Unreal:
Gruesome videotape allegedly shows brutal Fedayeen Saddam punishment
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A gruesome videotape found in April by U.S. troops in Iraq allegedly shows the brutal punishment administered by the Fedayeen Saddam to enforce discipline under the regime of Saddam Hussein. *snip*
“Allegedly”?? This isn’t “alleged” - this HAPPENED!
… with their references to Vietnam as it relates to Iraq (sigh):
However spurious any analogy between the two wars themselves may be, you can tell that the administration itself now fears that Iraq is becoming a Vietnam by the way it has started to fear TV news. When an ABC News reporter, Jeffrey Kofman, did the most stinging major network report on unhappiness among American troops last summer, Matt Drudge announced on his Web site that Mr. Kofman was gay and, more scandalously, a Canadian — information he said had been provided to him by a White House staffer. This month, as bad news from Iraq proliferated, Mr. Bush pulled the old Nixon stunt of trying to “go over the heads of the filter and speak directly to the people” about the light at the end of the tunnel. In this case, “the people” meant the anchors of regional TV companies like Tribune Broadcasting, Belo and Hearst-Argyle.
Take a look at this cartoon.
Are you listening, France and Germany? Tidbits:
A top Iraqi official attending an international conference on raising funds to rebuild Iraq warned Thursday that France and Germany’s limited donations would not be forgotten.
Ayad Allawi, the current head of Iraq’s U.S.-appointed governing council, said he hoped German and French officials would reconsider their decision not to boost their contributions beyond funds already pledged through the European Union.
“As far as Germany and France are concerned, really, this was a regrettable position they had,” Allawi said. “I don’t think the Iraqis are going to forget easily that in the hour of need, those countries wanted to neglect Iraq.”
Finally! Now where does this woman’s family go from here?
Invoking a law rushed through the Legislature only an hour earlier, Gov. Jeb Bush ordered a feeding tube reinserted Tuesday into a brain-damaged woman at the center of one of the nation’s longest and most bitter right-to-die battles.
The bill was designed to save the life of Terri Schiavo, whose parents have fought for several years to keep her alive. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, says she would rather die.
The woman was taken by ambulance later Tuesday from the hospice where she had gone without food or water for six days. She was to be given fluids at a Clearwater hospital before again being fed through a tube.
NRO nails it yet again. Here are the last two paragraphs but please read the entire thing. Great links included within!
If one has the time or professional duty to connect these dots, a portrait emerges of Saddam Hussein as sugar daddy to global terrorists, including al Qaeda and perhaps the 9/11 conspirators. Why won’t Team Bush paint this picture? One administration communications specialist told me the government is bashful on this front because these links are difficult to prove. Yes, but prosecuting the informational battle in the war on terror is not like prosecuting a Mafia don, with wiretaps, hidden cameras and deep-cover “stool pigeons.” Evidence of terrorist ties can be even more shadowy than a Costa Nostra whack job. While this makes metaphysical proof elusive, the White House and relevant agencies owe it to America’s national security to highlight what they know about Saddam Hussein and terrorism, even if some of the evidence against him is only circumstantial.
Assuming he wishes to sway domestic and global opinion, President Bush and his administration should guide Americans and the world through the sometimes-murky data and identify the patterns and conclusions that arise. While Saddam Hussein never may endure a courtroom cross-examination, plenty already exists in the public record (and surely more should be declassified) to confirm that his ouster, the liberation of Iraq and its current rehabilitation were and are necessary phases of the war on terror. The president and his top advisers should present the case, not haphazardly, but systematically and in as comprehensive, well-documented, and well-illustrated a fashion as their vast resources will allow.
Howard Dean’s been making a habit lately out of either outright questioning patriotism, or saying that the flag “doesn’t belong to” various right wing public figures. Let’s recap some headlines from the last few months:
Arrests in Iraq fuel renewed attacks on Bush “John Ashcroft is not a patriot,” he [Dean] said. “John Ashcroft is a descendant of Joseph McCarthy.”descendant of Joseph McCarthy? Those are strong words. Let not a Republican say them. He’s also tried to paint himself as a Boston Tea Party revolutionary war type with W playing the “monarch” role:
Dean Invokes Boston Tea Party, Rips ‘King’ George Dean drew parallels between his own grass-roots campaign for the White House and the Boston Tea Party, a protest against British tax policies 230 years ago that sowed the seeds of the American Revolutionary war. He said that like King George III, the British monarch against whom American colonists rebelled, Bush had “forgotten his own people” and was listening only to special interests.
And from that same link, we learn to whom the flag REALLY belongs: “This democracy and the flag of the United States do not belong to Rush Limbaugh, and Jerry Falwell, and Tom DeLay, and John Ashcroft, and Dick Cheney,” Dean said as he listed prominent conservatives. “This flag and this country belong to us and we want our country back.”
Well, he’s at it again. Trying to tell us to whom the flag DOESN’T and DOES belong. Here’s the latest:
Dean Gets Standing Ovation from Arab-Americans “It [the flag] does not belong to General Boykin, or John Ashcroft, or Rush Limbaugh or Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson,” the former Vermont governor said to cheers in the packed hotel conference room in the Detroit suburb which is home to one of the highest concentrations of Muslims and Arabs outside the Middle East. “This flag belongs to every single American, including every single American in this room, and is the hope and aspiration for many other folks who are not yet citizens,” he said.
I see General Boykin has been added to the list. Lucky him! I wonder if Dean would add me, and other right wingers who support the Bush administration, to his list of people to whom the flag doesn’t belong. Apparently, to Howard Dean and some other Democrats, the questioning of one’s patriotism, wrapping oneself in the flag, and painting oneself as a revolutionary is ok to do - as long as it’s a Democrat doing it. This man is one of the most divisive legitimate presidential candidates I can recall in recent history. I find it reprehensible that he paints himself as the true patriot, a revolutionary, wraps himself in the flag, and tells Americans just who can claim the American flag as their own - but others who invoke images of the flag (Republicans) are criticized for it. Who the hell is he to decide who possesses the flag? THAT FLAG BELONGS TO ALL OF US! What I find more shocking is the lack of condemnation from the DC Democrats of whom we’d normally hear the howls of outrage had these comments come from a Republican.
Japan to Send Cash And Troops to Iraq
Bucking Polls, Koizumi Will Back Bush
TOKYO Oct. 10 — Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will make a direct pledge to President Bush of both money and troops for Iraq when the two leaders meet in Tokyo next week, Japanese government sources said Friday.
Koizumi’s offer to Bush, who will kick off a swing through Asia with a stop in Japan on Oct. 17, is designed to end lingering U.S. doubts about Japan’s commitment to the U.S.-led effort in Iraq. Koizumi was one of the few Asian leaders to clearly support the war, and his administration has pledged on several occasions to chip in both troops and money.*snip*
Something some liberals out there will no doubt laugh at. Thanks to those who haven’t. His statement in its entirety.
A Clinton operation from top to bottom (scroll down for article):
More hard-core Clintonistas are joining the Wesley Clark campaign, after the son of former DNC chairman Don Fowler, Donnie Fowler, stepped down as campaign manager.
Fowler, who with the help of a few longtime Clark and Clinton loyalists in Arkansas got the “Draft Clark” operation up and running a few months ago, locked horns with Bill and Hillary loyalist Mark Fabiani, who has been working as the retired general’s communications guru. Fowler also clashed with the campaign’s chairman, Eli Segal, another old Clinton hand, and campaign advisers Ron Klain and Mickey Kantor, two mainstays of the Clinton-Gore years.
Now, those four will assume most of the duties Fowler undertook, and bring in former Clinton White House spokesman and Sen. John Kerry flack, Chris Lehane, who is expected to officially join the Clark team sometime in the next week.*snip*
IMO, if Wes Clark has any intentions of succeeding in this, he might want to reconsider having the Clinton crowd giving him advice. That hasn’t helped too many people in the last year or so ….
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov » | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
