Iraq claims U.S. tampered with report: Although in Qatar during a news conference, Rumsfeld said the US got the report first because the UN wanted them to duplicate it. Does the UN not have xerox machines? Yea, I’m not buying this.
Society
10
Dec 02
Parameters
PARAMETERS: The US Army War College Quarterly has a new Winter 2002 Issue. Some good articles to check out. You know if they quote Machiavelli at the head of the article that it’s going to be tasty.
08
Dec 02
More US Lies and Waffling
Now that Iraq has released a 12,000 page document the US suddenly doesn’t want to present any evidence it says it has. Where is the evidence and why is the Bush syndicate scared to share the information? Simple answer, the US government is lying through its proverbial teeth. Props to Iraq for playing the politics game with equal if not more adept skill than the legions of professional liars in the Bush administration.
US withholds weapons data from inspectors:
The Bush administration has told United Nations inspectors that it will not provide them with intelligence information on suspected weapons sites in Iraq, as agreed in the UN resolution on inspections, until it examines the weapons declaration Baghdad has submitted.
The comments by Mohamed ElBaradei, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and one of the two senior inspectors, reflects growing tension between the inspectors, along with some other members of the Security Council, and the White House as inspections have begun and visible US preparations for war continue.
Both Dr ElBaradei and chief UN inspector Hans Blix have expressed consternation over the increasing US insistence that it has firm evidence that Iraq is lying when it says it has no weapons of mass destruction, while at the same time refusing to share that evidence with the inspectors – as Mr Bush pledged to do.
08
Dec 02
Germany slashes defence spending
The German government yesterday announced sweeping cuts in its defence spending in a move that will infuriate Nato and hamper plans to reshape the army for modern warfare.
The defence minister, Peter Struck, said the German army, air force and navy had to make drastic cuts in equipment and slim down their organisational structures to save resources.
07
Dec 02
The Butcher of Crawford
I really hate Bush and everything he represents. Stupidity, hypocrisy, self-righteousness, arrogance, deceit. Hate is too strong a word, but I am bothered and disgusted by the way in which this man and his cronies have planned and plotted this war we are about to start. A war against a weak and poor nation whose despotic leader we supported for decades. A war that has been in the works for who knows how long, at least a long time before ‘9-11’. A war by a group of bullies who lead a credulous people into believing that what they do is right and proper and justified instead of being honest that we want something they have.
We are about to commit murder. The taxes we funnel into this criminal enterprise will be used to destroy human beings. People who want nothing more than to keep on waking up every day. Some of our own people may even die. Although, I don’t see the difference in value between an American life and an Iraqi life. How can we pretend to cherish life and freedom while supporting murderers of people?
If I believed in a just God I would pray for something unlawful, but I’m not even sure that prayer, that act of thought crime, if granted would do much if anything to change things. As long as people can be deceived by a worthless fraud of a man nothing will change. As long as we value the life of an American over the life of another human being nothing will change. What can we offer this world if we are nothing but bullies and cowards?
Related:
06
Dec 02
Jobless Rate Hits 6%
The unemployment rate has hit its highest levels in 9 years. That’s not even taking into account the millions of people who have to work 2 jobs each to support their families. The Bush administration offered up two scapegoats, Paul O’Neill and Lawrence Lindsey, to cover for its complete and utter lack of economic initiative or sound policy. Who woulda thunk it that a huge tax cut to the richest Americans would fail so miserably? The richest Americans, even from a capitalist perspective, don’t create jobs unless you consider cleaning mansions a good job. This is a bad sign of things to come. On the other hand, if we hit 10% unemployment maybe people will start looking to hang someone from the streetlights in Washington and things might get done.
04
Dec 02
US Occupation in Afghanistan
Our interests are not served by oppressing an entire people. Now we’re spreading out into other parts of Afghanistan not controlled by the American warlord ‘President’ Hamid Karzai.
US plans security enclaves in dozen Afghan cities: Report:
The Pentagon has decided to create security enclaves in a dozen or so Afghan cities instead of being confined to Kabul in order to let American military and aid officials operate safely in the war-ravaged country.
US engineers, diplomats and aid workers protected by American and British troops will deploy this month in Gardez in Eastern Afghanistan to set up the first of several enclaves intended as hubs for reconstruction efforts, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
According to the daily, some State Department officials suggested that if successful in Afghanistan, the approach could be used in Iraq in the event of a regime change there.
03
Dec 02
Mayberry Machiavellis
This was too funny. I have to start using this phrase. Of course, Ari Fleischer got his panties in a bunch. I saw some bullshit story about how women apparently find him very sexy. Gag me. He always has his mouth hanging open like some sort of waterhead. Remember, if you work for Hitler Jr. and his minions no criticism or you will feel Ari’s wrath. It’s a good sign that even many influential Republicans have little respect for the Bush gang.
Ex-Bush Aide Apologizes for Criticism
A former senior aide to President Bush apologized yesterday after being quoted as saying a band of “Mayberry Machiavellis” is running a White House in which politics trumps policy.
The Esquire magazine article — which extensively quoted John J. DiIulio Jr., the former head of Bush’s stalled effort to aid religious charities — represents a rare criticism by a one-time insider of a Bush White House that has placed a near-total lid on internal dissent.
01
Dec 02
No end to government corruption
Reuters: US Government Asks Court to Seal Vaccine Records:
WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) – Attorneys for the Bush Administration asked a federal court on Monday to order that documents on hundreds of cases of autism allegedly caused by childhood vaccines be kept from the public.
Department of Justice lawyers asked a special master in the US Court of Federal Claims to seal the documents, arguing that allowing their automatic disclosure would take away the right of federal agencies to decide when and how the material should be released. …
The court is currently hearing approximately 1,000 claims brought by the families of autistic children. The suits charge that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, which until recently included a mercury-containing preservative known as thimerosal, can cause neurological damage leading to autism.
Federal law requires suits against vaccine makers to go before a special federal “vaccine court” before any civil lawsuit is allowed. The court was set up by Congress to speed compensation claims and to help protect vaccine makers from having to pay large punitive awards decided by juries in state civil courts. Plaintiffs are free to take their cases to state courts if they lose in the federal vaccine court or if they don’t accept the court’s judgment.
The current 1,000 or so autism cases are unusual for the court. Because it received so many claims, much of the fact-finding and evidence-gathering is going on for all of the cases as a block.
NY Times: Justice Dept. Seeks to Seal Vaccine Papers
Lawyers for the families said they were outraged by today’s move. They said the government was trying to prevent families from obtaining damaging information about the preservative, which could later be used against drug companies in civil courts.
“We’re dealing with real injury to real children in a program that is funded by taxpayer dollars,” said Michael R. Hugo, a Boston lawyer. “It is unbelievable to me that the president of the United States, in the name of trying to help the drug industry, would put the interests of the drug industry over the interests of neurologically impaired sick children and their parents.”
Today’s move comes on the heels of another controversy involving thimerosal.
Congressional Republicans inserted a provision into the domestic security bill, signed into law on Monday by President Bush, that is intended to protect Eli Lilly, thimerosal’s manufacturer, from lawsuits over the preservative. The provision would force families to seek compensation through the vaccine court instead of civil courts.