Kissing Saudi Ass

The only evidence you need that President Bush is losing the "war on terror" is this: On Sunday, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia said that relations with the United States "couldn't be better."

Tell that to the parents of those who have died in two wars defending this corrupt spawning ground of violent extremism. Never mind the ugly facts: We are deeply entwined with Saudi Arabia even though it shares none of our values and supports our enemies. Yet on Friday, Bush senior and VP Cheney made another in a long line of obsequious American pilgrimages to Riyadh to assure the Saudis that we continue to be grateful for the punishment they dish out.

"The relationship has tremendously improved with the United States," Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al Faisal told a news conference in Riyadh. "With the government, of course, it is very harmonious, as it ever was. Whether it has returned to the same level as it was before in terms of public opinion [in both countries], that is debatable."

Well, score one for public opinion. It makes sense to distrust the mercenary and distasteful alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia. We protect the repressive kingdom that spawned Osama bin Laden, and most of the 9/11 hijackers, in exchange for the Saudis keeping our fecklessly oil-addicted country lubricated.

Yes, it has stuck deep in the craw of many of us Americans that after 9/11, Washington squandered global goodwill and a huge percentage of our resources invading a country that had nothing to do with Al Qaeda, while continuing to pander to this dysfunctional dynasty. After all, Saudi Arabia is believed to have paid bin Laden's murderous gang millions in protection money in the years before 9/11, and it lavishly funds extremist religious schools throughout the region that preach and teach anti-Western jihad.

"Al Qaeda found fertile fundraising ground in the kingdom," noted the 9/11 commission report in one of its many careful understatements. The fact is, without Saudi Arabia, there would be no Al Qaeda today! (from THE NATION)

--WHAT A FRIEND!

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PAINE-ful Times!

THESE are the times that try men's souls. . . Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us. . . it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. [America]. . ., with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX [all but the rich]) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER [as in the 'patriot act']," and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God [?]. . .

I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which wisdom could invent. Neither have I so much of the infidel in me, as to suppose that He has relinquished the government of the world, and given us up to the care of devils; and as I do not, I cannot see on what grounds the [American President]. . .can look up to heaven for help. . .: a common murderer, a highwayman, or a house-breaker, has as good a pretence as he. . .

'Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country. All nations and ages have been subject to them. . .Their duration is always short; the mind soon grows through them, and acquires a firmer habit than before. But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered. In fact, they have the same effect on secret traitors, which an imaginary apparition would have upon a private murderer. They sift out the hidden thoughts of man, and hold them up in public to the world. . .

But, before the line of irrecoverable separation be drawn between us, let us reason the matter together: [President Bush] your conduct is an invitation to the enemy. . . [The enemy] is as much deceived by you as the American cause is injured by you. . .Your opinions are of no use. . .

America did not, nor does not want force; but she wanted a proper application of that force. Wisdom is not the purchase of a day, and it is no wonder that we should err at the first setting off. From an excess of tenderness, we were unwilling to raise an army, and trusted our cause to the temporary defence of a well-meaning militia [but not that of it's Commander]. A summer's experience has now taught us better; yet with those troops, while they were collected, we were able to set bounds to the progress of the enemy. . .I turn with the warm ardor of a friend to those who have nobly stood, and are yet determined to stand the matter out. . .

My own line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear as a ray of light. Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder. . .There are cases which cannot be overdone by language, and this is one. There are persons, too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them. . . It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both.



-edited from:
The American Crisis No. 1
COMMON SENSE by Thomas Paine
December 23, 1776

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Oppose Roberts Nomination!

After listening to Nina Totenberg's reportage on NPR of Robert's past legal writings while holding various positions at various times in repub White Houses and Justice Depts., it is more than clear that this guy is off the deep right wing end of the political pier! As already right wing his repub bosses were, he again and again urged them to take extreme hard line positions against affirmative action, environmental laws, voting rights and more. . .

We know more than enough to know that this guy is the wrong guy for the Supreme Court. We can't afford to have another right-wing ideologue on our nation's highest court.

Click on the Move On link on the sidebar to send your Senators a message opposing Roberts.

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Rove Revelations

We now know White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove revealed the identity of a CIA operative, proving that he can’t be trusted with classified information. For the sake of national security and to protect America’s defenders in the line of fire, President Bush needs to revoke his security clearance and get him out of the White House before he leaks another secret.

Background:

In his State of the Union message in 2003, George Bush said that Saddam Hussein was trying to get uranium from Niger. In the following weeks, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson disclosed that he was sent to Niger by the CIA to look into this and had reported to top administration officials months before the speech that there was no Niger-Iraq uranium connection. In a discussion with a reporter at Time magazine about Wilson’s disclosure, Rove said that Wilson’s wife was the CIA operative who sent him to Niger. Three days later columnist Robert Novak published the fact that Plame was a CIA operative thus ending her career, possibly endangering her life and ending an important operation.

Knowing what we all do about the ethical laxity of Karl Rove, it can be assumed he was punishing Wilson for embarrassing the President. Yet, if Rove exposed Wilson’s wife, a covert member of the CIA’s weapons of mass destruction team, it would be an act of treason. Rove’s lawyer counters that he didn’t know she was a covert operative and didn’t mean any harm (yah right) . Either way his disclosure was dangerous to national security!

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More Bush BS

As predicted, Bush’s latest Iraqi 'policy' (word used loosely) speech was actually a rehashing of the same tired material he’s been using on Iraq for years and we're not going into that crap again here.

He even invoked the name of Osama Bin Laden (heretofore seemingly forgotten by him) two distinct times. More shockingly, yet expectedly, he played the unsubstantiated 9/11-Iraq card, not once, but twice, thrice. . .five mentions in all for the terrorist attack that everyone else knows but him apparently, had absolutely nothing to do with the war in Iraq. This administration just doesn't know how NOT to lie.

Sadly- no new policy, no new strategy. . .

--Bush gets the prize for including more bullshit and lies in a single 'foreign policy' speech than any other president since Richard Nixon!

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Stop FDA Appointment!

Bush has nominated another rightwing Christian fundamentalist kook- Lester Crawford, who has helped block attempts to improve women's access to birthcontrol, for the top job at the FDA. One major example: during his tenure as acting commissioner, the FDA has ignored the recommendation from its own scientific and medical experts and blocked an application to make the morning-after pill available without a prescription.

Take action today to block his appointment to FDA:
Click on the Link in this post and speak out with Sens. Patty Murray from Washington and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who are holding up his nomination until the FDA acts on the application.

Also, urge your senators to join Sens. Murray and Clinton and oppose Crawford!

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Frist Follies

Sen. Frist has proven to be no better a doctor than he has a majority leader!

Note this from Salon Magazine:

The results of Terri Schiavo's autopsy are in, and they make one Senate Majority Leader look very foolish. According to Pinellas-Pasco, Florida medical examiner Jon Thogmartin, Schiavo's brain had suffered massive and irreversible damage; it "weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight of a human brain." Thogmartin also refuted assertions from Shiavo's parents and some members of the GOP that Schiavo could have recovered: "This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons."

But the kicker for those who tuned in to the footage of Schiavo seeming to follow the movement of helium balloons with her eyes is that the autopsy results show that "the vision centers of her brain were dead." In other words, Schiavo was blind!

. . .[It] is pretty much the opposite of what Bill Frist said in his "diagnosis" of Schiavo's condition back in March. Speaking from the Senate floor during a special late-night session, Frist disputed Schiavo's doctors' diagnosis of persistent vegetative state. "I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office," he said in a lengthy speech in which he quoted medical texts and standards. "She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli [lol]."

-I take back a recent post asking readers to call Congress for a doctor's appointment. . .

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Apology to Edwards

In a recent post, "Wannabe Dem Preses Out of Touch!", I criticized Mr. Edwards for seemingly criticizing Dean's latest slam against the rich repubs. I am afraid I took Mr. Edwards remarks out of context (as did the newspaper where I got the quote!).

At the One America Committe Blog I read the whole of his remarks in response to a comment to my post above, directing me there. It is clear Edwards is quite 'sympatico' with the Dean statement, clarifying and identifying with it in less clumsy language than Dean's, perhaps. It's nice to know Mr. Edwards is still on the side of the poor and working class and isn't afraid to say so!

KEEP UP THE GOOD FIGHT EDWARDS!!! (Click on the Link to read the entire text and this response!)
-my post's remarks about Biden STAND-

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Pres Bush TOTALLY Out of Touch!

"A clear majority of Americans say President Bush is ignoring the public's concerns and instead has become distracted by issues that most people say they care little about, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey found that 58 percent of those interviewed said Bush is mainly concentrating in his second term on problems and partisan squabbles that these respondents said were unimportant to them. Four in 10--41 percent--said the president was focused on important problems--a double-digit drop from three years ago.

. . .According to the poll, nearly eight in 10 Democrats say Bush is not concentrating on issues they personally view as vital while three out of four Republicans disagree.

Ominously for Bush and the Republicans, a strong majority of self-described political independents--68 percent--say they disagreed with the president's priorities. That suggests Bush's mixed record in the second term on issues the public views as critical--particularly on Iraq and the economy--may be as much a liability for GOP candidates in next year's mid-term election. . .

Overall, the president's job approval rating stood at 48 percent, virtually identical to where it was last month. Currently 52 percent of the public disapproves of the job Bush is doing as president, the highest negative rating of his performance since taking office.

Continuing violence in Iraq continues to fuel negative views of the White House. Four in 10 Americans currently approve of the job that Bush is doing in Iraq while 58 percent disapproved. It marked the 13th consecutive month that less than half of the country approved of Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq.

A total of 1,002 randomly selected adults were interviewed June 2-5 for this survey. Margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus 3 percentage points."

-from the Washington Post

What can I say?

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Wannabe Dem Preses Out of Touch!

DNC Chairman Howard Dean said Thursday that perhaps Republicans can wait in line to cast ballots because a "lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives."

Asked whether Dean is doing the party any good, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del) said, "Not with that kind of rhetoric. He doesn't speak for me with that kind of rhetoric. And I don't think he speaks for the majority of Democrats. . . . I wish that rhetoric would change."

John Edwards, the party's vice presidential nominee last year, said at an annual party fundraising dinner Saturday in Nashville that he disagreed with Dean's comment. "The chairman of the DNC is not the spokesman for the party," Edwards said, according to the Associated Press. "He's a voice. I don't agree with it."

-Biden and Edwards, two of the wannabe dem candidates for pres in 08 are just out of touch! It's why if they continue to equivocate and fence sit on attitudes and issues important to the dem party base- they will lose. America already has a repub party. If its a choice between two of them, they will choose the original- guaranteed!

Dean's remarks reflect not only reality, but the heartfelt opinions of the dem party base and working America in general. It is the touch of reality a dem candidate of the people should 'feel the pain' of- like the last successful dem candidate for pres did.

It's time dem leaders and wannabe pres candidates stopped worrying about offending the rich and start defending the rest of us. Otherwise, we are consigned to another round of repub plutocrat rule!

PLANET PATRIOT

President Protests Amnesty Report TOO Much

Despite the President's protestations to the contrary, Amnesty International's condemnation of the American military's torture of 'detainees' both here and abroad, is damning and factually based! Note this from their report:

Hundreds of detainees continued to be held without charge or trial at the US naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Thousands of people were detained during US military and security operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and routinely denied access to their families and lawyers. Military investigations were initiated or conducted into allegations of torture and ill-treatment of detainees by US personnel in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and into reports of deaths in custody and ill-treatment by US forces elsewhere in Iraq, and in Afghanistan and Guantánamo. Evidence came to light that the US administration had sanctioned interrogation techniques that violated the UN Convention against Torture. Pre-trial military commission hearings opened in Guantánamo but were suspended pending a US court ruling. . .

More on this and a complete rundown of abuses of civil rights in the U.S. can be found at the Amnesty Internation website. Just click on the link.

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