Let's Talk Sense Archives - May 1-15, 2003

	Message board comments from May 1 through May 15, 2002
	Date: 05/01/03 Time: 07:56 AM Comments Messages from April 20 through April 30, 2003 are archived. Click Here to see those messages Date: 05/01/03 Time: 09:08 AM Comments Talk of democracy in Iraq is premature; they don't even have a supreme court to select a president. Date: 05/01/03 Time: 09:34 AM Comments "they don't even have a supreme court to select a president." Can't you give it a rest? What do you plan to say after GWB's landslide in 2004? But, since you bring it up, the Supremes acted to forstall a coup by the radical left FL supreme court. (Of course you would argue that the the FL justices were just "interpreting" (rewriting) existing law, because you desperately wanted the same outcome as those horrors). The Supremes gave the FL justices two bites at the apple -- they weren't going to get a third. That said, I think the reasoning of the majority was flawed -- they based their decision on the equal protection clause (a slippery slope). They should have followed Scalia and agreed on Article II, which empowers the state LEGISLATURES -- and ONLY the legislatures -- to determine the manner in which electors may be appointed. Date: 05/01/03 Time: 10:31 AM Comments Just Wondering . . . Some questions from the back of the class. by Joel Engel http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/ Date: 05/01/03 Time: 06:44 PM Comments I was amazed seeing Presidnet Bush become the first President to land in a jet on a moving Aircraft Carrier, as a co-pilot no less. Thank God Al Gore invented the technology that makes landing jets on a 100 yard aircraft carrier possible. Date: 05/02/03 Time: 05:23 AM Comments "The Administration led America into a war based on false pretenses. Even today, as the President declares an end to combat, there is no credible evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. These weapons, they said, posed an immediate and imminent threat to our nation and our allies, and could not be eliminated through international weapons inspectors. "The Administration, with its policy in Iraq, has isolated the United States from the international community and threatens to make our country less safe not more safe. Dennis Kucinich Date: 05/02/03 Time: 06:25 AM Comments Dear Dennis, "no credible evidence"? I suggest you read the report by Hans Blix. There is no doubt whatsoever that Iraq possessed WMD. Have patience, my friend. You don't want to look too foolish. Date: 05/02/03 Time: 07:08 AM Comments You would think the Dimocrats on this page would have learned not to speak so fast after so many of them are still eating crow about the Iraq war. Date: 05/02/03 Time: 08:28 AM Comments facilis descensus Averno Noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis; Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras, Hoc opus, hic labor est. Date: 05/02/03 Time: 09:19 PM Comments Daschle lauds regime-change efforts in Iraq SIOUX FALLS (AP) — The search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq should continue, but coalition forces don't need to find them to justify the war against Saddam Hussein, U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle said. The Democratic leader in the Senate, who had criticized President Bush's failure to find a diplomatic alternative to war, on Thursday applauded the president's leadership and the military's performance in toppling Saddam's regime. "In 21 days, we eliminated somebody who, for 20 years, has repressed and tortured his own people and posed a serious risk not only to his country, but to countries all over the world, including the United States," Daschle said in a conference call with South Dakota reporters. "Obviously, if these weapons exist, they still pose a threat, so I think the search must continue, but I don't think there's any more justification required than what we've already seen in terms of the purpose of the military operation. Regime change was a legitimate goal, it was accomplished, and I think that's laudable in and of its own right." Date: 05/02/03 Time: 11:00 PM Comments We knew it was true, but the Dimocrats had to push it: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20030502_1258.html Date: 05/03/03 Time: 06:45 AM Comments This is a statement by Doris Haddock, better known as Granny D. This lady, well into her 90's WALKED across America to encourage the vote for campaign reform. Our government today is being bought by the multi-billionaires. They own our Congress and our media, and by owning our media, they control the minds of our people. It's their huge donations that elect the president of THEIR choice. What chance do the people have??? Do youself a favor and visit her website: www.grannyD.com Here's a quotation of hers: "We have a duty to look after each other. If we lose control of our government, then we lose our ability to dispense justice and human kindness. Our first priority today, then, is to defeat utterly those forces of greed and corruption that have come between us and our self-governance." --Doris Haddock Date: 05/03/03 Time: 08:32 AM Comments Britain's Blair says Bush no mental lightweight http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/05/01/blair.bush.reut/index.html LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose closeness to U.S. President George W. Bush earned him praise from Washington and derision at home, says he thinks the American leader's lightweight image is "complete bull." "He is highly intelligent, and it's not clotted by so many nuances that the meaning is obscured." Date: 05/03/03 Time: 12:20 PM Comments I can't beleive the Dimocrats are using poor old Doris as a spokesman. She's obviously some poor Alzheimer's patient that has been aimlessly walking around. She is at the very least no expert we should flock after for guidance. But, the dimocrats have no other leader. Date: 05/03/03 Time: 05:53 PM Comments re:facilis descensus Averno... My goodness, someone is quoting Virgil on this board! I am impressed, and will be even more so if you come from the left side of this board. I am however curious as to how you feel it relates to the present situation. For those of us who do not read Virgil in the original: The descent to Avernus is easy; the gate of Pluto stands open night and day; but to retrace one's steps and return to the upper air, that is the toil, that the difficulty. (For those here who cannot comprehend english well either: The road to evil is easy) Peter Newark Sternitur infelix alieno vulnere, coelumque Adspicit et moriens dulces reminiseitur Argos - Virgil. Date: 05/04/03 Time: 02:00 AM Comments http://www.news12.com/NewCDA/articles/ I hear Ted Kennedy is planning to relocate. Date: 05/04/03 Time: 06:46 AM Comments Hi Peter Newark, My citation from Aeneid Book 6 was in response to the precedent post about "dimocrats" eating crow. By the way, Dryden's translation is lovely: The gates of hell are open night and day; Smooth the descent, and easy is the way: But to return, and view the cheerful skies, In this the task and mighty labor lies. Perhaps I am "dim" since I fail to see the pertinence of your quote from Book 10. It refers to the death of Anthores and could be construed as a fine example of "collateral damage". ============= To the anonymous person who decries references to Granny D's activism with unfounded insinuations of senility, cool it. You may well reach her advanced age and, with a bit of luck, you might even retain your own force of conviction and your ideals. Should we then consider you a doddering old fool because of your age? I'm so old that I remember when our elders were respected and cherished for their wisdom and experience. Kevin (letstalksense.com webmaster) Date: 05/04/03 Time: 09:02 AM Comments Hello Kevin. I must admit that your translation is definitely much more elegant than mine. Even though I am from the "other side", I have to join you in decrying the "dim" appellation. I hope anyone with a hint of reason and objectivity realizes that not all members of any political party are idiots. There may be some to whom that applies, but that is true for both sides. Your interpretation of my quote (for the true dims: He falls, unhappy, by a wound intended for another; looks up to the skies, and dying remembers sweet Argos) can be as different as mine was of your quote, and we could still both be right. Since you are the webmaster for this message board, we are undoubtedly of different political and ideological philosophies, but I am sure you will appreciate this from William S. And do as adversaries do in law,— Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends. The Taming of the Shrew. Act i. Sc. 2. Peter Newark Date: 05/04/03 Time: 09:19 AM Comments "And do as adversaries do in law,— Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends" Well done, Peter! Thanks for your refreshing and (unfortunately, rare on this board) civil reply. On the rocks or straight up? Cheers. Kevin Date: 05/04/03 Time: 10:27 AM Comments Link to insanely LONG message. Date: 05/04/03 Time: 10:43 AM Comments To whomever posted the exceedingly long diatribed against Jews: Wow, do you ever stop to read what you've written? Do you ever listen to what you've said? By your screed, the Jews were responsible for placing and keeping in power -- Franco, Stoessner, and Videla. Huh? Didn't you mean to list Hitler as well? Do you live in France? Date: 05/04/03 Time: 10:52 AM Comments http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/05/04/MN147957.DTL As President Bush made his daring dash to the outskirts of Baghdad-by- the-Bay on Friday, he met only one small pocket of resistance. ... This was the hard core. A kid with a bandanna across his face carried a sign saying, "Zionist puppet." A guy in a cowboy hat with a bongo drum kept shouting and thrusting a middle finger skyward, in the general direction of Air Force One. Two older women with U.N. flags talked about moving to France. Must be related to Matilda. Date: 05/04/03 Time: 11:03 AM Comments Two old friends of mine -- a Jewish couple in their 80s, both retired university professors who fled Nazi Germany in the late 1930s and eventually became U.S. citizens -- made a stunning remark to me a few months ago: "You know, all our lives we have blamed our parents and our parents' generation for allowing Hitler to gain control. Now we're beginning to see how powerless they must have felt to stop what was happening all around them. Richard L Clinton Date: 05/04/03 Time: 03:28 PM Comments The Internal Revenue Service announces that it will scrutinize the returns of the poorest taxpayers, those claiming the earned income tax credit. This is a credit offered to taxpayers who earn under $35,000 for a family of four, and it averages less than $2000. The Bush administration wants to spend $100 million to go after these working-poor Americans in search of fraud rather than concentrate on corporations who, according to some estimates, defraud the government by tens of billions of dollars every year. Jill Nelson Date: 05/05/03 Time: 09:07 AM Comments "In a nutshell from this day forth—or more accurately 9/11—everything we see or hear about or from our elected officials is automatically untrue. Think about that for a minute." This is taken from a super article you owe it to yourselves to read: http://www.asticles.com/asticles/house.htm Date: 05/05/03 Time: 10:04 AM Comments "A senior US official stated that America never expected to find a huge arsenal, arguing that the administration was more concerned about the ability of Saddam's scientists -- which he labelled the 'nuclear mujahidin' -- to develop WMDs when the crisis passed. "This represents a clearly dramatic shift in the definition of the Bush doctrine's central tenet -- the pre-emptive strike. Previously, according to Washington, a pre-emptive war could be waged against a hostile country with WMDs in order to protect American security. "Now, however, according to the US official, pre-emptive action is justified against a nation which simply has the ability to develop unconventional weapons." And there you have it, my friends!! Is any nation safe now? Matilda Neil Mackay Date: 05/05/03 Time: 04:24 PM Comments Dear Jill, Are you saying that we should accept fraud in the earned income tax credit program? That people who take government money (the term "credit", is a misnomer -- it's actually a giveaway of real dollars) shouldn't be subject to audit? Dear "in a nut(shell)" OK, I read the article. Where is the substantiation for -- or even an example of -- the claim that all of our elected officials speak only lies? Do you ever listen back to what you're saying? Dear Matilda, 1. You need to provide links to articles you cite. I found the Mackay article at: http://www.sundayherald.com/33628 2. You should be suspicious of anyone who cites "Senior officials". Nameless quotes -- especially single worded ones ("amazed") ought to ring alarm bells. 3. No nation is safe until the terrorists and the nations which harbor them are rendered harmless. 4. And yes, my dear. We will find Saddam's WMD. Don't you think you'd feel less foolish if you waited a bit before you trumpeted your latest baseless charge against the US of A? I mean, how long would you have been willing to wait for Hans & Co.? Date: 05/05/03 Time: 05:43 PM Comments Kevin, on the rock please. Out of curiosity, do you read Virgil in the original? And thanks for allowing me to find Dryden's translation: classics.mit.edu/Virgil/aeneid.html Peter Date: 05/06/03 Time: 01:26 AM Comments No, Peter. Unfortunately I've had no formal training in Latin. But but I speak French fluently and can read Italian fairly well. Matilda was my (excellent) French teacher back in the 80's. I've always had fun deciphering the Latin phrases I see inscribed on many of the monuments here in France. Dryden's translation is nice, isn't it? Cheers, Kevin Date: 05/06/03 Time: 06:26 AM Comments Jill, just yesterday pres. Bush gave a speech condemning corporations and their officers who are dishonest. Fraud is wrong whether it is committed by an individual or by a big company. Perhaps more important than outright fraud is the perpetual waste and influence buying that is committed by our elected members of the legislature with our tax dollars. I would guess the amounts squandered through the latest farm bill would make most corporate fraud seem insignificant. Someone once commented that to say "Congress spends money like drunken sailors" was unfair to the sailors who were, by and large, spending their own money. You will likely dismiss the wisdom of those words when you learn that Ronald Reagan uttered them. On a passing note, just to remind us no one could ever go broke underestimating the ignorance of the electorate: a poll conducted April 10-16 by the Pew Research Center showed that 69 percent of Democrats cannot name any of the nine candidates. Kerry, the most frequently named, is named by just 9 percent of respondents. Nine percent think Al Gore is running. Peter Date: 05/06/03 Time: 02:16 PM Comments Liberals have whined about the US not signing the Kyoto treaty since the US said it was a farce. "Nations that have signed it "stand almost no chance of keeping their promise. " Now Austrailia has followed suit not to sign it. More here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2996219.stm Date: 05/06/03 Time: 04:30 PM Comments Kevin, where in France do you live? If I ever get there, how about dinner, drinks, and quotes? Peter Date: 05/06/03 Time: 05:07 PM Comments Sure. I'm on the Mediterranean coast but I'd rather not post the details on the net. If you ever plan to travel to this area, post a message here and I'll figure out a way to send you my contact info. Date: 05/06/03 Time: 09:41 PM Comments France helped Iraqis escape http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030506-32981825.htm Matilda, you sure picked a great country to hide out in. Date: 05/06/03 Time: 10:16 PM Comments It's nice Peter and Kevin have found true love. Now would they exchange email addresses and get it off the list. Date: 05/07/03 Time: 06:31 AM Comments The Non-Pillage of Baghdad http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,S "It is very common for the first information following a crisis to be wrong, and when I say wrong, I mean wrong." So spoke Ronald Noble, the Secretary General of Interpol, at a conference yesterday in Lyon, France, devoted to the recovery of stolen Iraqi artifacts. The context for Mr. Noble's remarks is the incredible reduction in the estimate of the number of artworks lost in the ransacking of Baghdad's National Museum. The claims have gone from 170,000 items first reported to the 30 to 40 that British Museum curator John Curtis confirmed missing at a press conference Monday in New York. Mr. Curtis's figure roughly tallies with that given by the Marine colonel investigating the looting. And therein lies a story that always had another agenda attached to it. The initial reports coming out of Baghdad quoted the weeping deputy director of the museum, who blamed the Americans for allowing the destruction of "170,000 items of antiquity dating back thousands of years." A segment of the press corps eager to snatch defeat from the jaws of George W. Bush's victory quickly took up the theme. It wasn't long before the American liberation of Iraq was likened to the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258. How typical, they sneered, for a Texas Republican to protect the oil fields (which will help feed Iraqis) while leaving the heritage of Western civilization naked. But the latest news now appears to confirm what the Journal's Yaroslav Trofimov reported from Baghdad three weeks ago: Most of these works had been secreted away in anticipation of an attack. Moreover, as Attorney General John Ashcroft told the Lyon conference, the theft of Iraq's treasures was carried out by organized criminals who knew what they were looking for. Surely one key question is who at the museum might have helped. (Hint: It wasn't Donald Rumsfeld.) Date: 05/07/03 Time: 07:04 AM Comments England may be falling into the same loony lawyer's web that exists in the US. Considering the explosion of crimes commited with guns since they banned the legal posession by the law abiding public, it sounds as if sens Lautenberg and Biden are advising the British government. Lets hope bill of rights stays intact here. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/story.jsp?story=403287 "Government lawyers trying to keep the Norfolk farmer Tony Martin behind bars will tell a High Court judge tomorrow that burglars are members of the public who must be protected from violent householders" Peter P.S. to the one who cannot stand civil exchange, up yours, and may the fleas of a thousand camels make their home in your pubic hair. Date: 05/08/03 Time: 09:47 PM Comments More real skinny on the corruption of Chirac et al by Saddam. From Debka (take it with a grain of salt). http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=484 Date: 05/09/03 Time: 08:22 AM Comments "If we let this stand, in the list of things we've let stand - a stolen election, the erosion of the constitution and our freedoms, now-long-ago lies about Central America, and god only knows how many thousands of other lies fed and fattened on the ugliest side of nationalism (the kind represented only by tattered, cheap, made-in-China flags), then how much better are we than the perps of the lies? Many of us have been saying and writing the exact sentiments of Mr. Kristof, but with the words now appearing in mainstream media, MAYBE we can add some force to it. And to think we IMPEACHED a president for lying about sexual misconduct. It's a bit of a matter of "Heil, Calvinistic self-righteous deflation of good sense and heil to the god-of-easy, feelgood patriotism." NY Times Date: 05/09/03 Time: 08:31 AM Comments Some background: the Constitution declares the president commander in chief of the armed forces to make it clear that civilians, not the military, hold ultimate authority. That's why American presidents traditionally make a point of avoiding military affectations. Dwight Eisenhower was a victorious general and John Kennedy a genuine war hero, but while in office neither wore anything that resembled military garb. There was a time when patriotic Americans from both parties would have denounced any president who tried to take political advantage of his role as commander in chief. But that, it seems, was another country" NY Times (Paul Krugman) Date: 05/09/03 Time: 12:34 PM Comments Our only hope (besides the failing economy) for defeating Bush is to keep pounding away at WHY he's hiding the facts on 9/11 when the first thing he said even before leaving the Booker Elementary School was that he was going to call for "a full-scale investigation". We're still waiting. See full article at: http://www.msnbc.com/news/907379.asp?0cv=KA01 Date: 05/09/03 Time: 12:43 PM Comments The American media, for the most part, must be taking orders from the White House and the Pentagon. "According to a May 5 search of the Nexis database, there have been no in-depth reports about cluster bombs on ABC, CBS or NBC's nightly news programs since the start of the war. There have been, however, a few passing mentions of cluster bombs-- enough so that viewers may be aware of their existence. Not so with depleted uranium. Since the beginning of the year, the words "depleted uranium" have not been uttered once on ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News or NBC Nightly News, according to Nexis." American are supposed to be too stupid to notice things like this!!!!! Matilda Date: 05/09/03 Time: 12:51 PM Comments Contrast TV's lack of curiosity to the noteworthy May 12 Time magazine in which reporter Michael Weisskopf highlighted the discrepancy between Pentagon claims-- that "only 26 cluster bombs had landed in civilian areas, resulting in one casualty"--with the reality on the ground, where in Karbala alone, local clean-up crews "are harvesting about 1,000 cluster bombs a day." Human Rights Watch-- which warned for months of the danger and possible illegality of using cluster bombs near populated areas-- has likewise argued (4/25/03) that "U.S. claims that cluster munitions have not caused significant damage to civilians in Iraq are highly misleading." The group has criticized the U.S. and Britain for failing to "come clean" about how many cluster bombs were dropped and where, so that civilians can be protected (4/29/03). The repercussions of the U.S. and British use of cluster bombs and depleted uranium weapons will be felt in Iraq for a long time to come. It is essential that U.S. media push for a full accounting on these issues from the Pentagon. ACTION: Please ask ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly news to seriously investigate the U.S.'s use of cluster bombs and depleted uranium in Iraq. ABC's World News Tonight Phone: 212-456-4040 mailto:PeterJennings@abcnews.com CBS Evening News Phone: 212-975-3691 mailto:evening@cbsnews.com NBC Nightly News Phone: 212-664-4971 mailto:nightly@nbc.com As always, please remember that your comments are taken more seriously if you maintain a polite tone. Please cc fair@fair.org with your correspondence. For more information, see: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, " Iraqi cancers, birth defects blamed on U.S. depleted uranium": http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/95178_du12.shtml Human Rights Watch's resources about cluster bombs: http://www.hrw.org/arms/clusterbombs.php Date: 05/09/03 Time: 05:40 PM Comments For Matilda, "Blinded by Bush-Hatred" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28080-2003May7.html Date: 05/09/03 Time: 05:42 PM Comments 'They Always Blame America First' Another liberal having a sudden bout of good sense is Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, who's revisited Jeane Kirkpatrick's 1984 Republican Convention speech, which he "hated" at the time, and concluded that "it has aged better than I have." This of course was the speech in which the then-U.N. ambassador lambasted the "San Francisco Democrats" with the refrain: "But then, they always blame America first." As Cohen notes, little has changed: That same tendency to blame America for the moral shortcomings of others unfortunately permeates the left and the Democratic Party. I wish it were otherwise, but I got the first whiff of it after Sept. 11 when some people reacted to the terrorist attacks here by blaming U.S. policy--in the Middle East specifically but around the world in general. Had we not supported Israel, had we not backed the corrupt Saudi monarchy, had we not been buddies with Egypt, had we not been somehow complicit in Third World poverty, had we not developed blue jeans and T-shirts and rock music and premarital sex, the World Trade Center might still be standing and the Pentagon untouched. "The impulse to blame America first lingers," Cohen observes, "an atavistic reflex that jerks the knees of too many on the left and has cost the Democratic Party plenty over the years." Indeed. And from the Associated Press, here's a neat refutation of the notion that America was to blame for Sept. 11: A wedding video shot in a Hamburg mosque has been broadcast for the first time and shows grainy scenes of Sept. 11 al-Qaida suicide pilots celebrating with other alleged plotters, possibly including suspects still not formally identified. The video of the October 1999 wedding of Said Bahaji being celebrated in a large room at the al Quds mosque--suspected as a recruiting center for al-Qaida operatives--has been in the hands of investigators since shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. The video depicts, among other things, "a fiery speech by Ramzi Binalshibh, the suspected logistician of the Sept. 11 attacks who is in U.S. custody after his September arrest in Pakistan." At the time of the wedding, Bill Clinton was president, Israel was negotiating peace with the Palestinians, and American-led forces had just liberated the Muslims of Kosovo. "But then, they always blame America first," as Kirkpatrick said in 1984. "The American people know better." Date: 05/09/03 Time: 09:32 PM Comments The New York Times is acknowledging today something that has been obvious from day one of the Baghdad museum heist story: the thefts at the museum were pretty obviously committed by the museum’s own staff. The scenes of disorder at the museum recorded by the television cameras on the first day were a screen for the real story – the objects were stolen by people with access to the museum’s vaults, with keys and codes to let themselves in, with knowledge of which objects were most valuable, and with the international connections to sell them. The museum leadership’s subsequent weeping and keening over the losses was a scene familiar to any reader of Agatha Christie: the prime suspect seeking to deflect suspicion. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/08/international/worldspecial/08CUST.html Date: 05/09/03 Time: 09:39 PM Comments "The repercussions of the U.S. and British use of cluster bombs and depleted uranium weapons will be felt in Iraq for a long time to come. It is essential that U.S. media push for a full accounting on these issues from the Pentagon." Dear Matilda, George Patton, addressing his troops, "Your job is not to die for your country. Your job is make some other poor s.o.b. die for HIS country." Cluster bombs, daisy cutters, MOAB's, depleted uranium (sabot) munitions, et al are tremendously effective (ie: lethal). Hurrah for our material scientists and engineers! What an absolutely terrific display of force the US of A put on Iraq! And for all that, how few casualties on all sides. Date: 05/10/03 Time: 06:00 PM Comments "At 6:15 a.m. on the morning of 9/11, my husband Alan left for work; he drove into New York City, and was at his desk and working at his NASDAQ Security Trading position with Cantor Fitzgerald, in Tower One of the WTC by 7:30 a.m. In contrast, on the morning of September 11, President Bush was scheduled to listen to elementary school children read. Before the President walked into the classroom NORAD had sufficient information that the plane that hit the WTC was hijacked. At that time, they also had knowledge that two other commercial airliners, in the air, were also hijacked. It would seem that a national emergency was in progress. Yet President Bush was allowed to enter a classroom full of young children and listen to the students read. Why didn't the Secret Service inform him of this national emergency? When is a President supposed to be notified of everything the agencies know? Why was the President permitted by the Secret Service to remain in the Sarasota elementary school? Was this Secret Service protocol? In the case of a national emergency, seconds of indecision could cost thousands of lives; and it's precisely for this reason that our government has a whole network of adjuncts and advisors to insure that these top officials are among the first to be informed--not the last. Where were these individuals who did not properly inform these top officials? Where was the breakdown in communication?" This is an excerpt from a letter by Mindy Kleinberg, whose husband was killed on 9/11. You can read her entire letter at: http://www.9-11commission.gov/hearings/hearing1/witness_kleinberg.htm Date: 05/10/03 Time: 06:55 PM Comments "To the shock and awe of skeptics at home and abroad, the Pentagon confirmed this week that it has obtained incontrovertible evidence of Iraqi WMD production. The evidence came in the form of a mobile biological-weapons laboratory -- a mobile lab fitting the precise description of one of the 18 semi-truck labs offered as evidence by Secretary of State Colin Powell before the UN Security Council on 5 February. In his announcement of the discovery, Stephen Cambone, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, concluded: "As time goes by and we learn more, I'm sure we're going to discover that the [WMD] programs are as extensive and as varied as the secretary of state reported in his February address." "While Sec. Powell noted in his testimony before the Security Council that the existence of the labs was "one of the more worrisome signs" of Saddam's WMD development, UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix told the same body in March that there was "no evidence" of such labs, and only "food-testing mobile laboratories and mobile workshops" had been identified. So much for the utility of inspections with a regime intent on deceit." On the subject of suspicious Iraqi trucks, in the last hours before the war broke out, Qusai Hussein and other high-ranking Ba'athist Party members loaded up three tractor-trailers with $1-billion in U.S. and EU currency from Iraq's central bank. Additionally, it is now known that most of the looting of Baghdad's museums took place prior to Baghdad's liberation, at the hands of other fleeing Saddamites. All likely crossed the border into Syria with their French passports, and perhaps on to Europe...." "It is worth noting that the Leftmedia claimed erroneously that the looting of the museums was due to the negligence of coalition forces after the fall of Baghdad, however to date, U.S. forces have recovered and restored some 700 artifacts and 39,400 manuscripts looted fr"om Baghdad's National Museum" http://www.federalist.com/current/ Date: 05/10/03 Time: 06:57 PM Comments " President Bush's address to the American people announcing combat victory in Iraq deserved to be marked with solemnity, not extravagance; with gratitude to God, not self-congratulatory gestures. American blood has been shed on foreign soil in defense of the President's policies. This is not some made-for-TV backdrop for a campaign commercial. This is real life, and real lives have been lost. To me, it is an affront to the Americans killed or injured in Iraq for the President to exploit the trappings of war for the momentary spectacle of a speech. I do not begrudge his salute to America's warriors aboard the carrier Lincoln, for they have performed bravely and skillfully, as have their countrymen still in Iraq, but I do question the motives of a deskbound President who assumes the garb of a warrior for the purposes of a speech." Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia Date: 05/10/03 Time: 07:06 PM Comments It's the vision thing Paul Greenberg http://www.townhall.com/columnists/paulgreenberg/pg20030509.shtml for Matilda Date: 05/10/03 Time: 07:10 PM Comments Dear Senator Byrd, It's been many years since you wore the white robes (and famously remarked that you would never serve with a n***r!). So, you may be out of touch with the current sentiments of our armed forces -- indeed of even your constituents. Even your famously deft political touch seems now to have deserted you -- the more you wail about how good the President looked in a flight suit, the more the news media shows this brilliant photo-op. How our troops love him! Date: 05/11/03 Time: 08:22 AM Comments OVER OUR DEAD BODIES. It's time we as Americans stand up and make ourselves heard. It's time we tell Bush and Rove and his arrogant cronies that they've fatally over-stepped. Abraham Lincoln went to Gettysburg to consecrate that ground, and to give the horrible carnage of that battle meaning - to provide a sacred purpose for America. Can you imagine Lincoln going back to that battlefield, setting up a Chautauqua Tent and using that ground to re-nominate himself in 1864? Can you imagine Franklin Roosevelt giving a fireside chat on Normandy Beach, as a way to insure his re-election in 1944? Americans died here, people. They didn't die so that George Bush would have a swell place to rally the faithful for four more years of Middle East wars, swelling deficits, tax cuts for billionaire campaign contributors, and environmental plunder. Kerry Hart Date: 05/11/03 Time: 09:59 AM Comments Dear Kerry, It's not that we Americans aren't making ourselves heard. It's just the opposite. What you lefties can't deal with is that you've been exposed for the morons you are. Here's a little history lesson for you. Abraham Lincoln in fact fought a difficult re-election campaign in the middle of the war. George McClellan -- a decorated (but incompetent) general ran against honest Abe in a highly political campaign. I suggest you read his Gettysburg address. It wasn't up to Abe to consecrate the battlefield. It wasn't his purpose to "give meaning ... [or] sacred purpose ... for America. And, if you actually did read what the man wrote, Abe's beliefs were the exact opposite of what you twits hold near and dear. Lincoln believed that (and I'm paraphrasing from memory) "Man is entitled to the fruits of his own labor". You dumbasses want the government to take over all means of production and dole out the benefits to the favored few. You just can't deal with Bush's popularity. Go ahead, rally yourselves. You'll guarantee his re-election in a landslide. Date: 05/12/03 Time: 05:05 AM Comments Fourteen principles of fascism....Very interesting read. I'm sure you will recognize every one of them: http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/ecassel/2003/05/07 Date: 05/12/03 Time: 05:16 AM Comments As the nation goes slowly broke, we can still enjoy our breads and circuses. Entertaining the masses is a requirement of any empire that would neglect its people in order to augment its military prowess. The Roman Emperor Commodus battled gladiators in the Coliseum to provide a spectacle that obscured, to a degree, the inevitable decline of the empire. Our spectacle came last week when George W. Bush strutted out of the cockpit of a combat jet adorned in the raiment of a warrior/king. This was the culmination of months of propaganda work – the WMD threat, the Osama link, the 'liberation' of the Iraqi people – that has yet to produce a single thing it promised beyond the fact of war itself. Over one hundred American soldiers, and untold thousands of Iraqi civilians, are now dead. It seems for all the world that the war in Iraq was fought not to free people, or to destroy terrorism, or to annihilate dangerous weapons. It was done to provide George W. Bush with footage for his 2004 "Runnin' on 9-11" Presidential campaign commercials. http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/051203A.shtml Date: 05/12/03 Time: 07:25 AM Comments "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed." -ABRAHAM LINCOLN, November 12, 1864 Date: 05/12/03 Time: 01:10 PM Comments Fourteen principles of facism, anyone? Interesting. Numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,10,12,13 and 14 are certainly true of communist regimes (USSR, China, Yugoslavia, et al). Monarchies have traditionally usurped religeon (number 8). I know of no modern regimes who have shown disdain for (hard) science (11). Are you trying to make a point about Saddam and the baathists? Date: 05/12/03 Time: 04:05 PM Comments To the poor sod who posted twice about our president's adulatory reception by our brave sailors and marines aboard the Abraham Lincoln: The nation to whom I owe sovereignty shows no sign of going broke -- at any speed (although you liberal wackos would have us spend our wealth so as to create a permanent underclass to whom you might bestow favors). OBTW, I found Billy (de Witt) Clinton far more entertaining than GWB, a man who speaks the simple truth without the profound and nuanced blather of big Bill. I'm greatly heartened by your discomfiture. May you all go absolutely nuts and hasten to that marginal state of all the radical fringes. Eventually, a party of adults will replace the Dimocrats and we'll get back to a two party system. Until then, enjoy your irrelevance. Date: 05/12/03 Time: 04:13 PM Comments Dear Abe, Fear not for the future for the Republic is still strong nearly one hundred and fifty years since your death -- despite the best efforts of the pinkos on this board. Date: 05/12/03 Time: 04:47 PM Comments http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030512-10838112.htm Graham charges Bush cover-up on terror facts Audrey Hudson THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published May 12, 2003 Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bob Graham of Florida yesterday accused the Bush administration of "covering up" information vital to protecting the country against future terrorist attacks. The report is said to provide detailed information on activities leading up to the attacks and raises serious policy questions, but the administration has refused to publicly release the report, Mr. Graham said. "By continuing to classify that information so that it's not available to the American people, the American people have been denied important information for their own protection; for the protection of the communities, local agencies have been denied information which would help them be more effective first responders, and the American people do not have the information upon which they can hold the administration and responsible agencies accountable," the senator said. "I call that a cover-up." The other day I looked again at the video of Bush's visit to the Booker Elementary School on 9/11. When he finally got around to making a brief statement, the first thing he did was to promise a "full-scale investigation". And yet, to this day, almost 2 years after the attacks, he has been preventing the facts from coming out and warning senators to stay off it. Is anybody asking WHY?? Matilda Date: 05/13/03 Time: 06:15 AM Comments Gee, Matilda -- a Presidential wannabee (who's so far back in the polls that he's not even a serious candidate for his party's NOMINATION) makes some charges against the incumbent -- and you can't figure out why he doesn't respond? If you'd personally like an answer to Graham's question, write a letter to the White House. I think you'd get a response. Date: 05/13/03 Time: 09:01 AM Comments I have, dear heart....the White House doesn't answer me either.....or anyone else for that matter. You try it, OK? And let me know. Matilda Date: 05/13/03 Time: 03:30 PM Comments Dear Matilda, Why don't you write to Helen Thomas? I should think she would sympathetic to you and Ari still calls on her. Bill Press did raise this subject on MSNBC a few days ago in a piece on Graham. I don't know what's in the report -- I certainly don't know why they're keeping it classified, and I would like to know. But, I think you think there was a vast right wing conspiracy behind 9/11 or perhaps the Jews did it -- so I don't take you seriously. Date: 05/13/03 Time: 09:24 PM Comments For the person who expressed concern that "the nation" was slowly going broke -- were you speaking of France? http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/14/international/europe/1 It seems the good citizens of France extend their leisure time by striking for even more egregious "benefits" -- their regular hobby being killing the few Jews who escaped their attention whilst they were carrying water for the NAZIS. Date: 05/13/03 Time: 10:55 PM Comments Typical Dimocrats. Wanting to spend more money studying President Bush's Aircraft carrier landing than it took to land on it: Comptroller General David Walker, head of the General Accounting Office said Tuesday it would cost too much and take too long to do the study. He also would have to look at similar actions by other presidents and possibly federal lawmakers "in order to do this kind of work in a professional, objective, nonpartisan, fair and balanced manner," Walker said. "In my view, it does not pass a cost-benefit test," he said. Date: 05/13/03 Time: 10:59 PM Comments I didn't think the Dimocrats would sink to this depth. How very sad: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news? Date: 05/14/03 Time: 07:39 AM Comments I've noticed the Dimocrats on this page have not said much about the recent embarrassment of the New York Times. They frequently quote it and say it has no liberal slant. Dimocrats go deeper into their hole: http://www.ncbuy.com/news/wireless_news.html? Date: 05/14/03 Time: 11:33 AM Comments "Of course, as far as anyone in authority seems to know—or admit—the person ostensibly responsible for 9/11 has not yet been hunted down and punished. Then, shortly after the Afghanistan “war” and for reasons increasingly thought to be about petroleum dominance, keeping Halliburton and Bechtel in full employment and exposing the “American People” to Donald Rumsfeld’s and Paul Wolfowitz’s cojones, Mr. Bush vowed to “rid Iraq of weapons of mass blah-blah and hunt down and punish those responsible.” Readers with a conscience and even a gnat’s memory span will recall that this led to the same president recently unilaterally ordering the “Christian Coalition of Two” to penetrate Iraq without U.N. approval to find and eliminate the vast quantities weapons of mass blah-blah that threaten the United States within 24 hours and hunt down and punish those responsible. And, of course, as far as anyone in authority seems to know—or admit—the person ostensibly responsible has not yet been hunted down and punished nor has one single weapon of mass blah-blah been found." Date: 05/14/03 Time: 11:55 AM Comments BAD PRACTICE SENDING OUT UNSOLICITED EMAILS (SPAM) TO WORK ADDRESSES. Date: 05/14/03 Time: 01:05 PM Comments OK, before liberals on this page add Jayson Blair to their idiotic conspiracy theories: http://www.chronwatch.com/featured/contentDisplay.asp?aid=2670 Date: 05/15/03 Time: 05:08 AM Comments "Of course, as far as anyone in authority seems to know—or admit—the person ostensibly responsible for 9/11 has not yet been hunted down and punished. “ Of course, if you could write coherently, you might not feel as frustrated as you apparently do. I’m sorry you hate our President. I’m really proud of him and our country. What you ultra-liberals fail to understand is how the President’s words and deeds resonate in his countrymen’s hearts and souls. On September 11, 2001 this nation was attacked ON OUR OWN SOIL by an insane (and cowardly) band of thieves and murderers. These people – and those who give them aid and comfort -- must be killed (you libs would say, “neutralized”). Immediately after 9/11, we were attacked with a biologic agent, Anthrax. No culprit has been named, but this deed underscored to our nation that we could not permit Weapons of Mass Destruction to fall into the hands of the crazies who would do us harm. Iraq has been liberated. It is now less likely that force will be needed to improve the behaviors of Syria, Iraq, and North Korea. Imagine what our world would be like if Al Gore had been elected President. Now you know why we love Bush. Date: 05/15/03 Time: 05:24 AM Comments Just a reminder for the dims on this page. They found mass graves with 3000 bodies of men, women and children killed by Saddam since 1991. You all are still saying we were wrong to invade and had no business there. You still support Saddam over our President. Sick. Date: 05/15/03 Time: 05:41 AM Comments "For years, many governments played down the threats of Islamic revolution, turned a blind eye to international terrorism and accepted the development of weaponry of mass destruction. Indeed, some politicians were happy to go further, collaborating with the self-proclaimed enemies of the West for their own short-term gain — but enough about the French. So deep had the rot set in that the UN security council itself was paralysed... Our own Prime Minister was staunch and our forces were superb. But, above, all, it is President Bush who deserves the credit for victory... There are too many people who imagine that there is something sophisticated about always believing the best of those who hate your country, and the worst of those who defend it." Margaret Thatcher, in New York yesterday. Date: 05/15/03 Time: 05:58 AM Comments Matilda, you should read Andrew Sullivan's review of Sid Blumenthal's new book, "The Clinton Wars". http://www.observer.com/pages/frontpage5.asp Date: 05/15/03 Time:** 12:26 PM Comments Do you know if there were any countries involved in the Watergate Scandal?
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Last updated on 05/16/03