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Subj: Stay Informed 1.17 - Bored As Hell

This last night from Anderson Cooper’s show on CNN:

"President Bush is confirming some of Paul O'Neill's claims. He said he did let O'Neill talk for 45 minutes without saying anything, not because he was disengaged but because he was, quote, "bored as hell." O'Neill was treasury secretary at the time, boring the president with boring facts about the boring economy which affects the lives of millions of boring Americans."

*sigh*

Justin

We see john kerry has been paling around with his old army buddies.......................has bush been paling around with any of his? OH! THAAAAT'S RIGHT! NO ONE CAN REMEMBER HIM FROM THOSE DAYS! :):):):):)

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subj: Letter found in the locker of an 18 yr.old(Iraq)

This letter was so heart-wrenching for me. After my brother died in VietNam....there were so many things sent to us...months later. And, at that time, after I found out what a horrid war that was (a box of cookies I had sent him for Easter, a box of crumbs actually) I started to think about their real lives!

He always wrote words of praise to us, his family, but a cousin who got letters from him, said he told her the truth....a lot of times! He told about how they had done that day in words like "They will not mess with the 102nd airborne again!!!"

When we went to our granddaughters graduation from boot camp in S. Carolina, the look in the eyes, and the things said, are just unbelievable...unless you have someone there, it is so hard to understand!! She was having a good time then, compared to now!

But, she is still that trained seal that this man's army trains!!

As we were going back to her living quarters, with her dad, her boyfriend and me and my husband....we passed this fenced, austere building, and even before I asked, I knew what it was. "Kara, what is that?" And she said, "Oh, that is our brig. One guy from my troop is there now, doing life!" And I said "Life, just for going awol (Jerkass Bush popped into my mind...I don't know why, but he did!)...anyway, she said, "Oh, yeah, if I go awol ... the president could have me shot!!!"

Now, I would not repeat this to anyone, until I checked with my husband, to see if I heard right (my husband being a dyed in the wool republican).

I said to him "Did you hear her say that?" And he said, Yes he did, but he couldn't help but think she had made a mistake..........Huh.........she was graduating that day!

I am now glad that he heard it and admitted it, 'cause no one in this family would believe it...and if her dad heard it, he would not admit it!!

Yes, hopefully, by Nov. 2004...we will start to mend...Blessed are the Peacemakers and the people on BuzzFlash that keep me sane!!

Shirley..........St. Louis

Re: Ridge Putting Liaison in Hollywood??

The Department of Homeland Security is made up of 180,000 staffers, Ridge said. "From your point of view, 180,000 stories," he told the TV execs. "Hopefully, I look forward to your portrayal of their quiet patriotism and their quiet heroism. If we can be in assistance in that effort, I hope you call on us."

Oh, now we get it. Why didn't you just say that in the first place, Tom? Think of all the titillating stories waiting to be told about the Homeland Security Department! I'm getting heart palpitations already. (I hope we don't have to hear all 180,000 of them).

Buzz, you're doing a great job covering this election, along with everything else. I'm telling everyone I know to go to BuzzFlash for their election coverage and skip the crap in the mainstream media. Look what they did to Dean. Keep the faith, Dean supporters. He's being Gore-ified. But it ain't over 'til it's over.

Barbara in NYC

Subj: Hearing on Budget & Economic Outlook

Dear Buzz,

Another sleepless C-Span night, tossing & turning, listening to the mean old Republicans and the seemingly powerless Democrats in Congress debating the future of our country (and my old age), this time the dismal report on the U.S. budget.

Hearing on the Budget and Economic Outlook for FY '05-14 (01/27/2004) (Link to Video)

Too many times Social Security was discussed –that there won’t be any money left by 2017 when the boomers “retire”(myself included). Doing away with SS entirely seems to be a goal for a number Republicans to help them balance the budget …It’s just so unnerving to keep hearing it being given serious consideration. Where is the middle class? Don’t they know that the Social Security funds are up for grabs? Personally, I’ll be working through my old age until I can’t get around any more, but I have no savings to speak of. If I did manage to have a savings on my $40,000 a year, it wouldn’t be enough to keep me from being homeless when I get too old and feeble to work.

It surely seems to me that privatizing Social Security is a baby step toward the goal of the Republicans and the present administration - “Starve The Beast.”

http://www.c-span.org/

Kathy
Boca Raton, FL

Subj: Al Franken's side of the story

I don't like the way the right is smearing Al Franken. Now two DJs in DC just bad mouthed him because they read the NY Post and/or NewsMax. For what really happened, this is from www.alfrankenweb.com:

Jan 27. Smear. The Fox-owned NY Post and conservative magazines have launched a smear campaign against Al Franken by taking one incident out of context. Here, we are given the image of an unstable Al Franken attacking a poor man without warrant. In the NY Post, no description of the heckler is mentioned except that he was "shouting accusations." Newsmax portrays the heckler as the victim. Sounds bad, doesn't it? Al Franken just attacking innocent hecklers. Indeed, the way the story is framed in the conservative papers makes Franken sound bad. However, both of the conservative papers took the incident completely out of context. Indeed, they failed to mention some important parts of the story:

Point #1: The Heckler First Attacked People. According to Palace Theatre's manager, the heckler attacked the security guards and the theater manager:

Two members of Dean's security team immediately moved in on the man, who shoved and elbowed them, Ramsey said.

"He was screaming. He was out of control," Ramsey said.

Ramsey said he went over to help calm the situation and also got elbowed and pushed.

Point #2: Out of Control Attacker Then Presented Danger to Dean and Crowd. So what else did the heckler do that the conservative media did not report? He posed a potential danger to Howard Dean who, since he is a presidential candidate, is always subject to risk.

The protester had clambered over two or three people and had perched himself on the balcony railing.

"I thought he was going to jump. He was screaming at Dean. I was scared for a minute that he was going to jump on the stage and attack Dean," Ramsey said.

One New Hampshire voter sitting in the balcony said the heckler "kind of barreled through like a Patriots fullback."

"The way he moved, I thought he was going to jump or something," Wendy Branch of Northwood said. "Even if he didn't intend to jump, he was setting himself up for a fall. It was a little alarming."

Point #3: Franken Subdued the Attacker Only After He was Attacked. Al Franken was with the security guards trying to help get the heckler out of the room. However, it was only after the heckler physically attacked Franken and broke his glasses that Franken resorted to a wrestling move intended to subdue the attacker:

Ramsey said a news photographer later told him Franken reacted to being elbowed by the protester, who knocked his glasses off.

Indeed, while the Post used loaded language - "'body-slammed" - the reality is Franken subdued a man who had already assaulted two security guards. Indeed, this is why the theater manager said:

I never met Al Franken before. He is now my new hero

Summary: Why did such a potentially scandalous story have so few details in the NY Post and Newsmax? Why were the New York Post and Newsmax.com slim on details of the protestor and his actions? The answer is that presenting the full and real story would detract from the ambiguous and negative picture presented of Franken, as you saw in points 1-3 ...

The conservative media will continue to spin this in the way they see fit: Nut-case Franken assaulted an innocent man without warrant. Put Franken in jail! However, as a complete account from people there showed, the conservative media left out crucial details of an affair in which Al helped security guards stop an angry assaulter who attacked others and further presented a danger to the people around him.

Brian

If you told a cop that four years ago you saw your neighbor doing something illegal, do you think they'd automatically storm his house and arrest him? Wouldn't they want to know what he's up to now?

Isn't it ironic that a complete, thorough inspection of Iraq's WMDs (or lack thereof) only took place after W. got his invasion? I MEAN, THIS IS A CENTRAL QUESTION! WHY COULDN'T BLIX BE ALLOWED TO DO WHAT KAY DID?

That's the question we all need to be asking, and we need the media to ask it. Already I'm seeing them be led by the nose by the administration. The administration is going to lay out the idea that the intelligence was bad and some CIA members, possibly Tenet himself should pay the price. But the media won't question this rationale - well, maybe Helen Thomas will.

Bush knew the intelligence was outdated. He was handed a Pentagon intelligence report in September 2002 that claimed that they had no CURRENT intelligence to suggest that Saddam was still in possession of WMD. Bush could have demanded that Saddam allow intelligence officials be allowed into Iraq, but of course he didn't. But now he'll blame the CIA because he chose to go to war on "last time we looked" intelligence.

Hell, even a can of soup isn't any good after 4 years. And Bush launched a war with intelligence that was 4 years old?

Lance Collins
Houston, TX

Subj: No sacrifices for the wealthy

Dear Buzzers:

Cynthia Tucker's article about how the wealthy in this country are not concerned with the effects and fall out from the Iraq war is on target. In California, all the wealthy think about here is the tax breaks on those Hummers they drive, especially our new Governor, who hasn't quite forgotten he's not in Hollywood yet.

I will be glad when the words "Class Warfare" and "Results of Bush and a Complacent Congress" get said in the same sentence.

However, if the draft gets reinstated, and children of the wealthy don't get exempt from having to go and fight Bush's war, we can expect two things:

(1) A complete change in Congress, and a swift end to the war;

(2) An Impeachment of Bush

(3) A return to a fair and objective reporting of the news.

It would be a hoot if Bush dumps Cheney and replaces him with a Giuliani type for VP. In order to win re-election, Bush should be forced to dump Ashcroft, Rumsfeld, and Condi Rice. Colin Powell has already announced his resignation for January 2005, regardless of who wins the election.

Leutisha - a loyal Buzz Flash Reader, and an Angry but Proud Liberal

Subj: And the fall guys will be . . .

Dear BuzzFlashers:

Now that the truth about WMDs have come out, and the President is trying to "distance" himself from his own words in the 2003 SOTU and this year's SOTU, someone in the Administration is going to have to take the "fall" for this debacle and therefore, be sacrificed, with reputation shattered into millions of pieces and credibility nonexistent. I see the following becoming the "Fall Guys {and girls} of this Administration:

Colin Powell - for those lies he told the U. N. in order to get them to support the war. The longer he stays in his position as Secretary of State, the more he continues to stain the honor of our people, especially African-Americans, voluntarily. Rumsfeld and Cheney are already quoting what he said to the U. N. as their basis for proceeding to war (and Rumsfeld always demonstrated and abject disrespect for Powell from the first day of the Administration).

George Tenet - I know he apologized for those sixteen words getting into Bush's speech. Now they're floating stories about how the FBI and the CIA have their own internal civil war going on. If there's no inter agency cooperation in incidents of this magnitude or the magnitude of September 11th, who do you think is going to get the blame? One of Ashcroft's guys in the FBI or the head of the CIA?

Condoleeza Rice - Her negligence in not reading and forwarding that communication she got warning the Administration about the possibility of 9/11 and then going on National television and lying about it ("No one could have known that terrorist would hijack an airline and use it as a weapon...") plus her failure to catch those sixteen words that went into Bush's speech when he made the case for war with Iraq (that Tenet told her not to put in the speech cause it hadn't been verified)

Ann Veneman - I know; nothing to do with the war effort, but her failure to secure our food supply, and the result of that was the "mad cow" found in upstate Washington - led us all to learn that this Administration has no concern about its own citizens. This was evidenced by Ms. Veneman's failure to pay attention to the reports she was getting from her own USDA inspectors, as well as hamstringing them with requirements so stringent that they couldn't properly inspect meat processing. I threw her in here for balance.

Donald Rumsfeld - It's his turn to be "shocked and awed" by the fact that his plan for war blew up in his face.

I would appreciate some fellow BuzzFlashers adding to this list; I know we want the entire Administration gone, but let's take bets on whose going to go the way of Paul O'Neill (and he got fired for telling the TRUTH, mind you).

Leutisha - loyal BuzzFlash reader - also an Angry but Proud Liberal

Can you believe that the GOP National website has the audacity to publish an intended sardonically-captioned crying child as a "poster child" for their negative view of a so called "liberal" belief system. No one that I know could, in good conscience, be so calloused and boneheaded as to imbue the image of a crying infant with humor. To do so, in my opinion, displays a tip of an iceberg running so cold and deep that I can't imagine them being empathetic toward even one of the two-hundred-fifty thousand children that, with the stroke of a pen, our GOP legislature removed from basic healthcare. Don't they realize that feigning compassion when they hurt innocents and later thumbing their noses at those same individuals will cause a populist uprising wherein voters will scrape them from the bottom of their boots as they leave their precincts in November. One can only hope that, in all the grey areas through which we daily sift, that the GOP has given us the black and white image of their true colors. Such recalcitrance toward anyone by a governing group that states that they "Love America" belies the inner truth that they just despise Americans.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Mailbag: McCain's on the Kay-se

There was a classic exchange this morning during David Kay's testimony to a Senate Armed Services Committee concerning Kay's empty handed return from Iraq after scouring the country for WMD.

John McCain lobbed a number of softball questions (paraphrased below) at Kay to show that the war was just.

McCain: Did Saddam Hussein use chemical weapons on Iran and the Kurds?

Kay - yes.

McCain: Did UNSCOM destroy vast quantities of chemical weapons during the 90's?

Kay - yes.

McCain: Was Saddam Hussein actively trying to acquire WMD?

Kay - Yes

McCain: In your opinion did Saddam Hussein comprise a serious gathering threat rising to the level to justify a pre-emptive war?

Kay: Yes

McCain made a comment about prior statements on weapons.

Kay: I learned to avoid reporters and Senators looking for single answer responses.

Yes!

But not always, apparently.

YT Cai

Subj: John Kerry

Buzz,

Democracy Now! is doing a two-part series on John Kerry which can be accessed through many radio stations or on www.democracynow.org on Wednesday and Thursday. The first part consists of an interview with Michael Kranish, a reporter who was involved in a seven-part series on Kerry that was published in the Boston Globe. I believe the second part will include others' views as well.

I didn't have much of a feel for Kerry before listening to Wednesday's program, but afterwards felt very good and more secure about his lead in the Democratic race. DimSon/Rove would have a difficult time slamming this Kennedy-esque man.

Take a listen.

T Quigly

Subj: Novak pulls a Don Zimmer.

What a hypocrite - he can appear on television and, in front of millions and millions, call someone a communist, crypto-Nazi, lesbian socialist, a-a-a-LIBRUL, and on and on. And when ONE person rightfully calls him a 'TRAITOR' (for outing a CIA agent) he pulls a "Don Zimmer."

I think that it definitely proves that he's prone to outbursts of uncontrollable anger and therefore unstable, unbalanced and unqualified to be a commentator on national politics. Zimmer apologized -- will Novak? I doubt it.

G.G.

Subj: George McGovern

I worked on political campaigns for many, many years. But to this day I am proudest of the fact that I worked for George McGovern and he was and is one of the finest to have ever served in the U.S. Senate, and would have been an excellent president.

Ronald E. Diener
Wendell NC

Subj: Please, get hold of this . . .

Dear BuzzFlash:

I caught an unbelievable report on the abc evening news tonight, 1/28 (of all places.) It featured the so called "Dean scream" as it sounded live. It seems that the microphone he used is specially designed to filter out background noise. They showed a clip from good morning america with diane sawyer and her co host with and without the same sound filtering technology then, they showed dean with and without it, and i nearly fell off my sofa! Dean could barely be heard through the cheering and the "scream" wasn't audible at all! The networks deliberately distorted his appearance and whined about how the voters turned off to his scary angry out of control behavior. This is so outrageous! Please, please, please, get hold of the piece and disseminate it! There should also be a write in campaign to the networks demanding that they replay the event unfiltered and apologize for their fraud.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subj: Kudos to ABC

Kudos to Diane Sawyer and ABC for presenting the Dean speech in context. It was a beautiful thing to watch-a news organization not only correcting an injustice that it perpetuated, but doing it with humor and grace.

Taped from the floor with the audience reaction intact, it showed the very real, very passionate Howard Dean, the man I hope will be our next president.

Peggy Lynn Zahrte
Warrens WI

Dear BuzzFlash:

Yesterday (Tuesday, January 27th, 2004) I was watching CNN, I guess it was around 7 or 7:30 PM. There was one of those little news-bite stories about what I think was an interview with Bush (I wasn't paying close attention, initially). Anyway, Bush had been asked to remark on the part of Paul O'Neill's book where he mentions that he had had long conversations with the president, and had gotten the impression that Bush wasn't even paying attention. Bush's comment was that O'Neill's subject matter was "boring as hell", and thereby making it difficult to pay attention. This is an actual quote, I'm not embellishing. The CNN anchor actually remarked on it (I'm not sure what his name is, he's got grey hair but he looks relatively young), something along the lines of "so O'Neill spent 75 minutes boring the president with boring facts about the boring economy that effects the lives of millions of people".

The reason I'm writing you is that I cannot find any documentation of this anywhere!!! I looked on CNN's website, and there's nothing there. I've typed it into search engines in all sorts of various forms, and I can't get any results. I swear to God, I didn't hallucinate this! Please find it and post it up in boldface!

Very best wishes,

Vern

Subj: Deficit Grimmer than New CBO Projections

The deficits are expected to soar to $5.2 Trillion in 10 years! How high would they have gone if Bush hadn't had a surplus when he took office?

Neb

* * *

The following report has been posted to the Center's web site:

DEFICIT PICTURE GRIMMER THAN NEW CBO PROJECTIONS SUGGEST
By Richard Kogan, David Kamin, and Joel Friedman

http://www.cbpp.org/1-28-04bud.htm 182K

http://www.cbpp.org/1-28-04bud.pdf 89K, 17pp.

CBO's new projections are unrealistically optimistic because they exclude costs of continuing various policies, such as the recent tax cuts; including these costs raises the deficit estimate to $5.2 trillion over the next decade.

Subj: HORSESHIT

NONONONONONONONONONONONO !

Nobody was WRONG.

BUSH and CHENEY and RUMSFELD KNEW.

The CIA and FBI TOLD them it was horseshit.

Uncle Powell privately CALLED it horseshit, but spread it anyway.

The UN Inspectors called it extreme horseshit, and Villepin called it MERDE right to Powell's face.

Chancellor Cheney and Oberfurhrer Rumsfeld were not happy, because they needed something to use to attack Iraq.

They didn't like the facts, so they went out and MADE some of their own.

They invented the Office of Special Plans. To create "facts" to their order.

Then they called their stooges in the media, to spread their FACTS nationwide.

How many times do we have to repeat:

Nobody was WRONG.

The CIA and the FBI were RIGHT. They told everyone- there was no threat, no WMD, no nukes. Nada. Rien.

The Busheviks did not IGNORE the facts, they contravened the facts, and pursued a murderous immoral War based on their own concocted horseshit.

And who is to blame ?

US.

Because we all KNEW.

And we did not do enough to stop it.

But - we CAN do something now.

David

------------------------------------------

'We were all wrong': former top arms hunter

Last Updated Wed Jan 28 21:37:43 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Former U.S. weapons inspector David Kay says he's more worried about the nuclear facilities the U.S. overlooked in Iran and Libya than the lack of evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Subj: Al Franken Knocks Down Dean Heckler

Hi BuzzFlash

Good for Al Franken! We love him.

Democrats should follow this man's lead.

He saw what had to be done and he did it.

Mr. and Mrs. L.
Senior BuzzFlash Readers and Supporters

Subj: Blame The CIA? How Convenient

Great strategy. Blame a government agency that isn’t allowed to defend itself. But how is it that the CIA intelligence was perfectly accurate right up until the Bush administration decided to use 9/11 to justify a war with Iraq?

Seven months before 9/11/2001, CIA Director George Tenet, testified before Congress that Iraq posed no immediate threat to the United States or to other countries in the Middle East. Four months before 9/11/2001, Colin Powell testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee: "The sanctions, as they are called, have succeeded over the last 10 years.... The Iraqi regime militarily remains fairly weak. ... It has been contained." On February 24, 2001, during a visit to Cairo, Egypt Colin Powell stated: ”He [Saddam Hussein] has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors.”

Ok...??? so....?? they were spot on here but then everything went haywire after 9/11? I don’t think so. Somebody needs to explain this to our international coalition partners in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Our long time allies like Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Mongolia, Rwanda, Palou, Kazakhstan will demand answers. Or maybe not.

Todd Smyth
Alexandria, VA

Subj: Al Franken Proved his Points:

Al Franken proved point 1

Now as Bush self-destructs:

We see point 2 in action?

Point 1: Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot

Point 2: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

Don

RE: WMD......PR EMERGENCY!

SENDING OUT CONDY RICE?

THEY MUST BE DESPERATE TO BE SENDING OUT CONDI (MUSHROOM CLOUD) RICE! :):):):):):):)

Subj: Osama/Bush woes..Bush kids....

Dear BuzzFlash:

I just wonder how much this administration is stewing as to when to "capture" Osama, seeing as it is heating up about David Kay's words on no WMDs (although, he is still excusing Bush and beating the intelligence people....).

Bush and Co. are probably trying to figure out if they should "find" Osama now, or hang in there and wait to give us all an "October Surprise"...or is the surprise going to be another attack....this is the most STAGED presidency I have ever seen.

In answer to a reader's question about Bush's daughters not serving in the military...you're kidding, right? I have said it before and I will say it again...Barbara and Jenna Bush are old enough to party...they are old enough to serve their country...A C T I V E D U T Y.....of course, that will happen when donkey's fly out of...oh well, you get my drift...

Mary in Indiana

Subj: WMD

I'm convinced that Mr. Kay has been paid off to blame the intelligence community for Iraq, taking the heat off of the White House. Think about it. Everyone in the Bush Administration (except VP Cheney) is now admitting a lot of what they told us was inaccurate. I prefer the term "lies." We know that Cheney and others manipulated information to make their case. We know that various intelligence agencies refuted a lot of what was publicly announced. Personally, I would appoint Kay to head a team responsible for collecting all the unspent uranium munitions left behind in Iraq by the United States. And I wouldn't issue him a protective suit.

Jeff Morgan
Rochester, MN

Re: Pentagon Plans Afghan Spring Offensive. Why is This News?

Let's put the worst possible conspiracy theory to work. A way for Karl to have some sort of believable spring or summer surprise for Dumbya - Assuming Osama and\or Mullah Omar are already dead or captured?

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subj: My e-mail to Peter Jennings

It probably won’t amount to a hill of beans, but I wanted to get this off my chest regarding last Thursday’s shameful spectacle in New Hampshire.

Dear Mr. Jennings,

I am quite the fan of World News Tonight and believe ABC's coverage has been the best and most, forgive the phrase, fair and balanced over the past several years.

That is why I found it so shocking to watch your attempt to dress down retired General Wesley Clark over comments made by Michael Moore regarding President Bush's "desertion" from the National Guard.

You repeatedly said "the record does not support those charges." Well, my question is: what record? The Bush campaign team could never produce any records to demonstrate that Bush served his tour to the letter of the law. His commanding officer, a Colonel Turnipseed, said in 2000 that he never showed up for duty.

The record actually shows that Bush didn't faithfully execute his service. You can view those documents at many websites, including this one http://www.agitproperties.com/chickenhawk.html and many, many others.

You may disagree with the assertion that he is a deserter. But the man was, at best, clearly AWOL and, at worst, deserted the Air National Guard. Appalling behavior either way, especially when you consider his flag-waving, "Mission Accomplished" and the charge that our military under Clinton/Gore (which just won two wars, thank you very much) was "unable to report for duty, sir."

No matter what you think of the words, you absolutely cannot point to any record to substantiate that opinion. If it were available, that is, if the Bush team could accurately destroy this charge with definitive proof, they would have done so ad nauseum by now.

If you are going to essentially wag your finger at a presidential candidate -- a man that understands the commitment it takes to truly serve in the United States Armed forces -- and at the American people and lecture us on "the facts", get your facts straight next time and don't just read from the White House talking points.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Warren

Subj: John Thune

Hey, check out the South Dakota race between John Thune and Tom Daschle. Thune plans to keep his job as a Washington lobbyist while he's running again the Senate Minority Leader. It's big news in South Dakota that is just not being reported.

DE

Subj: Jeremiah McAuliffe's letter to Safire

To the BuzzFlash Editors,

Thank you for including Jeremiah D. McAuliffe's letter to William Safire. It was exactly what that windbag needed to hear. I hope Dr. McAuliffe realizes that there are people who appreciate what he does. The whole country has not gone insane. We know that his daily contribution to the nation is more than Mr. Safire has mustered in his entire career.

If you can, will you please relay my appreciation for the work he does and for the words he has written in that letter.

Thank you,

Dermot J. Murphy

Subj: Depleted Uranium

Please address the Depleted Uranium issues. Those from both the Gulf War and this war. Who reaps the rewards of this abomination? It's like they're testing their weapons, not defending anyone. It is the one weapon that keeps on killing for thousands of years, contaminating everything and slowly killing our troops, their family members are becoming ill and their children are being born with horrible defects. Just to want to use such weapons is an act of genocide in my opinion. So who is profiting from such a horrific thing? Who has the right to use these against so many innocent civilians for the purpose to what? Get Saddam? Is the DoD pushing for these or are the defense contractors behind it? Are they sold to other countries, 'cause I would think that it makes it that much easier to have them used against us or some other country? It puts the entire planet in harms way. Or is that the plan?

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subj: ABCNEWS.com Iraq Minister Says Saddam's WMD Carefully Hidden

Dear Buzz,

Another faith-based assertion on wmd is being given prominent play in the media today. One of our puppets in Baghdad, on a visit to important coalition-member Bulgaria (are you laughing yet?), is expressing his 'belief' that 'some' of these weapons will be found as we 'move forward.' I guess the White House just couldn't take another day of David Kay making the headlines. It's all so tragically and hideously funny. I think that most of us --- even we, the 'good guys!' -- have lost our ability to think. The idea that a military scale weapons system, or even a programme, could be hidden from hundreds of inspectors scouring the country now for, depending on how you count it, up to a dozen years, is insane. I mean, it's just crazy. And then when you add in the fact that Iraq has not deployed these weapons through all the internal and external conflicts of the last fifteen years (including the Shi'a uprising of the early 1990s and the recent attack by the U.S.), the whole argument becomes even weirder. When history looks back on this era, we are all going to look like a bunch of nuts.

Iraq Minister Says Saddam's WMD Carefully Hidden

Jan. 29 —SOFIA (Reuters) - Iraq's foreign minister said on Thursday weapons of mass destruction acquired by the country's former rulers, which inspectors have failed to find, had been carefully hidden and he was confident they could be found. "I have every belief that some of these weapons could be found as we move forward," Hoshiyar Zebari told a news conference in Sofia. "They have been hidden in certain areas. The system of hiding was very sophisticated."

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20040129_173.html

Thanks for all you do.

Mary (NYC)

Subj: The reason the return to Afghanistan is being planned

Remember the rumours last week that Osama was captured? Maybe he was - and maybe by returning focus to Afghanistan BushCo is setting up the props and stage for the unveiling of Bin Laden. I, and many other people would not put it past BushCo now that they are vulnerable to defeat in the next election.

Regards,

Ben, a hardcore BuzzFlasher :)

Subj: OJR article New Media Often Takes Back Seat to Old Media on Press Credentials

Doesn't this rule OUT Fox news?

"The rules, therefore, require applicants to demonstrate that their income is principally derived from disseminating news. They must promise that while holding a congressional press pass, they will not engage in any "lobbying, promotion, advertising or publicity activity" intended to influence any branch of government, nor will they furnish anyone with "insider information" that might influence stock prices.

To ensure that publications seeking credentials aren't mouthpieces for lobbying organizations or brokerages, the publications must be published either by an independent nonprofit group, or a for-profit group with most of their revenue coming from advertising and subscriptions."

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1075329508.php

Joey Martin, Chicago

Subj: Logic shows: The White House is lying about pre-war intelligence "failures."

http://www.counterspin.blogspot.com/

"So what is the White House's view on investigating pre-war Iraq intelligence "failures?" They seem awfully non-chalant about the whole thing, don't they? They don't seem particularly concerned, or upset. There are no reports of President Bush chewing out George Tenet, or Condi Rice. No one's been fired. No one's even been reprimanded, as far as we know! In fact, they are downright hostile to the very idea of such an investigation.

How can that be?

Now, as tempting as it is to accuse President Bush of being insane, irrational, incompetent and irresponsible, there may be another, more obvious reason why they aren't so very concerned with the "flawed" intelligence on Iraq.

And the reason is that the pre-war intelligence provided to the Bush administration about Iraq's WMD programs wasn't flawed at all. As my long, long post below plainly shows, the White House was provided a LOT of evidence, warnings and caveats on Iraq's lack of an active and developed WMD "program" right from the beginning. (You can also add to the litany of facts from yesterday's post, this analysis of the UNSCOM interview with high-level Iraqi defector, Hussein Kemal, which pretty much bolsters the whole "the programs and stocks were destroyed after the Gulf War" scenario).

And that's just the information that's been leaked to the public.

In other words, they are not upset, angry, or determined to get to the bottom of the "intelligence failures" on Iraq, because there weren't any to get to be concerned about!"

--Hesiod

Subj: Let their people go

Condi Rice was on the tube today spewing the "Saddam was a bad guy" excuse for the war again.... If so, why were we not told that up front, and, more importantly, why stop with Iraq?

Check Ted Rall's latest... I love this guy.

Bart