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April 15, 2004 |
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Buzzers, I look forward to the mailbag everyday. It has become my main source of news, inspiration and hope that maybe there are enough of us out here to make a difference in November. While watching that train wreck otherwise known as the "press conference" last night, I was thinking of the many red state persons getting their only source of news from this "conference." They interviewed a number of people about the press conference and I noticed many young people essentially saying they believed everything gwb had to say. It will be especially sad for them, as well as our soldiers in the next few years when they finally learn the truth. I remember the feeling when I realized the government was lying to us about Vietnam. I remember the feeling as I watched the Watergate hearings, and I have the same feeling watching the 9-11 commission. It's difficult becoming someone who wanted to believe the government to someone who can't believe a word out of their mouth and hates being in the same room with the very sight and sound of the president or his staff on tv. These kids will soon be going through this just as we did. I talk about what's going on with my 14 year old son, and being an "older mom" I know much of the history on these subjects. I make sure he knows the history as well because it's so important. Thanks mailbaggers for your letters to read everyday. Everybody here is so well read and informed. I totally agree with Barbara A. Rittiman's letter on 4-13. If there had been an alert of any sort that something was in the works, many more people would have gotten out of the towers and not hesitated. And to Linda who described their family moving to Canada: If Bush gets back in he won't be getting my son either so we may be your future neighbor. And to my current neighbor, Shirley, so happy to hear your granddaughter is back in the states!Travis in Collinsville
Subject: BBC Report There is a statement carried in [the 4/14/04] on-line BBC News website that, if true, is extremely troubling. Does any other news source corroborate this? If this BBC report is accurate, it means that in Fallujah last week, US forces killed 443 women and children and only 27 men!!Howard Rosen
Subject: Did anybody but me notice this? This is from the latest AP wire -- it's the last three paragraphs. So, thousands of lives and a couple of hundred billion dollars later, they've finally come up with an exit strategy -- give the country back to Saddam's security services! The recent burst of violence has exposed weaknesses in Iraq's U.S.-trained security forces. A battalion of the Iraqi army refused to fight in Fallujah, Sanchez said. And some police defected to al-Sadr's forces, Abizaid said. In an effort to toughen the Iraqi forces, Abizaid said the U.S. military will reach out to former senior members of Saddam Hussein's disbanded army, a reversal in strategy. The military has tried to avoid relying on top officials from the ousted regime. "It's ... very clear that we've got to get more senior Iraqis involved -- former military types involved in the security forces," he said. "In the next couple of days, you'll see a large number of senior officers being appointed to key positions in the ministry of defense and the Iraqi joint staff and in Iraqi field commands. Bart Laws Subject: PS...to James Epperson You are right, James, about white folks many times voting for the right wing, just because of bigotry. I know one....a relative who does not speak to me anymore because I had the audacity to speak out, unlike a Stepford Wife.....and disagree with him. He is a typical, right wing jerk! Shirley from St.Louis
Subject: Suggestion for Mr. Rove, et. al. Dear Mr. Rove, I have a suggestion for Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and you that might save ya'll LOTS of embarrassment during this next election bid. As evidenced last night during Mr. Bush's "Press Conference," Mr. Bush simply can not answer questions for which he has not been rehearsed - over and over again! By using my plan, you could save yourselves all kinds of time, money and energy trying to UNdo what Mr. Bush has done when asked a question for which he was not prepared (by someone). I suggest that you talk to some of the "televangelists" that you know - I'm sure you know plenty of these or maybe some fake psychics somewhere and find out where they get their equipment and how they get away with using it without getting caught. What I'm talking about is getting one of those little earplugs that you could stick in Mr. Bush's ear and then Mr. Rove, Cheney or whomever knew the answer to the question at hand could simply talk into their little microphone and send it through the little cable right into Mr. Bush's ear! That way he could simply repeat what you tell him to and MAYBE, if you speak slowly enough, he could answer ALL of the questions!! There is one thing that you need to be careful about, though, that you might not have considered. When telling him what to say, you'll have to be sure to make a lot of grammatical mistakes (like The people IS...) and also be sure to make up a few words so that your trick will be believable. I think this would be especially useful when there are debates set up with Sen. Kerry where someone other than Fox or CNN or MSNBC is hosting. Maybe Moveon.org could sponsor one and you wouldn't have to show how terrified you are of those whom you do NOT control! That way, too, you wouldn't have to show how little confidence you have in Mr. Bush by running as fast as possible from Sen. Kerry's suggestion that he and Mr. Bush debate once/month after the two conventions when the two candidates are official. Good luck! As always, I'm sure you'll need it! Sincerely, A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: Memory lane Funny how jigsaw puzzles eventually always fit!!! Let's take a little walk down memory lane, courtesy of none other than The New York Post. BIN LADEN PLOTS BUSH HIT: TERROR WATCH IS ON FOR JULY SUMMIT IN ITALY Niles Lathem in Washington and Allan Hall in Berlin Interesting that the American national security adviser seemed to know less about the kinds of things Al Qaeda was planning than the Italian police and a German newspaper. A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: to the media Media lies and misleads by omission. My brother-in-law insists Bush did not get some of those questions in writing before the press conference so someone could write out answers for him.The people evaluate one's actions and make judgments based on how they see how a person reacts to questions. It is very dishonest to the American people to not be up front about this before a press conference is held. You are lying to the people who depend on you for the truth. Just like when 70% of the country believed Saddam was behind 9-11. The media should be in the business of telling the truth to us, not trying to stage things for our government or to help pass on lies and mislead us. Diane Anderson
Subject: 9-11 inevitable??? Hi Buzz: It is such a cop-out to claim, as Bush and Co. are, that 9-11 was inevitable: "But we didn't know when, or where, so how could we stop it?" That's like saying any particular car crash was inevitable just because no one warned the driver that another car was going to be in his way at that particular moment. But not driving too fast, or putting his headlights on, or being sober, or staying awake, or any of a multitude of things would have prevented it. Likewise, lots of things could have prevented 9-11: better monitoring of suspected terrorists, better immigration policies, scrambling of fighter jets, NOT having supported Bin Laden years before, and I don't need to go on. Of course things are clearer in hindsight: but that doesn't mean anything is "inevitable." And frankly, Bush and Co. know this perfectly well (or Co. at least: Bush doesn't know squat as far as I can tell, which is why he needed his ventriloquist with him to testify). It's just their incredibly cynical policy to make these asinine, meaningless statements to reassure the American people that all's right with their government. Imagine being a Republican at a cocktail party, trying to defend the President -- scary, I know -- but all you'd have to say is something like, "Oh, yeah, but it's not like there was a SILVER BULLET that would have stopped 9-11!" and everyone's brain goes numb. Conversation halts. You win! That's what the discourse in this country has been like for four years. Man, it is so depressing. Seems to me that it's obvious that Bushco felt no great need to prevent a terrorist attack -- even though others farther down the line did. There's nothing sup rising about that. Since when has Bush made a single move solely to save the lives of regular people, or improve the health and physical well-being of any non-billionaire? That's just not a priority. It ain't on the radar. EVERY move he makes is designed to put bucks in someone's pocket -- not just anyone's pocket either, but the pockets of people who are pals or will support him. Thanks for your site, Buzz. It's the best. R. Ellis Buzz: The U.S. will leave Iraq after the elections in November irrespective of who wins the contest. We will leave because even President Bush's domestic political advisors and his foreign policy braintrust, the so-called neo-cons, realize they seriously underestimated the cost of this war. This war was not launched for any of the publicly advertised reasons. There were never weapons of mass destruction. There was never an al Qaeda connection nor any gathering threat to U.S. security. At no time has there been the slightest intention to democratize Iraqi society. Iraq was invaded because war and sanctions had turned it into a staggeringly vulnerable nation in a strategically vital oil-rich region. It was ripe for the installation of permanent U.S. military bases which could take the place of those in Saudi Arabia. Iraq would be made safe for Halliburton, Bechtel, and even Enron until they ran into their problems. (That, by the way, is why we can't see the records of Vice President Cheney's energy task force meeting early in 2001 and why Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will face withering conflict of interest criticism to protect Cheney's secret.) Finally an Iraq war would give Republicans a big boost in the 2002 mid-term elections and a trophy that would sew up the reelection of George Bush as our "war president." The problem is, it was supposed to be easy, a cakewalk. But now it's clear that the cost of achieving the Bush Administration's real goals will deeply wound both the United States and Iraq. The Iraqi people will continue to resist the U.S. occupation and large numbers of them will be destroyed and the American people will continue to see their sons and daughters turned into cannon fodder as Bush desperately limps toward November without having to acknowledge his colossal blunder. The shame, hell, the crime of it, is the hundreds of Americans and the thousands of Iraqis condemned to death and injury over the next seven months to keep one man's political fortunes alive. Paul A. Moore
Subject: Purple Heart? Kerry faces questions over Purple Heart The GOP hate
machine is working overtime http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/04/... Just a reminder: if Kerry's wartime exploits (like Gore's before him) were so nothing, why didn't W's dad let him get a piece or two o' that cushy action? Keep swinging the hammer, Bart! Eddy
Subj: Has anyone tried to contact ex-Ambassador Thomas W. Simons,Jr.? This guy has got to know everything! He was in negotiations with the Taliban in the summer of 2001. Now he is affiliated with the Hoover Institute at Stanford-what a surprise! He has been lecturing at universities across the U.S. He really needs to appear before the 9/11 commission. A faithful reader, Ann Grodin Subj: Air America Shutdown I'm sure you've heard of liberal radio station Air America being taken off the air in Chicago and LA (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi...). Well, I decided to dig a little bit deeper into the background of Multicultural Radio's owner, Arthur Liu. Checking out his political donations on the always helpful internet resource opensecrets.org, I came up with the following info: http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?... and http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?... Hmmmm...Lazio and D'Amato, eh? Now, I'm not even implying for a second that perhaps the reason Arthur Liu pulled the plug on Air America is because he happens to be a die-hard Republican who maybe didn't realize the extent to which that station would relentlessly go after his kind and expose his beloved Bush administration as the incompetent liars that they are. Nope. Not for a second. So what am I implying? Gee, I don't really know. I just thought I'd point it out, I guess. Make what you will out of it. Later, Meadows Subj: A Voter National Holiday When are we going to demand a Presidential National Election Day to be a government holiday? All businesses shut down so everybody has a chance to vote???? No more long lines in the cold Eastern seaboard townships after a harrowing day of work. Samadhi Khan Subj: Baghdad Ambassador -- Rogues' Gallery So Mr, Negroponte is going to be the new ambassador. Well he's in good company. The first one, right after the invasion, was Barbara Bodine. You may remember her as the former ambassador to Yemen. She specifically kicked John O'Neill (FBI counter-terrorism expert who screamed about Al Qaeda and who died on 9/11) off the USS Cole investigation because he was ruffling too many Yemenite feathers. A recent AP release in the NYT (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Sept-11-Missed-Opportunities.html) discusses the clues that might have been found in the USS Cole investigation but were missed. Neither Ms. Bodine nor Mr. O'Neill are mentioned in this article (how soon we forget!!! or are made to forget!!!) but it is clear that a more thorough investigation would have yielded clues that might have prevented 9/11. Need we say more?? Regards, BC Subj: Cheney and Halliburton Yesterday, the nation learned two important facts: (1) The Vice President received $178,000 in deferred compensation from his former company, Halliburton, and (2) the charred and possibly mutilated bodies of what may ultimately prove to be Halliburton employees were discovered on the road to Fallujah. In other words, the Vice President continues to literally profit from his association with Halliburton while Halliburton employees (at least 6 by my count) continue to die in Iraq. Why not propose that the Vice President take all of the deferred compensation he will receive from Halliburton during his term as Vice President and use it to establish a trust fund for the widows and orphans of Halliburton employees killed in Iraq? Since we learned last night that Republicans (1) never make mistakes and (2) never accept personal responsibility for the results of their non-mistakes, I doubt that Cheney would do it. If he won't do it, he deserves to be reviled for profiting from the death of Halliburton employees. If he does do it, his association with profiting from the death of Halliburton employees will be forever fixed in the public mind. Alfredo G. I have heard a lot about the military personal scheduled to head home being held over, tours being extended. But I would like to know how they are considering some of these as extensions. There were units that left Iraq April 3rd. These men did their tour and were sent out and are or were now in Germany. The have been told they will be sent back as soon as a flight is available. I simply don't understand how this could be considered an extension of their tour when they are no longer even in Iraq. How can Bush and his puppet media get away with saying they are extended when it isn't true. These men are not even there to extend their tours. They were already out of the country and were being sent back to their families and homes in America. Now they are being sent back to Iraq instead. RaEllen Subj: Bush's Press Conference Dear BuzzFlash, He reminded me of no one so much as the guy who didn't do his homework and is trying to bluff his way through an oral report. It was embarrassing to watch him stumble over his words, evade direct questions, and seem unable to think on his feet. My goodness, with communication skills like these, even if Bush HAD taken action pursuant to the August 6 PDB (and it appears he took NO action at all), and even if he was a strategic genius, would any of his staff have understood what he wanted? Can a president who communicates so poorly lead a nation? A BuzzFlash Reader Subj: pResidential Press Conference Hi Buzz, Viewing snippets of the recent PPC, I brought out the well worn evaluation tolls which have served us so well. Got out the old trusted foot ruler, yardstick and most important measuring tool the good old 'Low ExpectationOmeter' and applied them to the questions and the pResidential appearance and responses. Appearance is uppermost in the Rove era--most of the previous Rove props used in these 'photo opportunity' well scripted showings have been, at best, bogus. This one failed the bogus test--the gwb $3000.00 dollar suit, fresh white shirt and blue (or red) tie, with the small lapel flag as an accent were probably worth the cost of two $2000.00 Patriot grade donations. So a good start was there. But when it came for gwb to actually respond to the 'script questions' the foot ruler came to hand and was most useable---the foot basically was in the mouth, which had a hard time spitting it out, and only an inch protruded. How can you measure the botched response to a simple Sosa question? gwb was sure "Something will pop into my head". How could he be so sure? Nothing has popped in there before. The yardstick was used to measure the breadth and length of the smirk. The smirk was applied liberally--thus giving room for the Media to edit and clean up the bumble-- this is where the 'stick it' to them comes in. As for the 'Low ExpectationOmeter'--sorry Rove, gwb was not up to it. No home run here, not even a shrub hit. Foul balls, foul responses and a new low in this category. I hear the 'Fat Lady' warming up for her song-"He's Out a-there". Best Cole...
Subj: Defending the indefensible BuzzFlash states "You can't support George Bush and care about the security or future of our country. Because if you think you do -- and you defend him -- then you are a fool who enables a man who is a threat to our national security -- and is lighting matches that are setting the world afire." This is what I have been saying about the Republican members of the 9/11 Commission, in Congress, and Republicans in general. Anyone who isn't braindead has to realize that the only thing this man is qualified to be "president" of is a fraternity! Even Republicans like John McCain, for whom I would otherwise have some respect, whore themselves to the party line, and defend this ignorant, incompetent disgrace. John McCain, especially, should be well aware that this man doesn't have the intelligence, the knowledge, the experience, or the character to hold that office. The Republicans on the 9/11 Commission have a choice: they can betray this country by continuing to protect and defend the ignoramus in the White House, or they can be patriots and protect our country by removing him from office. Joann Olbrich Subj: Canned Bush Speech My blood pressure is out of sight.....As Bush spoke his memorized speech, it was painful to hear this Idiot speak and repeat and repeat. The news media including the Democrat Gonzales (spelling?) praised his CLARITY....The canned garbage he put out and the telling 'you should have given me that question '(about his making a mistake) was embarrassing - what must the world think of US? My spirits are low - the uneducated in this country calling him a great leader turns my stomach. They use the name of God in vain, and now the Catholic church wants to deny communion to any politician who doesn't vote their way...What have we become? My hope is that when they institute the draft that the grandsons of those loyal Republicans will be the first to go. Where are Democrats who can flush out the sins of these Republicans the way they did Clinton? Rita Subj: Bush's time away from Washington. A lot of people are complaining rather loudly about the fact that Dubya has been away from the White House so much. A quick count indicates he has been in office approximately 1,149 days. According to the Dallas Morning News he has made 33 trips to his ranch in Crawford during that time, for a total of 233 days, ironically, the same number of days Condoleeza Rice repeated in her testimony no less than six times as the "limited" time that they had in office before 9/11. I do not know if this does or does not include the days away on fundraising tours. Slack off, people! If he has managed to screw up as badly as he has in only 80% of the time God only knows what he would have done and how big a kettle of fish we would be swimming in if had those extra 233 days to work with! Bill Sybert Subj: "News Conference" another Bush "Bait and switch" How pliant the "liberal" media is, falling for the transparently bogus prime time "news conference" performance of pResident Bush Tuesday evening as a real event. There was one and only one reason Reichsfuhrer Karl Rove had this most secretive and tongue-tied Commander-In-Thief extemporaneously stutter and stammer before a roomful of hand-picked sycophants masquerading as journalists: John Ashcroft's miserable testimony before the so-called 9/11 Commission. As expected Ashcroft, as any Republican devoted to the concept of "taking personal responsibility," blamed all intelligence and law enforcement failures to prevent the al Qaeda attack on the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 on the Clinton Administration. Yet under cross examination Ashcroft's assertion that the previous administration left his Justice Department in the dark concerning the Al Qaeda threat, melted like Crisco on a Pentecostal's head in the noonday sun. The mendacity of Ashcroft's opening statement and subsequent discomfiture at the disclosing of his contradictions to testimony from previous witnesses, especially that of Clinton Attorney General Janet Reno, should be the lead story of every morning television newscast and screaming across the front page in bold headlines of every newspaper in the country. Yet the front-page headline on the Gannett-owned excuse of a newspaper in my home town reads:"Bush stands firm on Iraq, 9/11 crises." What the hell does that mean!: the pResident is resolute, undaunted and unwavering or he's too stupid, pigheaded and unimaginative to admit mistakes were made and call for a change of course? I prefer the later interpretation but that is clearly not what is meant. At no time in this nation's history has the "mainstream media" so ill-served the American people and democracy with its constant fawning over this living embodiment of the Peter Principal residing in the White House. Bob Jewett Subj: Bush's Press Conference The one thing that most people seem to have missed in their analyses of Bush's lame, scripted performance last night night was the set up for the coming announcement that the WMD have been found in Iraq! He made reference to it twice in his rambling non answers to the vetted questions. He said that the Iraqis were devious. He made reference to long range missiles and biological weapons. He said that those who know about the WMD were afraid to talk because they would be killed. Shall we take bets on how soon the WMD will be found The whole show was not only embarrassing. The lies were transparent. By the way, who picked that tie? The diagonal checked pattern guaranteed a flaming moire on video. Robert Campbell / Chamois Moon
Subj: TENET'S TESTIMONY Oh, it was delicious! George Tenet was questioned intensively this morning about the pResident's PDB briefing, and the questions were pointed. He grew increasingly flustered and at one point testified that he did not see the pResident (or speak with him much) during the month of August 2001 because "the pResident was on vacation in Texas." Oops! Of course, Condi Rice implied, if not testified, that Tenet has briefed the pResident on the contents of the PDB, but today it came out that it was a minor employee of the CIA instead. Another oops! It was abundantly clear that the one person who was truly "out of the loop" during August 2001 was our beloved pResident. (It will be interesting to see how the press handles this little bombshell.) Naturally, the audience gasped when Tenet stated he had not met with the pResident during that month, and the panel kindly allowed Tenet some CYA room. This followed another testy debate about his recommendations for the future reorganization of the counterintelligence functions to bring all such services under one roof. It became quite apparent that he was concerned about a falling out with Don Rumsfeld -- and its probable negative impact -- and at that point the panel also let him off the hook and suggested that the matter would be taken up at a private, future session between Tenet and the panel. This morning's session was by far the most "animated" of any that I've seen and probably the most damaging to the pResident. I hope everyone gets a chance to review the transcript. Still smiling from ear to ear, Sharon Andrews Subj: To John S. in the BuzzFlash Mailbag Many people have written about Bush being and acting like a spoiled brat, including me a number of times. He was talked of as a brat long before he ran for office. Most people like to say he is where he is because of social promotion, which he opposes. He has never done anything on his own or with his own talents. My favorite quote is from the time he was an small owner of the Texas Rangers. He was their liaison between the owners and the fans. I can't recall the publication where the quote first appeared, but I read it in the reference books "Current Biography" for I think 1997. I was doing a story during the election about Gore getting into "Current Biography 10 years before Bush and Gore is younger. In the quote which isn't exact he said, "I want the folks seeing me sitting in the same seats, eating the same popcorn and peeing in the same urinals." Pretty good for the VP of the USA inviting folks of presumably both sexes to watch him pee. Karen Webb, Moore, Ok. Subj: Subliminal Republicans Dear BuzzFlash, An insistent memory has been resurfacing in my brain. It is an article that I read in Science News shortly after the 2000 election about how Republican television ads used subliminal techniques in that presidential campaign. What made this article interesting is that it explained how a group of researchers looked at the subliminal techniques used by the Republican admakers, and found that the techniques were effective. Well, I finally did a search for the article, and it is just how I remembered it. Once again, it sends a chill down my spine. Forget planting WMDs in Iraq. This may be how the Gops plan to steal the election. This is not from some sleazy tabloid. Science News is a respected weekly publication that distills the results of research papers into easy to digest short articles. Subscribing to Science News is a reliable way for science professionals to keep up in fields outside their own specialties, and at the same time is an excellent magazine for folks non-scientists like myself who want to keep informed. It carries little advertising, and is mostly funded by a foundation, so it is non-partisan. The strange thing about this article is that I have never seen or heard of a followup. For that reason alone, the Gops are sure to pull the same subliminal tricks in their television ads this time around. If you folks at BuzzFlash have heard anything about this, we all need to know more. http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1200/8_163/98977985/p1/article.jhtml Daniel Van
Riper Subj: Now the right "wingnuts" need to even slam their friends Dear BuzzFlash, It seams that the right “Wingnuts”just can’t get enough creating enemies. You would think that after having 90% of the world against the US would be enough, But “Noooo”, now that bastion of right wing intellectualism, the Washington Times has to start turning on the few remaining countries friendly to us. In this editorial http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20040413-090258-8343r.htm they decided it was time to start slamming the Philippines. They never mentioned in the article that the entire Philippine national budget is probably less than what Bush spends in a day campaigning to try and get elected for the first time. The sad part of this is that the United States probably does not have a greater friend anywhere in the world than the Philippines. In fact, they even place the US flag on their 100 peso bill! Perhaps what irritates the Times, is the way the Philippines deals with dictators. Remember the 1986 People Power revolution that over through the Marcos dictatorship, without the loss of a single life? It does kind of contrast with the Bush oil war, doesn’t it? By the way, it’s not that I’m a regular, or even occasional reader of the Washington Times, but I am a regular reader of the Philippine Star http://www.philstar.com/ being I have a number of friends and relatives living there. And my wife and I spend our winter vacation there. The above mentioned editorial is in the April 15th edition, needless to say, they are not pleased. The interesting thing when traveling there, is that when someone realizes you are from the US, the first thing they ask is “You didn’t vote for that @$$hole Bush did you?”. When my reply is “f*** no!”the reply is a warm smile and handshake. Terry Leonhardt Subj: Pertinent Questions In the 4/14/04 Mailbag, Larry Talley, Dallas TX wrote, "Yes, we need a new administration in November, but what we need now is a new press corps whose spine isn't a vestigial remain." You are 110% right Larry. But is anyone taking bets on when the press corps will get a spine and start asking pertinent questions? I'm laying 50-1 odds that the press corps will develop the spine of a mastodon when a democrat takes the presidency! ~ Cathy A More Free World I didn't want to look but I couldn't help myself. Watching a George Bush Press Conference is like watching a traffic accident It pulls your attention even when you don't want to look. Last night George Bush didn't disappoint. There he was with his old bag of tricks. The good ol' boy persona was laid on thick with all his characteristic smirks and arrogant posturing on display. The difference last night was that all the theatrics rung hollow and the act seemed altogether threadbare and embarrassing. I hang my head to think that other countries throughout the world are watching and wondering what in the hell is wrong with Americans. They listen to the madman and wonder why we don't hear what they do. As the NPR reporter pointed out in the Conferences last question, all Bush does is recite by rote the lines formulated by Karl Rove and Dick Cheney. Spontaneity is the great fear of this White House when it applies to the Chickenhawk, frat boy from Connecticut. Instead we get cliche festivals that seem to entertain the braindead lackeys that this administration counts on as their base. Once again the old fear mongered was at it. You know the pitch, Fear, fear, fear, terror, terror, terror. A strategy that was once covert has become embarrassingly blatant. But we cannot underestimate the stupidity of the frightened masses. they seem born to it. From making obviously untrue statements like "force is my last resort" to actually quoting the great Malcolm X. when he used the term,"By any means necessary", regarding his War on Terror. Bush stammered and stuttered through an hour of evasion and misdirection. When asked why he and Dick Cheney would only appear before the 9/11 together for an hour,he started like a scared rabbit and veered off into unintelligible filibustering that had absolutely nothing to do with the question asked. But the most shameful moment of the night came when Bush declared with a crack in his voice and a feigned feeling of loss, that his job as President was to comfort and assure the loved ones of those who have lost their lives in Bush's phony war for profit. The truth is that he hasn't even attended one funeral or memorial service since the slaughter began. When it was all over I opened up a window to let the stench out. Then I watched with complete amazement as several well groomed suits sat in a circle discussing the Press Conference as if they actually took the charade seriously. Never has our nation needed to hear the truth more and I don't think I can hold my breathe long enough to hear it from this White House. In closing I want to thank George Bush for going through with the conference. I know how much it frightened him. I want to thank him for enlisting more left wing activists in an hour than Noam Chomsky could in a year. Perhaps at his next conference he will sing that old Groucho classic, "Hello, I must be going." Thanks, G.E. Mitchell Subj: WMD Dear BuzzFlash, If any of the link regarding the planting of WMD is true, Dimbulb could be in some trouble. I say 'some' because all of us are governed by one party, so he could probably wriggle free if charged with the planting. My hope, should this report be true, is that enough of the lame brains would understand what has been going on. Reading this link made me shiver. It is an unknown when the administration will suddenly find the WMD, but I am sure they will. Bush said, in his poor excuse for a press conference, that the WMD are there, that we will find them. I thought nothing of that remark until I read the link. Does Dimbulb know something that we are just hearing about? Did he give away the ballgame? It is to be hoped that someone will get to the bottom of this and plaster it all over the newspapers and TV...if it is true. ( I think it is, without proof, I just think it is true. ) Something has to break. Why not this? Stephanie Subj: Sensenbrenner and conflict of interest Regarding "Sensenbrenner Urges Commissioner Gorelick to Resign from the 9/11 Commission Because of Her Conflict of Interest": that partisan pig Sensenbrenner has nothing to say regarding the conflict of interest of Philip Zelikow, the executive director of the "9/11 Commission." Zelikow also was "a Bush-appointee who served on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board; he worked under Jim Baker, the former US secretary of state under George Bush Sr; spent three years on the first President Bush's National Security Council and, as well as working with Condoleezza Rice, wrote two books with her as well." [White House Whitewash, by Neil Mackay, Published on Sunday, March 28, 2004 by The Sunday Herald] I found it interesting that the news (sic) shows that had Sensenbrenner spouting off about Commissioner Gorelick didn't bother to bring up Zelikow's conflicts of interest. Joann Olbrich Subj: The tie... THE TIE????? Dear Buzz, What in the hell was up with that tie on Bush last night? It pulsed, it undulated, it flipped around and did all kinds of assorted acrobatics. What country am I living in, where I have to watch an ex-drunk with a brillo pad on his head doing psychedelic clown impressions? And what was with the snorting? The deep nasal snort type/ inhale like he was engaging in an ample line? Has anyone done a cat-scan on this moron recently? Color me "DISGUSTED" Catherine Arnie Subj: Bush's Future That rambling,incoherent,bumbling,stumbling,deer in the headlights speech that GW gave on Tuesday night, should be a clarion call to every voter in the USA. This imbecile couldn't answer the simplest questions posed by his tame media shills. As he was walking to the room to give the speech, it looked to me as if he had to actually physically concentrate on the right,left,right motor mechanics of walking. How did this great nation come to this point in our history? The only clear message he delivered was one concerning the future misery yet to be unleashed on our troops in Iraq and the Iraqi people. "Our commanders on the ground have got the authority necessary to deal with violence, and will--and will in firm fashion." How friggin scary does that sound? This dolt is gonna salt the earth of Iraq before he is thrown out of office,taking the lives of as many poor and lower middle class American kids as he can! His work ethic is atrocious! It's a small wonder that he wants to cut overtime pay for working men and women in this country, with his 40% vacation to work ratio he assumes that no one needs to be in work, except for Indians and Chinese. I want his future to be shambling around in that %&#*# nature-walk he's creating at his ranch, as he's waiting on the prison sentence that he rightly deserves. Greg Shepard Subj: FBI as "Fall Guy" Serves Multiple Political Purposes Since the present administration is literally a CIA Presidency, it's no wonder that DCI George Tenet was allowed to keep his agency's hands a little cleaner than the rest of the government's regarding 9-11 and even Iraq. This was not the case at all, however, for the FBI, which has just been designated the official national scapegoat for 9-11, an assignment accomplished with manipulative sorcery by the Bushes, and one of startling acquiescence for the once-proud Bureau of Feebs. In addition, this historical passing of the buck dramatically illustrates how emptied of integrity and debased of character this presidency has become: It has cravenly resorted to humiliating the once-mighty FBI, using it merely as a handy tool of absolution and misdirection for the benefit of an extremist cadre within the national security establishment. Squandered is the FBI's investigative credibility, apparently an inside job with highly partisan commissars Mueller and Ashcroft in charge. One can also see the presidency risking its own prestige and credibility, since executive branchers routinely popped up with grandiose whoppers about 9-11 and Iraq that they had to know would soon be proven false. However, this self-demeaning wouldn't have happened without a scapegoat waiting in the wings as insurance policy and maybe other surprises (watch Fall Sweeps for "Planted WMD Theatre"). No doubt they were emboldened knowing the buck would pass them by. Though this presidency is largely flying by the seat of its pants (on fire) these days, if one looks closely, one can see a deeper strategy emerging that explains how the public spanking of the FBI is serving multiple partisan political purposes: 1. Now that the FBI has "proven" incapable of handling important national security issues, this mission will be subsumed to the metastasizing malevolence of, you guessed it, the Homeland Security Agency, and by default to its earnest, dumb linebacker-looking and -sounding Tom Ridge. This could be useful in sustaining and ratcheting up the reigning national security paranoia. 2. With national security issues generally shifting overall from the FBI to the HSA, Attorney General John Ashcroft will be able to focus his fundamentally flawed attention more fully on quasi-religious witch hunts and cultural persecutions. This expanding focus on homegrown lifestyle " evildoers" could dovetail nicely with exaggerated and manufactured fears about "evildoer" foreigners. 3. And, obviously, the primary purpose of scapegoating the FBI is to protect the brazen schemers in the White House and Pentagon, who otherwise would be even more fully exposed for the conniving and backstabbing imperialists they truly are - mission accomplished, as far as they're concerned. This hidden, underlying strategy further reveals the venal nature of the stark transformation that the ruling Bush junta is working to impose upon the United States: A more stringent, holier-than-thou fascism, with the current political leadership increasingly doing the bidding of its extremist ideologues even more than that of its more merely opportunistic corporate sponsors. This, of course, cannot be allowed to continue. The political opposition must expose this bogus presidency's secret intentions relentlessly. It must increase its public presence and volume. And in a twist on John Kerry's anti-Bush slogan, "bring it on", the opposition must adamantly insist that this dangerously amoral executive branch clique be taken down by all nonviolent means necessary. So, "Bring it down! Bring it down! Bring it down!" Larry Piltz |
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