
talking about Iraq very early on. He talked about the threat posed by Iraq
from the very early period in this administration. In fact, the very first time that the President and Prime Minister Blair met, they talked about how the sanctions on Iraq were not effective and how they weren’t working. And they talked about the importance of Iraq complying with all relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions. That was back in February of 2001.

Here is how William “Captain Hunch” Safire remembers Bush’s policy at the time (New York Times, February 26, 2001:)

George W. Bush’s foreign policy so far has made three mistakes
and missed one opportunity.

1) Pretending the easing of economic pressure on Iraq is the imposition of “smart sanctions.” Apparently Bush has decided to cave in to France, Russia and Syria and permit resumption of business-as-usual with Saddam Hussein. The trick is to acquiesce while looking fierce; hence our pinprick bombing of radar sites.

Although the mission was to “degrade” rather than destroy Iraqi air defense, all it degraded was our Air Force technology’s reputation for accuracy. Bush claimed success, however, in another mission — “to get his attention.” Saddam got the message, all right: Bush the Younger’s technique is to conceal a retreat from an inadequately enforced sanctions policy in a loud hail of ineffectual bombs.

We will now have what the administration labels “smart sanctions” — that is, few if any penalties for defying the world as Saddam uses new oil revenues to build his germ-war weapon in secret. [laughter] [Emphasis added]

Here is the New York Times (February 24, 2001:)

As the Bush administration tries to build international
consensus around a new, perhaps less punitive sanctions regime against Iraq, the reaction in the Iraqi capital runs from the contempt of Saddam
Hussein to something resembling a weary, believe-it-when-we-see-it shrug among the 23 million ordinary Iraqis who have endured a decade of incremental misery. [Emphasis added]

And the Jerusalem Post/AP (February 27, 2001:)

In a potential policy shift, US Secretary of State Colin Powell will recommend to President George W. Bush an easing of curbs on export of civilian goods to Iraq to make sanctions more palatable in the Arab world, a senior US official said yesterday.

Perhaps the sanctions were meant to be as smart as the President?

The mean spirited Seb contributed to this post. [Links added]

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More Bush press conferences? Bring ‘em on!

A rather strange exchange Friday (4/16/04) on Judy Woodruff’s Inside Politics between Tad Devine, senior adviser to the Kerry campaign and Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for the Bush-Cheney campaign:

WOODRUFF: Very quick last word, because we’ve got to go to the Pentagon for breaking news.

DEVINE: I would just say this. Matt mentioned the [Bush] press conference. We would hope he holds a press conference in prime time every week between now and the election, because a few months of that is going to practically ensure John Kerry will win.

DOWD: That’s something we agree on.

Too good to be true?

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“I think that some heads should roll over Iraq”

Over at the Pentagon last Thursday (4/15/04), Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld breezed, blustered and bristled his way through a press briefing and offered these remarks about troop counts and the general situation in Iraq:

Q: And you’re fairly confident that after 90 days, you’ll be able to start drawing [troops] down to, say, 115,000, or you just don’t know?

SEC. RUMSFELD: You know me, I’m not going to set — it depends on the facts on the ground. We’ve said all along, from the very beginning, we’d use the level of forces that are necessary to prevail. That was true during the major combat operations, it’s been true during stabilization operations subsequently. And you can’t predict the future, you just simply cannot do that, so why bother? Why try?

And:

Q: I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but I want to make sure I understand what you’re saying. Are you conceding that you didn’t anticipate that the level of violence that’s going on in Iraq now, the level of the insurgency, the fact that you’re taking more casualties now than you were a year ago when you were still in major combat, are you conceding that you didn’t anticipate that?

SEC. RUMSFELD: I am saying that if you had said to me a year ago, “describe the situation you’ll be in today one year later,” I don’t know many people who would have described it — I would not have — described it the way it happens to be today.

Rumsfeld’s dismissive, non-responsive, strategy-deficient comments are curious and infuriating, though hardly surprising. Remember, it was precisely a year ago when this same member of Bush’s Team Teflon? was just as contemptuous as he indignantly shrugged off international outrage and criticism about widespread looting and insecurity in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

While Chalabi and his merry band of mercenaries INC were scurrying off with Iraqi secret police and intelligence files, and as museums, ministries and munitions depots were being pillaged of anything and everything, Rumsfeld blamed the Chicken Little press and offered this incisive analysis:

Q: Do you think that the words “anarchy” and “lawlessness” are ill-chosen –

Rumsfeld: Absolutely. I picked up a newspaper today and I couldn’t believe it. I read eight headlines that talked about chaos, violence, unrest. And it just was Henny Penny — “The sky is falling.” I’ve never seen anything like it! And here is a country that’s being liberated, here are people who are going from being repressed and held under the thumb of a vicious dictator, and they’re free. And all this newspaper could do, with eight or 10 headlines, they showed a man bleeding, a civilian, who they claimed we had shot — one thing after another. It’s just unbelievable how people can take that away from what is happening in that country!

Q: Yes, but Mr. Secretary, I’m asking about what plan was there to restore law and order?

Rumsfeld: Well, let’s just take a city. Take the port city, Umm Qasr — what the plan was. Well, the British went in, they built a pipeline bringing water in from Kuwait; they cleared the mine of ports (sic); they brought ships in with food; they’ve been providing security. In fact, they’ve done such a lousy job, that the city has gone from 15,000 to 40,000. Now think of that. Why would people vote with their feet and go into this place that’s so bad? The reason they’re going in is because they’re food, there’s water, there’s medicine and there’s jobs. That’s why. The British have done a fantastic job. They’ve done an excellent job.

And, does that mean you couldn’t go in there and take a television camera or get a still photographer and take a picture of something that was imperfect, untidy? I could do that in any city in America. Think what’s happened in our cities when we’ve had riots, and problems, and looting. Stuff happens! But in terms of what’s going on in that country, it is a fundamental misunderstanding to see those images over, and over, and over again of some boy walking out with a vase and say, “Oh, my goodness, you didn’t have a plan.” That’s nonsense. They know what they’re doing, and they’re doing a terrific job. And it’s untidy, and freedom’s untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. They’re also free to live their lives and do wonderful things, and that’s what’s going to happen here.

How does Rumsfeld get away with continually spewing this kind of lame crap, year in and year out? Isn’t it time he be held accountable for at least some of the glaring strategic and military mistakes that the Bush administration has made in Iraq?

Retired Marine General Anthony Zinni, who served for 39 years in the military and is a former chief of the U.S. Central Command, seems to think so. In an interview published Friday (4/16/04) in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Zinni had this to say about Rumsfeld’s comments the day before:

“I’m surprised that he is surprised because there was a lot of us who were telling him that it was going to be thus,” said Zinni, a Marine for 39 years and the former commander of the U.S. Central Command. “Anyone could know the problems they were going to see. How could they not?” …

“I think that some heads should roll over Iraq,” Zinni said. “I think the president got some bad advice.”

The article continues:

Out of uniform, Zinni was a troubleshooter for the U.S. government in Africa, Asia and Europe and served as special envoy to the Middle East under the Bush administration for a time before his reservations over the Iraq war and its aftermath caused him to resign and oppose it.

Not even Zinni’s resum? could shield him from the accusations that followed.

“I’ve been called a traitor and a turncoat for mentioning these things,” said Zinni, 60. The problems in Iraq are being caused, he said, by poor planning and shortsightedness, such as disbanding the Iraqi army and being unable to provide security.

Zinni said the United States must now rely on the U.N. to pull its “chestnuts out of the fire in Iraq.”

“We’re betting on the U.N., who we blew off and ridiculed during the run-up to the war,” Zinni said. “Now we’re back with hat in hand. It would be funny if not for the lives lost.”

Indeed.

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THREE WISE GUYS SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF WORLD PEACE

We will return to our Three Stooges weekend marathon after this important word from the U.S. Department of Hooey:

Q Scott, yesterday, the senior administration officials who briefed us on the Middle East plan suggested that the early reaction, adverse reactions, from the Palestinians were based on the fact that they hadn’t seen the plan and that they were responding to three weeks worth of media reports about the plan. Now, presumably, they have had a chance to see the letters, the exchange of letters. They’re still reacting adversely. What is the administration doing to assuage the Palestinians that this deal actually is in their interest?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, one, we have remained in consultation with all parties. I don’t have any update on any consultation since yesterday, but we are going to, as the President pointed out, continue to consult with the Quartet, continue to consult with Arab nations, and continue to consult with all parties. The President said that this represents a real opportunity to move forward toward a viable, democratic state for the Palestinian — viable and democratic state for the Palestinian people.

Q Then why are they so opposed?

MR. McCLELLAN: And we will — we will continue to consult with all parties, including –

Q Why are they opposed?

MR. McCLELLAN: — including the Quartet, and make it known that the President’s views — the President remains committed to the two-state vision that he outlined and remains committed to the road map as the best way to achieve that two-state vision. And the Quartet has talked about that, as well. And Prime Minister Sharon reiterated his commitment to the two-state vision the President outlined.

This is — it is historic step that Israel will be withdrawing from Gaza, and withdrawing from parts of the West Bank. And that represents an opportunity to, as the President called it, it opens the door for progress toward a — toward a Palestinian state.

Q But the Palestinians don’t seem to think so.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, we’ll continue — we’ll continue to talk with all parties in the region and make it clear that any issues involving final status negotiations are to be worked out between the parties. (WH Press Gaggle 04/15/04)

Just throwing stuff out here but, as with the August 06, 2001 PDB titled “Osama bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the US”, one red flag might be the title of the negotiators’ recent hooey: Bush, Blair Discuss Sharon Plan. [Transcript of 04/16/04 Bush/Blair public appearance as a still-together couple in front of the press. Excerpt in the extension.]

The other might be the reluctance of the Palestinian people to define “a state“ as living in perpetuity in noncontiguous ghettos under the jackboot of the Israeli military. (For those who missed it, Mr. Blair will represent the Duchy of Palestine in the “negotiations”.)

And now back to our Stooges marathon. In the classic, Nyuk Nyuk, A Roadmap!, three bumbling auto valets knock coconuts trying to refold Schmoe’s roadmap nice-like and drive Mrs. Parkyurkarkus’s swank Bugatti off a cliff.

[Excerpt from the Bennifer of world leaders' press conference in the extension.]
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Love War Means Never Having To Say You’re Sorry

Bush and his administration neatly (and sadly) summed up:

One of his senior advisers broke out laughing Wednesday as he recalled the persistence of reporters pressing Mr. Bush on the subject of remorse, suggesting that contrition would have been a sign of weakness that was both alien to Mr. Bush and more typically found in the corridors of the Democratic Party.

“We must return to the days of Jimmy Carter!” the aide said in a sarcastic invocation of a Democratic president that Republicans have long sought to equate with presidential weakness. “We must have malaise! We must have a weak president! We must have a morose Kerrylike apology!”

- New York Times, April 15, 2004

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Fashionistas react to The Chimperor’s Latest Outfit

In what was billed as an unveiling of the President’s latest outfit, he once again appeared naked but for his usual flashy cowboy boots, big hat, and tie. White House watchers have long grown accustomed to the media not remarking on the President’s public nudity, but last night he made several astonishing announcements as well, which the mainstream media have chosen not to analyze in any way.

He announced that WMDs were found in Iraq. Though a prime justification for invading a sovereign nation which had not formally declared war nor in any discernable way threatened the US, this discovery didn’t elicit comment in follow-up questions. No one asked what kind of WMDs the President found, in what quantity, and the location of the discovery.

In another remarkable announcement that contradicts the findings of worldwide intelligence agencies and the 911 probe, the President also announced that Saddam Hussein was indeed involved with the 9-11 attacks. Except for 911 commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste’s categorical denial of any evidence suggesting such a thing on Air America this morning, other media had no reaction to the President’s shocking claim. His additional announcement that the invasion and occupation of Iraq prevented Libya’s application of mustard to a turkey on rye went similarly unexplored.

Nor did the unexpected appointment of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to the office of Secretary of State elicit post-speech questions, or even mild surprise. This isn’t really news as Rumsfeld has served as the administration’s de facto diplomatic representative abroad, showing his diplomatic skills with pithy statements like, “Hey France, fuck off!” and “Hey UN, fuck off.” Apparently, no media source has sought statements from former Secretary of State Colin Powell or newly-appointed DoubleSec Rumsfeld.

Reviews of the President’s latest outfit were largely positive, with more focus on the Great Leader’s confidence in his faith-based approach to clothing than on the actual items of clothing worn. (Real quotes and attributions in the extension.)

Calvin Woodward, Associated Press:

Well, he forgot his suit again but he’s not apologizing for the look. He’s sincere in his belief that he’s wearing one, though, which counts for something. On that he’s firm, which is also something. Hell, that’s the most important thing, because, as the President points out, Osama bin Laden dresses like shit. (04/14/04 AP/Woodward)

The Scotsman, op-ed:

First off, lefties dress like shite, alright? They make no apology, just sit back looking like shite. Shiites dress like shite. That bastard al-Sadr dresses like shite. Neo-cons might not make the appropriate choices in attire at all times, but Iraqis sure as shite dress like shite. Sure, John Kerry looks snappy occasionally but I’ll tell you who knew how to put himself together: Kissinger. And Condi? She knows how tough it is to dress appropriately all the time. The President looks fabulous and Mr. Blair looks snappy standing next to him. Maybe they’re not wearing pants, but what’s important is getting some clothes on those damn Iraqis. (04/13/04 Scotsman/Massie)

Christian Science Monitor:

Not everyone can pull off this look, but pull it off he does! What would you rather have: a President who wears pants, or someone who pretends so darn hard it’s like he’s wearing two, three, even four pairs? With an entire administration pretending just as hard, even Kerry supporters have to admit that’s an important asset.

The President is forceful, bold and manly striding forth in his “pants”. Will he cover his naked ass in the future? Who knows. Someday, at some future point, the administration may answer that question but for now, I’ll only ask it rhetorically and in a very very quiet voice. (04/13/04 CSM/Chinni)

Washington Post, Dana Milbank and Mike Allen:

He’s not wearing pants or a suit jacket, okay? Ahhhhgain. He’s not wearing a shirt either. No boxers or briefs, no loincloth. Not even an amusing, striped, novelty banana sock. He pretended pretty hard for most of his appearance that he was clothed but most of the time shivered like an unemployable Chippendales has-been. He appeared stunned for a moment when a courtier asked, hey naked guy, what’s up with the fucking nakedness? Kerry released a statement yesterday criticizing Bush’s pantslessness. The Bush campaign disagrees with that characterization and points to the President’s outstanding felted cowboy hat, which is big enough to be an outfit in itself, and beautifully stitched cowboy boots trimmed with real gold. They have also declassified documents showing that Richard Clarke once went out to his lawn to pick up his morning paper wearing nothing but a bathrobe. (04/14/04 WP/Millbank/Allen)

Associated Press, Jennifer Loven:

He sure was stylin last night, carrying off a bold, manly look not many ordinary guys would attempt. You don’t see this look on ordinary guys, because the President is no ordinary guy. Kerry said something or other about the importance of clothing and — blah blah blah who cares — the President sure looked classy explaining his classic sense of style to people who didn’t get the look he was going for. That’s because he’s a giant among men. I’ll bet he has an incredible cock. If you want an example of someone who is fashion clueless, check out that Osama guy. 04/14/04 AP/Loven

Washington Times opinion:

What a suit! What. A. Suit. It was the kind of menswear that would make Dolce & Fagbana rip out each other’s heart and eat it while still pounding a final resentful beat. Impeccably cut, of classic fabric with meticulous hand-stitched details, the only thing that could improve it was the selection of the perfect shirt. Amazingly, the shirt was better than perfect. It was pluperfect. It was more perfect than the shirt of Nessus would have been had it not burst into flame and burned alive its unfortunate contents. Who can match our courageous trend setter? Not the Iraqis with their pathetic droopwear or Kerry and Kennedy, who borrow each other’s loud ties. Oh, the fashion losers will harp on our President’s choice of accessories, but he’s not going to apologize or explain. He’s busy looking good for the American people, who seek his impeccable fashion guidance. 04/14/04 Washington Times – Lakely/Sammon

The New York Times:

The President appeared in public naked again. Why we strive for novel ways of saying this anymore, we don’t know. He was naked yesterday. He will be naked tomorrow. He’s a chronic nudist. If anyone should wear clothing, it’s him because his body is nothing to shake a stick at. More likely than not, his body will be shaking at the stick even while standing still. (04/14/04 NYT opinion)

Larry King Live:

Larry King: The President showed off his new outfit and earlier today, John Ashcroft was seen wandering around with his shvang showing and wearing a piece of baloney on his head. Mr. Kean, your review of the President’s outfit?

THOMAS KEAN, CHAIRMAN, 9/11 COMMISSION: Well, he wore what he wore and it’s not my place to judge his fashion choices. He did look good wearing it.

KING: Congressman Hamilton

LEE HAMILTON, VICE CHAIRMAN, 9/11 COMMISSION: He wasn’t exactly wearing pants, was he? I can see why people might object to that important omission of pants in what would qualify as a great suit.

KING: What about Ashcroft? The shvang? The baloney?

KEAN: Pants, no pants, we’re still looking at the cracks in the intelligence system. We know that those agencies do want to appear in public clothed. The important thing is that they be pantsed so as not to embarrass the Attorney General or the President in the future.

KING: Congressman Hamilton?

HAMILTON: This administration has given us a lot of good pointers on addressing rampant pantslessness in the government outside the Executive Branch.

…

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), KY, MAJORITY WHIP: The President was, and has been, impeccably dressed. His suit was outstanding. Did you see that fabric? Nice weave. Beautiful weave. The Afghans and Iraqis would die for such a weave. He’s going to set a trend around the world, just you watch. …

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), NM, FMR. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: Well, he did carry it off, I think. He wasn’t exactly wearing pants, was he? As for a trend, no one seems to be riding his coattails, which he doesn’t have cause he never wears a jacket either. 04/13/04 CNN/Larry King

Newsnight with Aaron Brown:

[Half an hour of surveillance footage show the President appearing publicly in increasingly abbreviated costume. Various angles, closeups, times and places dispute in advance that charges of the Great Leader's public nudity are partisan, irrational or based on jealousy about his firm ass and incredible man-rod. Also caught on film: John Ashcroft with his pants down.]

JONAH GOLDBERG, “THE NATIONAL REVIEW”: Not everyone gets the President’s sense of style, which figures, but he may have to, at some point, choose his outfits more carefully. He does look fabulous, mainly because he’s as comfortable in his suits as he is in his own skin, but some people don’t get his look. The not apologizing is part of the look. Perhaps he might consider throwing on some kind of garment that covers the legs and groinal area while still allowing freedom of motion.

JOHN HARWOOD, POLITICAL EDITOR, “THE WALL STREET JOURNAL”: Bottom line, he looked good. Not everyone could pull off that look. He can.

JUDY GOODFLUFF, CNN: Well some reporters made negative comments about the President’s outfit but he’s comfortable in what he’s wearing so I guess that’s something. I don’t know if he’s setting off a trend, though. I don’t know, I just don’t know. I barely pass the bare minimum requirement to be Soylent Green.

…

FAREED ZAKARIA: I’ve seen what people are wearing around the world. No one dresses like this or wants to. He looked ridiculous. He wasn’t wearing pants, a jacket, a shirt, a vest, underpants, socks, sock garters. He didn’t carry a linen hankie, a billfold, an appropriate watch. He had neither a collar bar nor a stickpin. No one dresses like this in the Middle East and what’s more, they have the same sense to cover their gonads as to come in out of the rain. Look, no one’s going to wear that atrocity Bush wore yesterday. Not NATO, not the UN, not France or Germany. He keeps comparing his look to the kind of classic styling of Truman and Roosevelt. Pardon me, they wore pants. They’d never appear publicly in that ridiculous get-up Bush was wearing.

…

HOSNI MUBARAK, PRESIDENT, EGYPT: Tell Ariel Sharon to put on some fucking pants. We’re sick of looking at his fat ass.

BROWN: Palestinians dress like shit or are often completely and offensivelynaked.

MUBARAK: They don’t have closets, dressing rooms, or a pot to piss in. But put some fucking pants on Sharon already. 04/13/04 CNN/Aaron Brown

(Actual quotes and sources in the extension.)
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“He has definitely changed the tone in Washington”

In a recent newspaper interview, Karl Rove said:

“Take a look at the language of this president and how he has treated political opponents and compare it to previous administrations — particularly his most immediate predecessor,” says Rove, senior advisor to the president and the guy who runs Bush’s political operation.

“You will find that he treats political opponents with dignity and respect,” says Rove, who visited El Paso earlier this week for a Bush fund-raiser. “You will not see the kind of personal vindictiveness and vicious comments that came out of the previous administration.”

When Bush needles a political opponent, he usually does so with “a bit of good humor,” Rove says.

“He has definitely changed the tone in Washington,” he says. El Paso Times, 4/10/04

Personal vindictiveness? Not us!

A senior White House aide told NBC News on condition of anonymity this week that Bush personally ordered his aides to launch the counteroffensive against the book, which the aide said Bush saw as a political assault. MSNBC, 3/25/04

Vicious comments? Never!

President Bush’s top aides launched a ferocious assault on the former White House counterterrorism official who accused Bush of failing to act on the al Qaeda threat before Sept. 11, 2001, and strengthening terrorists by pursuing a misguided focus on Iraq.

… Vice President Cheney, on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show, said the counterterrorism coordinator “wasn’t in the loop, frankly, on a lot of this stuff.” Cheney suggested Clarke did not do enough to prevent three attacks during the Clinton administration and said “he may have a grudge to bear there since he probably wanted a more prominent position.”

… In addition to Cheney’s radio appearance, Rice was a guest on all five network morning shows, and by 11 a.m. the White House had booked more than 15 interviews on cable news channels, as well as numerous talk-radio appearances, over the next nine hours. White House press secretary Scott McClellan spent much of both of his briefings yesterday arguing that Clarke’s book was politically motivated and timed. “This is Dick Clarke’s ‘American grandstand,’ ” McClellan said.

“His assertion that there was something we could have done to prevent the September 11th attacks from happening is deeply irresponsible, it’s offensive, and it’s flat-out false,” McClellan said. He said Clarke had interviewed to be the deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, then left the administration after being turned down. McClellan said Clarke was repeatedly absent from Rice’s daily morning meeting for her senior directors after being told to attend.

McClellan sought to tie the book to Sen. John F. Kerry’s presidential campaign by saying that Clarke’s “best buddy” is Rand Beers, who resigned as a top counterterrorism official at the National Security Council after the invasion of Iraq and later became Kerry’s coordinator for national security and homeland security issues.

Rice, on Fox News, said: “Dick Clarke was counterterrorism czar for a long time with a lot of attacks on the United States. What he was doing was — what they were doing apparently was not working. We wanted to do something different.” Washington Post, 3/23/04

Dignity and respect for political opponents? Absolutely!

In their effort to undermine Clarke, Bush’s aides departed from some of their most cherished practices. They invited reporters into West Wing offices where they rarely tread, for on-the-record interviews with top officials. They released an e-mail from Clarke to national security adviser Condoleezza Rice that they say is at odds with the account Clarke gave during his testimony to the independent panel investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They said he was disgruntled because his application to be deputy director of the Department of Homeland Security had been rejected.

An official also read reporters an e-mail that Rice had sent Clarke chastising him for skipping several of her morning staff meetings.

Perhaps most surprising, aides who routinely spar over such distinctions as “White House official” and “senior administration official” allowed Fox News to unmask Clarke as the anonymous briefer in an August 2002 White House conference call that highlighted the administration’s efforts in the war on terrorism. The administration’s allies say Clarke’s statements that day conflict with allegations in his book. Washington Post, 3/26/04

Thanks for setting us straight on this, Karl – I’m sure Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson are still chuckling over their encounter with the Bush administration’s “bit of good humor.”

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