Day: November 20, 2005

President Succumbs to Jet Lag

Jon Ponder

Is President Bush too mentally unstable to serve?

The president had called the news session with US reporters at his hotel.

His earlier meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao did not permit media questions.

Mr Bush answered a range of questions before one reporter said:

“Respectfully, sir … in your statement this morning with President Hu, you seemed a little off your game, you seemed to hurry through your statement. There was a lack of enthusiasm. Was something bothering you?”

The president answered: “Have you ever heard of jet lag? Well, good. That answers your question.”

The reporter asked for a follow-up question but the president then thanked the attending journalists and said: “No you may not.”

He strode from the lectern to the door, trying both handles and then breaking into a laugh.

An aide escorted him to the correct exit and on to dinner at the Great Hall of the People.

Cheney’s Five Deferments Vs. Murtha’s Distinguished Service

Jon Ponder

Vice President Cheney’s five deferments from the Vietnam War draft:

  • 1st deferment: Cheney enrolled in Casper Community College in January 1963 — he turned 22 that month — and sought his first student deferment on March 20.
  • 2nd deferment: (student), after transferring to the University of Wyoming on July 23, 1963.
  • 3rd deferment:(student)on Oct. 14, 1964.
  • 4th deferment: attended graduate school at the University of Wyoming on Nov. 1, 1965.
  • 5th deferment: On Oct. 6, 1965, the Selective Service lifted its ban against drafting married men who had no children. Nine months and two days later, Cheney had his first daughter. Cheney applied for 3-A status, the ”hardship”exemption, which excluded men with children or dependent parents. It was granted.

And then there’s Rep. Jack Murtha:

A hawkish Democrat war hero with a highly decorated 37-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps. He volunteered for Vietnam in ’66-’67 and received two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star with Combat “V”. Retired from the Marine Corps Reserve as a colonel in 1990. Awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal by the Marine Corps Commandant when he retired. Well-respected by both parties for his first-hand knowledge of military and defense issues, of which he has dutifully served and advised both Republican and Democratic presidents. One of the most effective advocates for a strong national defense. A ranking member and former chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. This rare combination of experience enables him to understand defense and military operations from every perspective. So when Murtha opens his mouth to speak, everyone listens intently.

The Who of the What?

Trish

Rick Warren? (who?) Sec. Dr. Condo Rice? George Freaking W. Bush again?

I don’t think so.

The Time Person of the Year poll is going on now, so quick, hurry up and vote before His Asswipeyness lands on the cover again this year.

So far, Harry Potter channeler J.K. Rowling is way out ahead of Bono, Steve Jobs, Lance Armstrong, the new pope, and even Mother Nature. Bring some sanity to this process. Vote now!

Jeb’s Secret Government

Trish

To be able to get away with it, criminals need secrecy. In Florida, to judge by Jeb Bush, so do governors.

First, state-level officials refused to discuss the latest in a string of scandals within Jeb’s largely privatized corrections system. This time, the questions concern not steriods and drug dealing, illegal use of prisoner and employee labor, pilfered equipment, fighting, or sex coerced in inappropriate places, but illegal occupation of prison housing.

Judging these folks by their ideas, abilities, and effectiveness leaves them not so much visible as revealed

First Coast News asked the Department of Corrections in Tallahassee to talk with us on camera about staff housing out at Raiford…

Since Corrections refused to talk, First Coast News asked State Attorney General Charlie Crist. He turned us down too.

First Coast News then went to Governor Jeb Bush’s office requesting an interview on Department of Corrections staff housing.

We talked with two different people in Bush’s press office. That was a week and a half ago. Our numerous calls have never been returned.

It’s easy to understand why Jeb Inc. might not want to talk about how woefully adrift Florida’s correction system has become since Jeb raided it for the profit of his buddies. But his reluctance to confab extends to the mess he made by attempting to privatize education through his poorly planned and executed voucher system as well. […]

Katherine Harris in Trouble – and Denial

Trish

Hope springs eternal for Florida’s U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris in her bid to take Sen. Bill Nelson’s seat in 2006, no matter how bad things look. And they look awful.

Last week, the news climaxed when, on the same day, word broke that Harris’ campaign manager had quit and a poll showed her 24 points behind Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

That followed stories in October about how her fundraising, considered her strong point, was disappointing.

Not to worry, Harris said, showing a Rove-worthy capacity for surreal spin.

…in an interview late in the week, Harris insisted the campaign remains healthy, the bad news has been over-hyped and “We have turned a corner.”

The problems, Harris said, are only temporary. “We’re completely viable, and we have a great chance.”

Harris went through the predictable routine of questioning the poll’s accuracy and citing how early it is in the process. Oddly, she also took the unusual tactic of blaming the weather and her own record.

She acknowledged the campaign has had stumbles — caused in part, she said, by the fall hurricanes and a focus on her congressional work.

“The only issue where we have to focus now is fundraising,” she said. “We will not pay much attention to polling a year out. A year to go is a world of difference, and polls won’t change until we go up on TV.”

The scary part is, she’s right. Bill Nelson, God love him, isn’t Mr. Excitement when speaking. And Katherine has started working the cult of personality thing pretty hard.

I wish I felt safe ruling her out but even if she fails to win over her own party by its unofficial Dec. 31 deadline, the prospects for her possible replacements – like Florida House Speaker Allan Bense – worry me even more. Let’s hope the newfound questioning of Republicans by the voters continues and intensifies.

“Potted Plant” Rumsfeld Cautions Against Speaking Out

Trish

Sec. Of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was so adept at bobbing and weaving to avoid responsibility on ABC’s This Week that Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria later said he made it sound as if his role in Iraq up to now is like that of a “potted plant.”

Indeed, listening to Rumsfeld, he had nothing to do with anything, ever. Unless it was good, and then it’s probably attributable to him and/or the Bush administration. If it was bad it’s because of Congress, impatient or disloyal Americans, and/or terrorists-insurgents. He’s only the secretary of defense, for crying out loud, what can he do?

Would he have still advocated invading had he known there were no weapons of mass distruction, Stephanopoulos asked. I didn’t advocate it, Rumsfeld answered, because the president never asked me. So was he not in favor of it? The president knew his feelings on the matter.

Did we have too few troops going in and do we still? That decision was always up to military leaders. So if they wanted more, as they have publicly stated, they could have them? A formal request from one of the three commanders of the Iraq war has never been formally turned down.

And on, and on. Rumsfeld played both sides of the net so exhaustively he was able to change the direction of the ball in midair, without it even touching the racket.

Rumsfeld just wants the questions to go away, even if it means making veiled threats, or as lapdog Jean Schmidt demonstrated, performing character assassination.

“We have to all have the willingness to have a free debate, but we also all have to have the willingness to understand what the effects of our words are,” he said.

He should know. The lies and distortions of the Bush administration have reaped horrific effects. Mere words can do that. And the unwillingness to debate first, then act with restraint and certainty later, is deadly.

Bush Knew Curveball’s Intelligence on WMD Was Wrong

Jon Ponder

Powell knew too: The man who was the principal source for President Bush’s claim that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction was so emotionally and mentally disturbed that he was considered unreliable.

The Bush Conundrum:
When they cited the faulty intelligence, were they merely being incompetent or was it treason?

Now the Los Angeles Times reports that U.S. government officials, including the president, knew that the source, code named “Curveball,” was unbalanced and yet repeatedly cited his unreliable intelligence in the run-up to war.

Curveball was captured by the Germans and is under their control. A German official who supervised the suspect’s interrogation described his mental state this way:

“He is not a stable, psychologically stable guy… He is not a completely normal person.”

Furthermore, “the White House … ignored evidence gathered by United Nations weapons inspectors shortly before the war that disproved Curveball’s account. Bush and his aides issued increasingly dire warnings about Iraq’s biological weapons before the war even though intelligence from Curveball had not changed in two years.”

The president knowingly cited Curveball’s phony intelligence in his January 2003 State of the Union speech that Iraq had “mobile biological weapons labs” designed to produce “germ warfare agents.” Bush cited the mobile germ factories in at least four prewar speeches and statements, and other world leaders repeated the charge.

In a presentation before the U.N. a month later, Sec. of State Colin Powell also referred to Curveball’s intelligence as providing an “eyewitness account” that Iraq had sufficient germ stockpiles to kill “thousands and thousands” of people.

How is it possible that the president and the secretary of state did not know that Curveball was a flake and that information sourced to him was inoperative? Or did they know and choose to use it anyway because it supported their campaign to market the war?

These question brings us once again to the Bush conundrum: When the president and the secretary of state cited the faulty intelligence, were they merely being incompetent or was it treason?

The Vice President’s Malfeasant Record So Far

Jon Ponder

Village Voice:

The vice president supports torture. He hides out in bunkers. He conspires with big oil to deceive the Congress. His chief of staff has been indicted for covering up that office’s role in outing a CIA officer to the media as political revenge. He bought sci-fi Iraq intelligence from whoever was selling. He obstructed a Senate Intelligence investigation of pre-war intelligence.

So naturally, deputy White House chief of staff Karl Rove is trotting him out to give a speech accusing Democrats and war critics (now two thirds of the population of the United States) of being “dishonest,” “reprehensible,” “irresponsible” “opportunists”. Repeatedly. Yawn.