6/30/04 Politics. (scoop) Wouldn't it be odd if hundreds of government officals arrived in NYC for a planned terror drill and were therefore on hand for the real attack on 9-11? According to Mayor Rudy Giuliani's testimony to the 9-11 Commission on May 19, 2004 in New York, this is what happened.
"Long Debunked "Rumor" Validated by Giuliani. FEMA in NYC prior to 9-11 for Project TRIPOD terror drill, scheduled for 9-12. In case 
you missed it live, you can listen to his testimony in full at the WNYC radio website.
... pay special attention to what he says at the end of his prepared statement:
"... the reason Pier 92 was selected as a command center was because on the next day, on September 12, Pier 92 was going to have a drill, it had hundreds of people here, from FEMA, from the Federal Government, from the State, from the State Emergency Management Office, and they were getting ready for a drill for biochemical attack. So that was gonna be the place they were going to have the drill. The equipment was already there, so we were able to establish a command center there, within three days, that was two and a half to three times bigger than the command center that we had lost at 7 World Trade Center. And it was from there that the rest of the search and rescue effort was, uh, was completed." note: I have confirmed this in the audio. May 19, Clip 2, about 30:46 - 31:43.
We told you about this odd fact here right after 9-11. On September 13, 2001 Tom Kenney of the FEMA National Urban Search and Rescue told CBS News anchor Dan Rather "We're currently one of the first teams that was deployed to support the city of New York for this disaster. We arrived on late Monday night, and went into action on Tuesday morning." If this is just a coincidence, as it now seems, why isn't this terror drill pre-planned for the day after 9/11 been more in the news as an amazing coincidence?
6/28/04 Politics. Flight 93 Shot down? This is interesting. Prisonplanet claims to know who shot down flight 93 (the 9/11 plane where, supposedly, the heroic passengers stormed the cockpit.)
At 9:35, the Happy Hooligans of the North Dakota Air Guard flying F-16s were ordered to take flight 93 out. Rick Gibney is the Air Guard member identified as doing so some time between 9:35 and 10:00 AM on 9/11.
"Major Rick Gibney fired two sidewinder missiles at the aircraft and destroyed it in mid flight at precisely 0958;
He was awarded a medal from the Governor one year later for his heroic actions. As well as Decorated by Congress on 9/13/2001.
... Major Rick Gibney did as he was ordered and did nothing criminal. He was merely following orders, of which he had no choice. Please do not harrass (sic) this man or bother him for doing what his CO & ultimately George Bush, ordered him to do." - prisonplanet
More on flight 93 being shot down. Offical story of the heros here.
6/27/04 Politics. Last month, White House communications director Dan Bartlett ( who had 
not seen the film ) said Michael Moore's movie 'Fahrenheit 9/11' which opens today is "so outrageously false, it's not even worth comment".
However, the Thursday, June 24, 2004 New York Times analysis says it is "safe to say that central assertions of fact in 'Fahrenheit 9/11' are supported by the public record."
There is more to the 911 story, of course, but some people are already complaining that Moore's movie was too long. Some people say they were bored in places. Perhaps they were actually in shock. For those who haven't been following the facts behind the spin, this film can be a mind blower.
I heard one Bush supporter who did not see the movie say, "Bull! Bush did NOT sit doing nothing in a classroom for 7 minutes after the 2nd plane hit!" Sorry, but Moore shows the video in his movie. Bush sitting, doing nothing. See it with your own eyes and realize you've been duped by the news sources you've trusted. Andrew Card, White House Chief of Staff, said Bush acted in seconds. Wrong.
I said, "a second plane hit the second tower." Those were the facts. And the editorial comment was, "America is under attack."
I said those things into the president's right ear, and I stepped back, because I did not want to invite a discussion from the classroom. But I tried to be succinct in what I told him so that he understood the enormity of the problem. He looked up -- it was only a matter of seconds, but it seemed like minutes -- and I thought that he was outstanding in his ability not to scare either the American people that were paying attention to the cameras or, more importantly, the students that were in the classroom.
And he just excused himself very politely to the teacher and to the students, and he left." - Sfgate
Surprise! The Internet, if you know where to look, and if you think critically, can be a much more accurate source of information than the network news or official White house spokespersons. I saw the full strange video of Bush sitting in the classroom a long time ago.
NYT: Fahrenheit 9/11 is Highest Grossing Documentary of All Time! Good. Wake people up!
6/24/04 Politics. (CNN ) Bush interviewed in CIA leak probe "President Bush was interviewed Thursday morning by a special prosecutor investigating whether anyone in the administration disclosed the classified identity of a CIA officer, White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters. This is the first time Bush has been questioned in a criminal investigation involving his administration."
6/20/04 Politics. Was watching the 9/11 Commission Hearings today. Question: Why wasn't a communication line open to Air Force 
One? Answer of commander: "I don't recall." Yeah, right.
White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer explains that Bush went to Nebraska because "There was real and credible information that the White House and Air Force One were targets." The next day, William Safire of the New York Times writes, and Bush's Political Strategist Karl Rove confirms, that the secret service believed "'Air Force One may be next,' and there was an ‘inside' threat which 'may have broken the secret codes [showing a knowledge of Presidential procedures].'" By September 27, Fleischer begins to back-pedal on the claim that there were specific threats against Air Force One and/or the President and new stories flatly contradict it.
Perhaps lines of communication were not used to Air Force One because they suspected a compromise? The guy in charge of the communication center did say today in the testimony that they were having a lot of communications problems. Watch hearings.
6/20/04 Politics. (politicalleft) I hadn't heard this: 38 year old African American Texas woman who filed a rape lawsuit (12/2/2002) against GW Bush dies of "Suicide" by gunshot to head about 10 months later. MARGIE D. SCHOEDINGER expired Monday, 9/22/03. If the dead woman's allegation contained any truth, might this indicate that Bush has a "type"?
Condi's Slip: "At a recent dinner party hosted by New York Times D.C. bureau chief Philip Taubman and his wife, Times reporter Felicity Barringer, and attended by Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Maureen Dowd, Steven Weisman, and Elisabeth Bumiller, Rice was reportedly overheard saying, "As I was telling my husb... and then stopping herself abruptly, before saying, "I was telling President Bush" Jaws dropped, but a guest says the slip by the unmarried politician, who spends weekends with the president and his wife, seemed more psychologically telling than incriminating." - April 21, 2004 - culturekitchen
6/20/04 Politics. Same camera used to film Berg's killing as used at prison? Take your pick a) a mistake, b) a rumor started out of ignorance, c) disinformation, or d) truth:
"... people at Kodak who developed the watermarking technology have compared the digital watermark on the Berg video with the new pridoner abuse from Abu Ghraib prison and the digital watermark matches one of the two cameras used in the Berg beheading. If this is true then it means that Americans killed Berg at Abu Ghraib prison." - voxfux
Eastman Kodak Company denies its involvement and says it won't run the watermark test.
It seems they do have the video fingerprint technology referenced.
Yes, in addition to photos (only a few of more than 1,800 photos have been released to the public) there is also video of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse from the Washington Post (photo left). It shows a prisoner being hit for no reason. Very disturbing. Why is it cropped on the sides? Where is the video camera used to make this video?
Photos show dead Iraqis, torture and rape "Leading Republican senators backed the Pentagon's call not to release the new photographs and videotape for fear it would incite further violence against Americans in Iraq, especially in light of the brutal beheading of US citizen Nicholas Berg." - theage
Exactly, Berg's death stopped the American people and the rest of the world from seeing just how bad things got at the prison. Things were looking really bad for Bush until Berg died, then Bush used Berg's death to his political advantage. Many sites say the video was bogus, although the murder of Berg was real and tragic. Berg worked at Abu Ghraib. Was he also killed there? Did Bush approve torture at the prison?
The Plastic Chair. In addition to Berg's jumpsuit (below left) being the same as those worn by Abu Ghraib prisoner, there is the creepy fact that the chair Berg sat in before he was killed in the video is the same as the ones used at the prison.
Uh, perhaps there are a lot of these chairs in Iraq. Gulp. Friday, April 29, 2004, CBS Airs Alleged GIs Abuse of Iraqis. "There are no longer torture chambers or rape rooms or mass graves in Iraq." - GW Bush, April 30, 2004.
6/14/04 Politics (wired) It was reported April 29, 2004 that terrorism under Bush had dropped to their lowest since 1969. Wrong. Errors in the report from the Terrorist Threat 
Integration Center created May 2003 were discovered by outside experts.
"The department's admission last week that it undercounted the attacks and resulting fatalities has dented the claim by President Bush's administration that Washington is winning the "war on terrorism," an argument critical to his re-election strategy."
"In fact, the number of incidents increased 36 percent from 2001 to 2003, to the highest level in more than 20 years." - startribune
There you have it. The world is less safe thanks to Bush. If you needed a report to tell you that, you haven't been paying attention.
"The report marks the second time in a month that Powell disavowed information initially presented as accurate. In May, he said much of the sourcing for his February 2003 presentation to the U.N. Security Council -- in which he outlined the U.S. arguments in favor of the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein from Iraq -- was "inaccurate and wrong and, in some cases, deliberately misleading." - CNN
Today we are hearing about a plot to blow up a mall. Read this, however: Brother says Somali national charged in mall plot hated terrorists. Given the political climate and all the other mistakes being made, one has to wonder if Ashcroft and company are 
manufacturing terrorists. Nuradin Abdi has a son and daughter who are toddlers, and his wife is eight months pregnant. Their children are U.S. citizens. His brother claims he was friendly with everyone he met including, unfortunately, Lyman Faris who later turned out to be an al-Qaida member accused of plotting to cut through the cables that support New York's Brooklyn Bridge. Faris was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year. According to one source, ( March 10, 2004 ) Abdi's fate was decided over three months ago in a secret hearing. He was to be deported. Why are we just hearing about this now as if it is new news? Here it is June 14, 2004 and the story is big:
Somali Man Charged in Plot to Bomb Ohio Mall
Washington Post - 35 minutes ago
Federal officials yesterday accused a Somali man living in Ohio of plotting with al Qaeda terrorists to blow up a Columbus, Ohio-area shopping mall.
Alleged mall threat spurs indictment Atlanta Journal Constitution (subscription)
Somali Is Accused of Planning a Terror Attack at a Shopping Center in Ohio New York Times WABC-TV - Philadelphia Inquirer (subscription) - Kansas City Star (subscription) - Channel News Asia - and 465 related »
6/13/04 Politics (bellaciao | cnn ) Sunday 13th June 2004: E-voting Issue Splits League of Women Voters. This is important. Try this demo to see how an electronic election can be stolen. We need a paper trail for voting. We already have paper verification for ATM machines, plane tickets and gas pumps. The technology exists and the ONLY reason to fight against a paper trail, IMHO, is so you can steal an election. Verification is CRITICAL for a legitimate democracy!! Don't tell me it costs too much. Our democracy is worth it!
"... A battle over electronic voting is threatening the cohesion of the nonpartisan League of Women Voters, whose national leadership is refusing to endorse demands 
by hundreds of mem[bers] for a paper trail to guard against fraud, hackers and malfunctions.
Some local chapters are so angry that they are flouting regulations and planning to speak against the national stance Friday and Saturday at the league's biennial convention in Washington. They're threatening to nominate new board members and a new candidate for president who would rescind the league's support for paperless voting systems.
``We think the league has in some way failed us,'' said Genevieve Katz, 74, a member of the Oakland, Calif., chapter who has collected more than 700 signatures from members upset with the league's national stance on paperless terminals. ``I can't remember an issue that has gotten members so upset. ..."
See blackboxvoting.com. Here's an idea, if we can't get a paper trail, EVERYONE should vote absentee!
6/13/04 Politics. ( sundayherald) Young Rumsfeld makes deal with Saddam for Ronald Regan. Despite the never ending memorials glorifying the late president Ronald Regan, consider this: According to Neil Mackay of the Sunday Herald,
under Reagan, secret deals brokered by Donald Rumsfeld with Saddam 
Hussein secured the dictator an arsenal of WMD ...
It was just before Christmas 1983 that Donald Rumsfeld, then US presidential envoy to Iraq, slipped quietly into Baghdad ... to pledge US support for Saddam Hussein. ...
While America was selling WMD to Iraq, Reagan was also telling Saddam to increase his brutal campaign against the Iranian fundamentalist regime, even while Iraqi poison gas was falling on Persian battlefields.
The Reagan presidency made America complicit in Saddam's war crimes.
6/11/04 Politics (virginia.edu) Sibel Edmonds, a former translator for the FBI has given classified testimony to the Senate and the 9-11 Commission, and has given some unclassified information to the media. From an interview on Air America radio:
SIBEL EDMONDS (left): The Bureau allowed certain targets and certain people to leave the country months after 9-11 
AMY GOODMAN (right): Like who?
SIBEL EDMONDS: I cannot talk about who, but people who should have been criminally prosecuted here, the real people who should be retained - detained here and the real people who really need to be investigated. ..."
Interesting Freudian slip there. You "retain" lawyers and consultants. Were some criminals involved in the attacks of 9-11 released because they had business relations with someone high up in our government? This is one theme that comes up in Michael Moore's new award winning movie. (Locally starts 06-25-2004, Tower 3 theatre, 2508 Land Park Dr. Sacramento , CA 95818. (916) 442-4700)
6/11/04 Politics (CBS) Bush fails moral question on torture, takes position of Saddam. Bush "does not rule out use of torture", so let's rule out the use of Bush.
Bush was asked: "What we've learned from these memos this week is that the Department of Justice lawyers and the Pentagon lawyers have essentially worked out a way that U.S. officials can torture detainees without running afoul of the law. So when you say that you want the U.S. to adhere to international and U.S. laws, that's not very comforting. This is a moral question: Is torture ever justified?"
Bush responded:
"I'm going to say it one more time. Maybe I can be more clear. The instructions went out to our people to adhere to law. That ought to comfort you. We're a nation of law. We adhere to laws. We have laws on the books. You might look at these laws. And that might provide comfort for you. And those were the instructions from me to the government."
My god. Is this guy really the devil? At the very least he is a double-talking torture-endorsing snake!
6/10/04 Politics (indymedia) House OKs Pre-emptive U.S. Attack Against Iran.
"Undeterred by the results of pre-emptive war in Iraq, the House of 
Representatives passed a non-binding resolution May 6 authorizing pre-emptive military strikes against Iran. The vote was 376-3. ...
House members said the legislation is in line with the Bush Doctrine of preventive war, and creates a legal framework for later sanctions and “military options” against Iranian nuclear sites. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Pete Stark (D-Calif.) both condemned the bill, noting its similarity to the law that permitted a preemptive war on Iraq."
I, an American citizen, hearby call for the resignations of everyone in the House of Reps who voted for pre-emptive strikes. What is the difference between this "pre-emptive" mindset and that of a paranoid psychotic murder who kills people because he believes they are out to get him? None. You can't kill people in self-defense when they are not yet threatening you! Jeezus! I can't believe I even have to say this!!
Fire the idiots who want nuclear war. Some of us enjoy life. Some of us love people. Some of us look forward to a better future. Others want to destroy it all. Bush has plans to use nuclear weapons according to the Los Angeles Times. Well, Iran may have nukes. Nothing like a nice thermonuclear war to blot out the earth. My species contains far too many idiots bent on grisly death. Fear-based aggression is a dead end. Wake up.
6/8/04 Politics. (ipsnews | seattlepi | setimes | nytimes | ft ) We need to stop making 
things legal and then saying, "but we would never do that." "It is now legal for me to take everything you own ... but I would never do it." That is the logic that is being used in the case of Bush and torture.
It is official, the Pentagon considers Bush above the law: Lawyers Argue Bush Can 'Legally Order Torture'
"according to the report ... the president himself is not bound by U.S. law, such as the federal Torture Statute or the constitutional ban on "cruel and unusual" punishment."
"As reported by the Wall Street Journal on June 7, the lengthy memorandum argued that the U.S. president could order the torture of detainees with legal impunity." -hrw
If this is allowed to stand, I'd argue that we are then officially a dictatorship, run by rules established by our military, not by the established laws of the people of our nation.
"Tough tactics: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pushed for a Gitmo style approach to prisoner interrogations in Iraq" - msnbc
We can not have torturers, or teams that justify torture, in office. How dare Bush/Rumsfeld and company drag the USA through the mud of Saddam's torture rooms! We are a civilized nation but we are being run by 'men' with the mentality of ten year old boys who like to pull the wings off of bugs. Torture has a clear legal US definition, and it is rightly prohibited by US and international law. Torture victims have rights under US laws.
U.S. law and the [ United Nations Convention Against Torture ] ... ratified by the United States in 1994 ... states that "no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for torture," and that orders from superiors "may not be invoked as a justification of torture."
It is obvious, but it needs to be said that the way Bush has 'fought' terrorism has resulted in more innocent deaths than the attacks of 9/11. That is a sick sad fact. We must change direction. We are a good people. We are not murderers and torturers.
6/2/04 Politics. Ashcroft Degrades American Democracy. How? By illegally holding people (including Americans) for years without charging them with a crime, by the public release of one-sided information on the eve of a Supreme Court decision, by stoking fears about terrorism and undermining our judicial system. Sure, there are real terrorists here and there, but I think if we fire Ashcroft and company, we might find that they were making a 
lot of this stuff up for political reasons. That's right, pulling it out of their asses. Who would know? There are no checks and balances. They claim national security and are accountable to none. That is BS. It is un american.
"The department released the newly declassified information on Jose Padilla at a time when the US supreme court is preparing to rule on whether he and other American citizens can be held indefinitely in US military jails without the protection of the American legal system."
The US Justice Department now says that American Jose Padilla proposed detonating an improvised nuclear bomb in the United States. That sounds pretty scary, doesn't it? I don't give a rat's ass if he proposed hurling the Earth into the Sun, we still need to follow the rules of our legal system. Everyone gets an attorney and a fair trial. It is illegal to hold someone without charging them with a crime. Stop the illegal detentions now, before we turn into our worst nightmare. Even if Ashcroft is honorable (some say he has repeatedly lied under oath ), consider this: once we have a system in place where anyone can be disappeared, we WILL eventually have an evil ruthless person take control of that system. Don't leave a loaded gun lying around just because you trust the kids who are currently in the room.
"The disappearance of political opponents became one of the cruelest forms of repression implemented by the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, for it did not only affect those captured, but 
their families and friends too. They became ghosts, dead without bodies, stars without skies. The military always denied any knowledge of their detention or whereabouts."
Is that where we are going? Ashcroft says peace loving people should not be frightened by phantoms of lost liberty. I say justice loving people must be outraged by Ashcroft's real and criminal disregard for our laws. Holding an American citizen for two years in a military prison with no charges is a REAL lost liberty, not a phantom!
The world view "I've done nothing wrong, so I have nothing to fear" carries an assumption that the people in power are upstanding and trustworthy. Some are, but some aren't.
For example, some of the Supreme Court Justices have conflicts of interest. Clarence Thomas ( his wife's job directly tied to Bush) and Antonin Scalia (goes hunting with Cheney ) both have family connections to the Bush's, so it will be impressive if they render a fair judgment. ( Also see Cheney and Haliburton. ) We have a long history of political corruption. To ignore this is to be in denial. Denial is the real threat. Once you have the power to silence anyone who says you are corrupt, you and your group are free to steal and to harm others with no fear of reprisal.
"The end-point of political corruption is kleptocracy, literally the "rule of thieves" where even the pretence of honesty is abandoned."
6/8/04 Politics. Ronald Regan has passed away from Alzheimer's disease... or was it mad cow disease?
