a 'subtle' hint as to where dubya's ideas about 'freedom of the press' came from...

A selection of comments received by Aljazeera.net in response to the article Memo: Bush wanted Aljazeera bombed.

Comments: Bush, Aljazeera memo
by
Tuesday 22 November 2005 4:58 PM GMT

A selection of comments received by Aljazeera.net in response to the article Memo: Bush wanted Aljazeera bombed.

Let's wait till the memo surfaces. I am quite sure that there is something to the claims as Mirror has been gagged by the British government. Why the gag order if this story could be dismissed outright by publishing the document in question?
Estonia

When I heard about this yesterday, I dismissed it as soon as I heard the words Daily Mirror. Now, though, they've repressed the story using the Official Secrets Act ... it's clearly true and it sends a shiver down my spine. If the US was the beacon of justice it presents itself as, Bush would resign over this.
UK

Clearly this a complete load of rubbish. I do not exclude that some of the previous "accidents" may not have been accidental. However in this case there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that not even Bush would be stupid enough to go for you guys outside of a war zone and in a friendly country. As for being unbiased, you are no more or less biased than any other news organisation in reporting news from your own cultural perspective, as does the BBC ... but I certainly would not say you have no bias in your reports.
UK

I am delighted to see that there is some press organisation that is not afraid to speak the truth about what this evil America government is doing to pervert freedom and truth.
UK

Whether it is true or not, it is nothing new to me. Because this might have been the top agenda of Bush since Aljazeera started its unbiased coverage on the war. And considering the fact that the US army had already bombed the Baghdad office of Aljazeera martyring Tariq, such barbaric attacks are expected. However I stand by you Aljazeera especially during this time of crisis.
India

If the story is fabricated why have the newspapers now been threatened with prosecution under the Official Secrets Act? As for lies and half truths, this is actually what Bush and Blair took us to war on, and they continue with lies and half truths now as they try to defend they indefensible.
Switzerland

I think the gag order against Mirror has made a statement of its own: the memo is true! I would like to see the memo made public, and both UK and USA to come clean. I feel so sorry for the family of those media personnel who have been killed. Those "accidental deaths" are questionable in the light of this event.
Australia

For the British government to bring charges for releasing secrets gives strong credence to the story. They would only do that if they had yet more to hide.
UK

The lies told to start the Iraq war are unravelling fast. Aljazeera's part seems to have been little more than informing the public what their politicians have been doing. For that, Bush seems to want to shoot the messenger.
UK

If this story is true, it clearly indicates the mentality of the US president. American people, who believe in "freedom of expression" should stop their president from "terrorising" the media.
Pakistan

I am ashamed of my government, and ashamed of all the foolish Americans who still believe everything George Bush tells them. I am not surprised by these most recent allegations. I believe we will be picking up the pieces from the Bush administration for decades to come.
USA

If Bush intended this to be a "joke" then why did the AG just issue a gag order against the Mirror? In addition, two Brits are being subjected to criminal penalties for divulging "state secrets" (some "joke"). It also must have been some kind of "joke" to take up a 5 page memo. If it is such a great "joke", why don't they share it with the rest of the world. After what Bush-Blair has subjected humanity to, we could use a good laugh."
USA

Trust me, the last thing that this administration wants to do is bomb Aljazeera. That would be a public relations nightmare that the US can't afford. This is obviously a fabrication to generate anti-US sentiment in Iraq. Aljazeera's source is a non-reputable newspaper that is being used to generate dissent and confusion between two countries that can't afford it. Shame on whoever started that rumour.
USA

If George Bush wanted to bomb you, he'd have bombed you. He is out of control, and Blair would not have been able to stop him. This story is clearly fabricated.
USA

I would take this story with a pinch of salt. The Daily Mirror ... is not known for its unbiased news coverage. It viciously opposed the Iraq war and would have a field day with something like this. Hats off to Aljazeera, however, for being able to report about itself calmly and without emotion or bias.
UK

I can't believe the sheer stupidity of George Bush. Aljazeera is a non-party, neutral communications medium and does not fear to tell things as they are. If he was doing the right thing Aljazeera [would] no doubt report it that way. Keep up the good work, Aljazeera.
Australia

You guys have reached a new low in shamelessness. The Daily Mirror? ... It is a rag, filled with lies and half truths.
USA

Every day I go over your website and I love it very much. Why? Because you are placing the truth before the face of the world, and that is why Bush, whom I consider a liar, does not like you. Please, don't be intimidated by the liars of the White House.
The Philippines

I have looked at your website for several months now and conclude that it is indeed biased against the West especially the US ... In general, your site is worthless to someone seeking the truth.
USA

I am sorry and ashamed that the US government, and by association my country's government, appears to have sought to physically harm your staff and your people. Sorry because there was harm caused for no reason other than you were a messenger.
Australia

"Bush to bomb Aljazeera" ... Good idea.
USA

Every single day I am ashamed by my government. Why should I doubt that this is true?
USA

I will be happy to read your retraction after this story has run its course. This is a perfect example of Aljazeera trying to raise its own self-worth.
USA

This doesn't surprise me - whenever there is truth - unpleasant truth - it seems this administration wants to bomb it.
USA

Aljazeera
By

You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/326255B5-5F1F-467A-8B3E-1C3B94A99A3E.htm

neo-con cabal wants to bomb al- jazeera ...'liberators' of iraq can't tolerate opposing views? what about 'free speech' ?

i guess without colin powell around anymore to clean up the "dog poop" , spin out the lies , or perhaps to suggest a muzzle be put on some of those mad dogs running loose in the white house , things like the recent story that the bushites had actually floated past tony blair the idea of bombing al jazeera's offices because the bushies were annoyed at the news coverage they were receiving from the news agency , are to have been expected .

considering that much of dub's administration and policies were leftovers on the shelf from the 'ketchup is a vegetable', ronnie "raygun" reagan era ,it's no surprise that the call came first from a former member of the reagan administration in an article featured in --of course--fox 'news' entitled --of course-- "take out al jazeera"

Take Out Al Jazeera
Monday, September 29, 2003
By Frank Gaffney, Jr.


"...Under present wartime circumstances, though, the United States has the ability -- and, indeed, an urgent responsibility -- to take more comprehensive action against Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. Unless the two networks adjust their behavior so as no longer to act as the propaganda arm of our enemies, they should be taken off the air, one way or another.

To those who will decry this as censorship, they should be reminded of President Bush's injunction shortly after we were attacked two years ago: In the War on Terror, you are either with us or with the terrorists.

...If we are serious about this war, we need a totally revamped information policy -- replete with much more concerted and effective efforts to win the hearts and minds of people who have no reason to fear us, let alone to attack us, but are being told to do so by Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. A place to start would be to rapidly start up a satellite television service of our own, capable of reaching millions of currently unserved viewers in Iraq.

In the meantime, it is imperative that enemy media be taken down if they insist on using their access to the airwaves as instruments of the war against us and our allies.

Frank J. Gaffney Jr. held senior positions in the Reagan Defense Department. He is currently president of the Center for Security Policy."

so again it appears the bringers of 'democracy' to iraq simply can't tolerate any viewpoint except their own -- what hypocrisy? do these idiots have any idea of how they appear to the world?

they incessantly spoutoff about morals ,freedom ,democracy and rights while they lie to the world , fix facts , fix elections , violate international law and torture people.

they talk about democracy while plotting to bomb international news media for broadcasting images and words that don't fit the official bush neo-con spin-- "we're here to free you iraqis"-- as in 'free' you of your sovereignty and 'free' you of your oil--but what real message does the bush neo-con cabal send when it claims it's there in iraq to 'free' the iraqis , but handpicks iraq's leaders , rewrites iraq's laws to permit foreign ownership of iraq's oil and uses chemical weapons like white phosporous and radioactive materials like the 4 million pounds of depleted uranium dust already soaking into iraq's environment? --what message does the bush cabal send when it builds permanent military bases on iraq's soil and threatens to bomb regional news media for reporting the bush administration's crimes and how hated america is by iraqis and how badly bush and the neo-cons are losing the war. ?

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-wilkerson25oct25,0,7455395.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
The White House cabal
By Lawrence B. Wilkerson
LAWRENCE B. WILKERSON served as chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell from 2002 to 2005.

October 25, 2005

IN PRESIDENT BUSH'S first term, some of the most important decisions about U.S. natonal security — including vital decisions about postwar Iraq — were made by a secretive, little-known cabal. It was made up of a very small group of people led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

When I first discussed this group in a speech last week at the New America Foundation in Washington, my comments caused a significant stir because I had been chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell between 2002 and 2005.

But it's absolutely true. I believe that the decisions of this cabal were sometimes made with the full and witting support of the president and sometimes with something less. More often than not, then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice was simply steamrolled by this cabal.

Its insular and secret workings were efficient and swift — not unlike the decision-making one would associate more with a dictatorship than a democracy. This furtive process was camouflaged neatly by the dysfunction and inefficiency of the formal decision-making process, where decisions, if they were reached at all, had to wend their way through the bureaucracy, with its dissenters, obstructionists and "guardians of the turf."

But the secret process was ultimately a failure. It produced a series of disastrous decisions and virtually ensured that the agencies charged with implementing them would not or could not execute them well.

I watched these dual decision-making processes operate for four years at the State Department. As chief of staff for 27 months, I had a door adjoining the secretary of State's office. I read virtually every document he read. I read the intelligence briefings and spoke daily with people from all across government.

I knew that what I was observing was not what Congress intended when it passed the 1947 National Security Act. The law created the National Security Council — consisting of the president, vice president and the secretaries of State and Defense — to make sure the nation's vital national security decisions were thoroughly vetted. The NSC has often been expanded, depending on the president in office, to include the CIA director, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Treasury secretary and others, and it has accumulated a staff of sometimes more than 100 people.

But many of the most crucial decisions from 2001 to 2005 were not made within the traditional NSC process.

Scholars and knowledgeable critics of the U.S. decision-making process may rightly say, so what? Haven't all of our presidents in the last half-century failed to conform to the usual process at one time or another? Isn't it the president's prerogative to make decisions with whomever he pleases? Moreover, can he not ignore whomever he pleases? Why should we care that President Bush gave over much of the critical decision-making to his vice president and his secretary of Defense?

Both as a former academic and as a person who has been in the ring with the bull, I believe that there are two reasons we should care. First, such departures from the process have in the past led us into a host of disasters, including the last years of the Vietnam War, the national embarrassment of Watergate (and the first resignation of a president in our history), the Iran-Contra scandal and now the ruinous foreign policy of George W. Bush.

But a second and far more important reason is that the nature of both governance and crisis has changed in the modern age.

From managing the environment to securing sufficient energy resources, from dealing with trafficking in human beings to performing peacekeeping missions abroad, governing is vastly more complicated than ever before in human history.

Further, the crises the U.S. government confronts today are so multifaceted, so complex, so fast-breaking — and almost always with such incredible potential for regional and global ripple effects — that to depart from the systematic decision-making process laid out in the 1947 statute invites disaster.

Discounting the professional experience available within the federal bureaucracy — and ignoring entirely the inevitable but often frustrating dissent that often arises therein — makes for quick and painless decisions. But when government agencies are confronted with decisions in which they did not participate and with which they frequently disagree, their implementation of those decisions is fractured, uncoordinated and inefficient. This is particularly the case if the bureaucracies called upon to execute the decisions are in strong competition with one another over scarce money, talented people, "turf" or power.

It takes firm leadership to preside over the bureaucracy. But it also takes a willingness to listen to dissenting opinions. It requires leaders who can analyze, synthesize, ponder and decide.

The administration's performance during its first four years would have been even worse without Powell's damage control. At least once a week, it seemed, Powell trooped over to the Oval Office and cleaned all the dog poop off the carpet. He held a youthful, inexperienced president's hand. He told him everything would be all right because he, the secretary of State, would fix it. And he did — everything from a serious crisis with China when a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft was struck by a Chinese F-8 fighter jet in April 2001, to the secretary's constant reassurances to European leaders following the bitter breach in relations over the Iraq war. It wasn't enough, of course, but it helped.

Today, we have a president whose approval rating is 38% and a vice president who speaks only to Rush Limbaugh and assembled military forces. We have a secretary of Defense presiding over the death-by-a-thousand-cuts of our overstretched armed forces (no surprise to ignored dissenters such as former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki or former Army Secretary Thomas White).

It's a disaster. Given the choice, I'd choose a frustrating bureaucracy over an efficient cabal every time."

the best and brightest...

fallujah video "the hidden massacre

disturbing video from last november's assault on fallujah .37,000 houses destroyed , corpses of humans and animals with no apparent wounds . video includes footage of civilians waving white flags being shot at by soldiers . includes night vision footage of people down on the ground and wounded being shot --the infamous shooting of wounded left in mosque

includes footage of the bodies of civilians as well as insurgents horribly burned by white phosphorous that melts flesh and skin but leaves clothing intact -- warning : images not to be viewed by children or the faint of heart


http://www.rainews24.rai.it/ran24/inchiesta/video/fallujah_ING.wmv

fallujah video

remembering your birthday mom...

it's been a little over a year since you have been gone and still i cannot believe that you are no longer here . each time i visit the house it is so empty without the sound of your voice and the warmth of your presence --i still expect to see you walk through the door , breathless from an afternoon of shopping , excited about your next plans for travel to some place exotic you always dreamed to see.

we all go on with our lives and our work , but none of us is the same without you the heart of our family is no longer there . it's been a year and we all still at times cry . the kitchen aromas have faded and the house plants you tended so lovingly have--despite our efforts-- without you all gone--there exists a sadness in my soul that only old miles davis ballads can sometimes reach ... dad smiles and puts on the brave face to hold us all together , but he has in the time since your passing turned more and more to me --in part i think to try and prepare me for when the inevitable comes and time arrives to use the burial plot next to yours that he bought when you died...the two of you will rest facing east near fountains --plenty of sunshine and flowing water for you...but facing this part of life , for us --your children , is so hard...

;) faux news exclusive --- former pres comments on the present administration

" you know , i look at things and i can't believe it ! bush allowed the world trade center attacks to occur right under his nose , he lied about saddam's supposed 'connections' to al qaeda and non-existent iraqi wmd , he cheated in two presidential elections , deliberately misled the nation into war, revealed classified secrets to retaliate against people who exposed his lies--bush continually brayed like an annoying jackass about his christian 'faith' and 'morality' while at the same time letting a guy who ran gay hustler escort services repeatedly into white house press briefings as a 'reporter' --gave this same phoney reporter white house credentials , repeatedly let the same gay hustler sign in to go upstairs into the white house living quarters for hours at a time --the whitehouse sign-in security logs reveal that sometimes the guy didn't sign out at all some nights after signing in earlier -- while at the same time the bush administration was publicly bashing gay marriage and making opposition to gay marriage a huge smoke screen phoney campaign issue in the recent election-- the bush administration let dubya's and cheney's business cronies loot the public treasury with no-bid contracts, the bush administration began an assault on the constitutional rights of citizens at home and an assault on human rights abroad -- the bush administration got us into a military ,political and diplomatic quagmire in iraq --set up gulags and prisons for the torture of prisoners of war--his administration politically destabilized the entire middle east , made us hated by almost the entire world ,played a guitar while the whole world saw on tv poorfolks dying from gross governmental incompetence and blatant criminal neglect during hurricane katrina--- he ruined the economy , weakened our currency compared to the euro ,threw away $200 billion on iraq-- while schools and infrastructure at home continue to crumble and jobs continue to leave the country in search of child labor and penny-wages --- he squandered the budget slurpus he inherited from the previous administration , he cut funds to headstart , student loans , foodstamps , medicade , veterans and the poor, created record budget deficits while giving even more tax breaks to his rich buddies -- bush oversaw record high fuel prices at the same time that his buddies in the oil business are announcing record profits--the bush administration has been a motley collection of undeniable DISASTER AFTER DISASTER ---the bush administration has FAILED the american people on every front and what gets me is that he is STILL in office !!! ---jeeze , it all makes me wonder just who the hell do you have to 'f---' in this town to get a president impeached these days ?"

bush publicly cuts own throat--yet still no calls for impeachment in d.c.

*so according to the milquetoast media ,the lying azz repugnantcans and their so-called president and vp are on the "counter-offensive" attacking "false rumors" that they lied to congress and the american people , that they "cherry picked" and fixed intelligence and harrassed intel analysts in order to "create" sufficient "evidence" to justify going to war in iraq---bush even said in a speech recently that the dumbocrats had the same intel that he had and THEY voted for war with iraq too--like a recreation of the old schoolyard juvenile ploy--"why are you blaming me for wanting to go to war in iraq when all the other kids wanted to go to war too ?"

but georgie you guys knew full well that your primary source who provided you with escaped iraqi "scientists" and on the ground intel saying that saddam was pursuing wmd was ahmed chalabi -- a convicted bank swindler sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in jordan for his role in sucking about $300 million out of the petra bank he ran for the jordanian government.

you knew the intel being provided wasn't worth spit yet through the milquetoast media , you fed it over and over to the people until they were pissing their pants over the nightmare threat of a saddam attack on america---as condie and the "dickhead" vp so eloquently repeated "we don't want the 'smoking gun' to be a mushroom cloud" --well... well... well... it seems that not only did YOU GUYS know that the niger documents were forgeries --so also did a lot of other people in the world , including mohammed el-baradei head of the international atomic energy agency --who sent you a letter through the state department and the national security council warning you that the niger documents were fakes.

with his zealous remarks during this week's "counter-offensive " bush just publicly cut his own throat--- if the dumbocrats don't nail bush and cheney hides to the wall --as in --"impeach deze lyin fools" -then the dumbocrats are totally worthless and enormously less than shite ...

oh by the way , i believe it may soon come out also that steven hadley, condie's aide and now successor as national security advisor , may have personally received the forged niger yellowcake documents from an italian "reporter\asset" he met with , who was fed the documents directly from the israeli mossad cell responsible for forging documents from african nations --seemed mossad has an extensive cell operating that specializes in forgeries of african government documents --as documents from african nations are believed to be easier to forge than those from other parts of the world --even so these numbskulls still screwed up by using the name of a government official of niger whose actual times in the official capacity did not match the dates on the forged documents--a simple google check tripped the documents up as forgeries . the bushites knew the 'evidence' they had was flimsy as hell yet still presented it as true and drove the country to war--if misleading the people into war isn't grounds for impeachment , then what is ?



Author: Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t | Investigative Report
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 11/18/05 13:40


...

Specifically, Carl Levin, the senior Democrat who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, is interested in permanently debunking the administration's assertion that it "mistakenly" included the 16-word reference in President Bush's January 2003 State of the Union address claiming that Iraq tried to purchase yellowcake uranium - the key component to building an atomic bomb - from Niger. Levin's aides said the administration knew months before that the veracity of the allegations was dubious because it was based on forged documents.

...

But aides to Sen. Levin rebutted that, saying they have smoking-gun proof that they were lied to by Bush and Cheney about not only the existence of weapons of mass destruction but also claims that Iraq had tried to obtain yellowcake uranium from Niger.

In building their case against the administration, Levin, with the help of Congressman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has obtained the December 2002 letter sent to the White House and the National Security Council by Mohammed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warning that the Niger claims were bogus and should not be cited by the administration as evidence that Iraq was actively trying to obtain WMDs.

...

ElBaradei said, when the Niger claims were included in the State Department fact sheet on the Iraqi threat in December 2002, "the IAEA asked the U.S. Government, through its Mission in Vienna, to provide any actionable information that would allow it to follow up with the countries involved, viz Niger and Iraq." ElBaradei said he was assured that his letter was forwarded to the White House and to the National Security Council. ElBaradei added that he and his staff were suspicious about the Niger documents because it had long been rumored that documents pertaining to Iraq's attempt to obtain uranium from Niger had been doctored.

...

In conversations and correspondence with Waxman, ElBaradei said he personally had tried to contact Stephen Hadley, then Deputy National Security Adviser, and aides to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, warning them not to rely on the Niger documents as evidence of the Iraqi threat, but was continuously rebuffed. He said the White House officials pledged to cooperate with United Nations inspectors but repeatedly withheld evidence from them.

...

Four months later, Hadley, as well as former CIA Director George Tenet, took responsibility for allowing the Niger uranium claims to be included in Bush's speech. Aides to Levin said that when the bipartisan investigation is complete there will be ample proof that the Bush administration, specifically, Hadley, Cheney, and other top officials, knowingly manipulated intelligence to fit their agenda in launching a war.
Alert

From Capitol Hill Blue

FUBAR
GOP MEMO TOUTS NEW TERROR ATTACK AS WAY TO REVERSE PARTY'S DECLINE
By DOUG THOMPSON
Publisher, Capitol Hill Blue
Nov 10, 2005, 06:19

A confidential memo circulating among senior Republican leaders suggests that a new attack by terrorists on U.S. soil could reverse the sagging fortunes of President George W. Bush as well as the GOP and "restore his image as a leader of the American people."

The closely-guarded memo lays out a list of scenarios to bring the Republican party back from the political brink, including a devastating attack by terrorists that could “validate” the President’s war on terror and allow Bush to “unite the country” in a “time of national shock and sorrow.”

The memo says such a reversal in the President's fortunes could keep the party from losing control of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections.

GOP insiders who have seen the memo admit it’s a risky strategy and point out that such scenarios are “blue sky thinking” that often occurs in political planning sessions.

“The President’s popularity was at an all-time high following the 9/11 attacks,” admits one aide. “Americans band together at a time of crisis.”

Other Republicans, however, worry that such a scenario carries high risk, pointing out that an attack might suggest the President has not done enough to protect the country.

“We also have to face the fact that many Americans no longer trust the President,” says a longtime GOP strategist. “That makes it harder for him to become a rallying point.”

The memo outlines other scenarios, including:

--Capture of Osama bin Laden (or proof that he is dead);

--A drastic turnaround in the economy;

--A "successful resolution" of the Iraq war.

GOP memos no longer talk of “victory” in Iraq but use the term “successful resolution.”

“A successful resolution would be us getting out intact and civil war not breaking out until after the midterm elections,” says one insider.

The memo circulates as Tuesday’s disastrous election defeats have left an already dysfunctional White House in chaos, West Wing insiders say, with shouting matches commonplace and the blame game escalating into open warfare.

“This place is like a high-school football locker room after the team lost the big game,” grumbles one Bush administration aide. “Everybody’s pissed and pointing the finger at blame at everybody else.”

Republican gubernatorial losses in Virginia and New Jersey deepened rifts between the Bush administration and Republicans who find the President radioactive. Arguments over whether or not the President should make a last-minute appearance in Virginia to try and help the sagging campaign fortunes of GOP candidate Jerry Kilgore raged until the minute Bush arrived at the rally in Richmond Monday night.

“Cooler heads tried to prevail,” one aide says. “Most knew an appearance by the President would hurt Kilgore rather than help him but (Karl) Rove rammed it through, convincing Bush that he had enough popularity left to make a difference.”

Bush didn’t have any popularity left. Overnight tracking polls showed Kilgore dropped three percentage points after the President’s appearance and Democrat Tim Kaine won on Tuesday.

Conservative Pennsylvania Republican Senator Rick Santorum told radio talk show host Don Imus Wednesday that he does not want the President's help and will stay away from a Bush rally in his state on Friday.

The losses in Virginia and New Jersey, coupled with a resounding defeat of ballot initiatives backed by GOP governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in California have set off alarm klaxons throughout the demoralized Republican party. Pollsters privately tell GOP leaders that unless they stop the slide they could easily lose control of the House in the 2006 midterm elections and may lose the Senate as well.

“In 30 years of sampling public opinion, I’ve never seen such a freefall in public support,” admits one GOP pollster.

Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin says the usual tricks tried by Republicans no longer work.

"None of their old tricks worked," he says.

Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) admits the GOP is a party mired in its rural base in a country that's becoming less and less rural.

"You play to your rural base, you pay a price," he says. "Our issues blew up in our face."

As Republican political strategists scramble to find a message – any message – that will ring true with voters, GOP leaders in Congress admit privately that control of their party by right-wing extremists makes their recovery all but impossible.

“We’ve made our bed with these people,” admits an aide to House Speaker Denny Hastert. “Now it’s the morning after and the hangover hurts like hell.”

© Copyright 2005 Capitol Hill Blue

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"a president must president his country..."

dub's trip south a big success ...neighbors to the south welcome bush at the fourth summit of the americas ...not

Bush's free trade proposal falls on deaf ears in Mar de Playa argentina .

it seems the allure of "free trade" no longer can seduce our neighbors to the south as bush met vigorous resistance to his proposal to turn the americas into one big free trade zone .

As has become the norm , dub was greeted by thousands of anti-war anti-'gobble'-ization demonstrators where ever he goes outside of america's borders.

this time the opposition was led by hugo chavez president of venezuela--a survivor of 2 attempts by the bushites to topple him from power--once by violent coup and again by a Us financed "referendum" movement-- an early --constitutionally unscheduled election --for the sole purpose of attempting to remove chavez from office .

ironically , chavez, shown above in photo with soccer star diego Maradona--who was dressed in tee shirt calling bush a "war criminal" --as president of venzuela , propsed his own version of an economic plan for the americas --"Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean" or ALBA-- the "dawn".

chavez and other critics say that bush's free trade agreement would leave the smaller countries at the mercy of the "empire of the north" , and that free trade is just another continuance of decades of economic exploitation by the Us.

chavez cited as proof of the superiority of his ALBA alternative , the sale by venezuela of oil at 40 percent discount to 14 nations of the carribean and charging only 1 percent interest to these nation over the course of 25 years and then allowing these nations to repay in goods rather than hard currency .

Chavez hopes that the ALBA alternative will lead to regional economic integration and an "Alliance" to end to hunger and starvation including hunger and starvation among the "37 million poor" within Us borders . To this goal of ending hunger in the region chavez donated $1 million from venezuela .










Chávez and Maradona Lead Massive Rebuke of Bush

by JORDANA TIMERMAN

[posted online on November 5, 2005]

Some aspects of George Bush's travels have become commonplace, including massive protests, sporadic violence and tight security operations. All of these usual elements--notably the imperial-style arrival of the US president with an entourage of 2,000 people and four AWACS surveillance systems--were present at the Fourth Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina.

But the opposition to Bush and his proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), as well as neoconservative economic policies and capitalism in general, took on a creative twist this time, with a massive march that ended in a rally at a sports stadium involving a heterogeneous group of Latin American leaders: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Bolivian socialist leader Evo Morales, Argentine leaders of the unemployed, Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, singers from all over the continent, and, of course, Diego Maradona, legendary soccer hero.

A counter-meeting, the Summit of the People, began in the city on Monday, and concluded on Thursday with recommendations to summarily suspend FTAA talks, combat inequality in the region, and "energetically reject the militarization of the continent promoted by the empire of the north."

At the culminating event of the march against Bush, Chávez called the stadium in which over 25,000 demonstrators had gathered the "gravesite of the FTAA."

He also proposed a Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean (ALBA, a Spanish acronym meaning "dawn") to replace the controversial FTAA. Regional opponents of Bush's free trade agreement accuse it of fomenting inequality and placing poorer countries at the mercy of wealthier ones. The Bolivarian alternative proposes regional integration with the goal of fighting poverty and social exclusion.

Chávez's speech reflected the diplomatic problems encountered in the writing of the Summit of the Americas final text. Venezuela refused to agree to a note, inserted by US representatives, mentioning "the 96 million people who live in extreme poverty," in Latin America and the Caribbean unless there was also mention of the "37 million poor" living in the United States.

ALBA, according to Chávez "must be built from the bottom...It will not be built up from the elites, but from below, from our roots." He listed examples of ALBA in action, citing the sale of Venezuelan petroleum to fourteen Caribbean countries at a 40 percent discount and with an interest rate of one percent over twenty-five years, with the ability to pay off the debt with goods and services instead of cash.

"It was a turning point in Latin American history," claims Marcelo Langieri, academic secretary of the Sociology faculty at the University of Buenos Aires. Langieri, who was one of 160 cultural and political leaders invited to travel the 400 kilometers from Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata on a train dubbed the ALBA Express, emphasized what he considers a paradigm shift in the dialogue. "Not only was the FTAA questioned, but also the neoconservative economic model and capitalism," and by somebody in a position of power such as Chávez's.

Chávez revealed that he would be presenting an Alliance Against Hunger plan to the Summit leaders. He promised $1 million from Venezuela for the project, which proposes eradicating starvation within the next decade.

Signs carried by the crowd included "Stop Bush" and "Pirate Bush, out of Mar del Plata." Crowd estimates varied, from 25,000 cited in the New York Times to 50,000 people cited by organizers.

The march and rally at the soccer stadium had an important celebrity factor attracting further attention to the cause. The ALBA Express, which included a special VIP car for Maradona, was cheered on by fans along the way to Mar del Plata, and stopped several times in the night to greet people gathered at stations.

Soccer legend Maradona attracted considerable attention to the march by announcing on his Monday night television show that he would be protesting Bush's arrival in Argentina. Maradona, who is not known for his political views, has a close relationship with Cuban president Fidel Castro, built during recent years when he spent time recovering from drug addiction in Cuba. In a press conference on Thursday Maradona referred to Bush as "human garbage." However, he did not actually march, going directly from the train to the stadium.

"Argentina is worthy; Let's kick Bush out," was Maradona's message to the stadium protesters.

Langieri discards the idea of separating Maradona's star power from the anti-Bush cause. For Langieri the importance of the message is expressed by the fact that a national hero such as Maradona would promote it. "Maradona is not a politician. What Diego said is the truth."

Though the march to the stadium and the gathering there were peaceful, a separate demonstration by far-left groups ended in chaos and violence. Reaching the barrier area, a group that spread out over an avenue for over six blocks faced off against police forces. A segment of this group--about 200 people--were prepared for confrontation, masking themselves to avoid recognition and as protection from tear gas. Most of the demonstrators fled when police forces responded to rock-throwing with tear gas, but others turned on storefronts--setting a bank on fire and breaking windows.

The Summit of the Americas ended Saturday in a deadlock: Mexico, the United States and 29 other nations pushed to set an April deadline for more talks on free trade, but that was opposed by Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela, the Associated Press reported. And in the end It is not clear what effect the opposition to Bush will have on regional cooperation. Will the promise of unity demonstrated by the Summit of the People and the peaceful marches lead to real alternatives to US foreign policy? Or is Bush merely the latest rallying point for anti-capitalism leading to riots and vandalism? Regardless, it seems to be that opposition toward Bush and his policies has created a powerful space, one which regional leaders, especially Chávez, are more than willing to take advantage of.

"gao report upholds ohio vote fraud claims"

GAO report upholds Ohio vote fraud claims

By Joe Baker, Senior Editor-- The Rockriver Times

As if the indictment of Lewis “Scooter” Libby wasn’t enough to give the White House some heavy concerns, a report from the Government Accounting Office takes a big bite out of the Bush clique’s pretense of legitimacy.

This powerful and probing report takes a hard look at the election of 2004 and supports the contention that the election was stolen. The report has received almost no coverage in the national media.

The GAO is the government’s lead investigative agency, and is known for rock-solid integrity and its penetrating and thorough analysis. The agency’s agreement with what have been brushed aside as “conspiracy theories” adds even more weight to the conclusion that the Bush regime has no business in the White House whatever.

Almost a year ago, Rep. John Conyers, senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, asked the GAO to investigate the use of electronic voting machines in the Nov. 2, 2004, presidential election. That request was made as a flood of protests from Ohio and elsewhere deluged Washington with claims that shocking irregularities were common in that vote and were linked to the machines.

CNN said the Judiciary Committee got more than 57,000 complaints after Bush’s claimed re-election. Many were made under oath in a series of statements and affidavits in public hearings and investigations carried out in Ohio by the Free Press and other groups seeking to maintain transparent elections.

Online Journal.com reported that the GAO report stated that “some of [the] concerns about electronic voting machines have been realized and have caused problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and miscount of votes.”

This is the only democratic nation that permits private partisan companies to count and tabulate the vote in secret, using privately-held software. The public is excluded from the process. Rev. Jesse Jackson and others have declared that “public elections must not be conducted on privately-owned machines.” The makers of nearly all electronic voting machines are owned by conservative Republicans.

The chief executive of Diebold, one of the major suppliers of electronic voting machines, Warren “Wally” O’Dell, went on record in the 2004 campaign vowing to deliver Ohio and the presidency to George W. Bush.

In Ohio, Bush won by only 118,775 votes out of more than 5.6 million cast. Honest election advocates contend that O’Dell’s statement to hand Ohio’s vote to Bush still stands as a clear indictment of an apparently successful effort to steal the White House.

Some of the GAO’s findings are: 1. Some electronic voting machines “did not encrypt cast ballots or system audit logs, and it was possible to alter both without being detected.” In short, the machines; provided a way to manipulate the outcome of the election. In Ohio, more than 800,000 votes were cast on electronic voting machines, some registered seven times Bush’s official margin of victory.

2: the report further stated that: “it was possible to alter the files that define how a ballot looks and works, so that the votes for one candidate could be recorded for a different candidate.” Very many sworn statements and affidavits claim that did happen in Ohio in 2004.

Next, the report says, “Vendors installed uncertified versions of voting system software at the local level.” The GAO found that falsifying election results without leaving evidence of doing so by using altered memory cards could easily be done.

The GAO additionally found that access to the voting network was very easy to compromise because not all electronic voting systems had supervisory functions protected by password. That meant access to one machine gave access to the whole network. That critical finding showed that rigging the election did not take a “widespread conspiracy” but simply the cooperation of a small number of operators with the power to tap into the networked machines. They could thus alter the vote totals at will. It therefore was no big task for a single programmer to flip vote numbers to give Bush the 118,775 votes.

Another factor in the Ohio election was that access to the voting network was also compromised by repeated use of the same user ID, coupled with easy-to-guess passwords. Even amateur hackers could have gotten into the network and changed the vote.

System locks were easily picked, and keys were easy to copy, so gaining access to the system was a snap.

One digital machine model was shown to have been networked in such a rudimentary manner that if one machine experienced a power failure, the entire network would go down. That is too fragile a system to decide the presidency of the United States.

Problems obviously exist with security protocols and screening methods for vendor personnel.

The GAO study clearly shows that no responsible business would operate with a computer system as flimsy, fragile and easily manipulated as the one used in the 2004 election.

These findings are even more damning when we understand the election in Ohio was run by a secretary of state who also was co-chairman of Bush’s Ohio campaign. Far from the conclusion of anti-fraud skeptics, the GAO’s findings confirm that the network, which handled 800,000 Ohio votes, was vulnerable enough to permit a handful of purposeful operatives to turn the entire election by means of personal computers using comparatively simple software.

One Ohio campaign operative, Tom Noe, a coin dealer, was indicted Oct. 27 for illegally funneling $45,400 to Bush by writing checks to others, who then wrote checks to Bush’s re-election campaign, allegedly dodging the $2,000 limit on contributions by an individual.

“It’s one of the most blatant and excessive finance schemes we have encountered,” said Noel Hillman, section chief of the U.S. Department of Justice’s public integrity section, as quoted in the Kansas City Star.

In the 2000 election, Florida was the key; in the 2004 election, Ohio was the key.

From the Nov. 2-8, 2005, issue

;-)

dub fails at phone sex



















while prince charley cops a feel of laura tush..."mr. excitement", better watch out ...