The "Other" White House scandal

A couple of months ago I said the outing of Plame story would "huge". This is the "other" unanswered question that has very serious, if not impeachable, implications for George Bush.

Boston Globe: Who let Saudis flee after 9/11?

"In the days immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, while the airways were still closed to all other flights, Americans couldn't fly into the country but relatives of bin Laden were able to fly out. The Justice Department and the FBI inspector general should investigate why these obvious "persons of interest" were permitted to leave the country without being seriously interrogated.

Why should the American people trust the Bush administration with greater police powers when it refuses to answer questions about the bin Laden family's escape? As Senator Charles Schumer of New York has said, it was too soon after 9/11 for the FBI even to know what questions to ask, much less to decide conclusively that each Saudi and bin Laden relative deserved an "all clear," never to be available for questions again..."

War profiteering

Paul Krugman: Who's Sordid Now?

"It's official: the administration that once scorned nation-building now says that it's engaged in a modern version of the Marshall Plan. But Iraq isn't postwar Europe, and George W. Bush definitely isn't Harry Truman. Indeed, while Truman led this country in what Churchill called the "most unsordid act in history," the stories about Iraqi reconstruction keep getting more sordid. And the sordidness isn't, as some would have you believe, a minor blemish on an otherwise noble enterprise..."

New York Times: Washington Insiders' New Firm Consults on Contracts in Iraq

"At a time when the administration seeks Congressional approval for $20.3 billion to rebuild Iraq, part of an $87 billion package for military and other spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, the company's Web site, www.newbridgestrategies.com, says, "The opportunities evolving in Iraq today are of such an unprecedented nature and scope that no other existing firm has the necessary skills and experience to be effective both in Washington, D.C., and on the ground in Iraq."

The site calls attention to the links between the company's directors and the two Bush administrations by noting, for example, that Mr. Allbaugh, the chairman, was "chief of staff to then-Gov. Bush of Texas and was the national campaign manager for the Bush-Cheney 2000 presidential campaign..."

Bush, Sr. on Joe Wilson

Alternet: Does a Felon Rove the White House?

"While Cheney may not know Wilson, there is little doubt he knows of him. When Cheney was helping run the Persian Gulf War, as secretary of defense, Wilson was one of the key players. As the acting US ambassador on the ground in Baghdad in the weeks leading up to the war, the White House consulted Wilson daily. In those weeks, he was the only open line of communication between Washington and Saddam Hussein. Cheney was the Secretary of Defense at the time and a key player in the day-to-day operations and intelligence gathering. Furthermore, Wilson was formally commended by the Bush administration for his bravery and heroism in the weeks leading up to the war. In that time, Wilson helped evacuate thousands of foreigners from Kuwait, negotiated the release of more than 120 American hostages and sheltered nearly 800 Americans in the embassy compound.

"Your courageous leadership during this period of great danger for American interests and American citizens has my admiration and respect. I salute, too, your skillful conduct of our tense dealings with the government of Iraq," President Bush wrote Wilson in a letter. "The courage and tenacity you have exhibited throughout this ordeal prove that you are the right person for the job..."

Loyalty at ALL costs

Baltimore Sun: Loyalty at any cost?

"LOYALTY, SECRECY, the boss' political standing: These are among the most highly regarded commodities in any White House. But in George W. Bush's White House they appear to rank above nearly all else, including the career and personal safety of public servants whose relatives embarrass the president...."

"Their place is in prison"

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Blowing CIA agent's cover weakens national security

"If the version of events recounted in the Post is true, this was not a rogue mid-level employee acting in a moment of bad judgment. This was a project -- an organized, calculated effort by top people in the administration to exact petty political revenge no matter what the impact to national security.

People who would do that have no place in positions of grave responsibility. Their place is in prison..."

Cleveland Plain Dealer: The truth, quickly

"...If the truth is something other than the story presented, then only an independent investigator of impeccable credentials will have the credibility to lay out what actually happened. Whichever path the president decides to follow, he had best get moving. The sky is darkening, and it's starting to rain."

Patriot failures

Madison Capital Times: Baldwin vs. Patriot Act

"However, after reading through the legislation's long list of legitimate complains about the Patriot Act's excesses, we are left with a question: Why not simply eliminate the Patriot Act and start anew to draft legislation that allows government to address legitimate terrorist threats while at the same time protecting civil rights and civil liberties?..."

The continuing saga: Screwing our troops

tompaine.com: Deserting Our Troops

"These statistics confirm what veterans of the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War and members of Congress have been saying for months: the Pentagon has been ignoring a law whose primary intention was avoiding a repeat of the military's mistakes surrounding its handling of veteran illnesses that have become known as Gulf War Syndrome..."

A world view untainted by reality

In a certain real sense, the Reactionary Right is stuck. They stole the election to get these guys in power, and now that they are screwing up the country, they have no choice but to stick with them. Every further failure screams out that Rumsfield, et. al., should be fired and "frog marched" out of the White House. It will be interesting to see when the dam breaks and just how really horrible their come-uppance will be.

Washington Post: Rumsfeld's Myopia

"You might expect the secretary of defense to engage this crucial subject seriously. There have been several careful studies on nation-building efforts, most recently an excellent one by the Rand Corp. But Rumsfeld refers to none of them, basing his views on a handful of misleading factoids and anecdotes..."

Liberate our oppressed corporations

They break it. You pay to fix it. Good, sound Republican economics.

Chicago Sun-Times: Don't let business dump this in our lap

"Rather, the money will come from general revenues, as opposed to the polluters themselves who, before 1995, were required to pay about $1 billion a year into the fund..."

Strong Democratic Presidential Field

Just about any one of them could beat Bush. And a few could CRUSH him.

Molly Ivins: These horses look ready to run

"...All in all, I think we've got at least five possibles here and three strong candidates. I'm feeling positively optimistic."

Don't call us, child. We'll call you.

My favorite source for legal info. Good read.

FindLaw's Writ: The Legal Status of the Don't-Call Registry: Sooner or Later, They'll Leave You Alone

"But the drastic step of amending the Constitution probably won't be necessary. The district court in Colorado misread the First Amendment. Accordingly, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, or failing that, the U.S. Supreme Court, will likely reverse the district court's holding, and allow the no-call-list program to go forward--eventually. Until then, you may have to endure some more annoying phone calls..."

Un-regulated globalization stings us

American Reporter: Contaminated Chinese homey puts Sara Lee and Smuckers in sticky situation

"Two of America's best-known brands, Sara Lee and J.M. Smuckers, have found themselves embroiled in a sticky situation involving Chinese honey smuggling that has roiled the global honey industry and led to investigations and recalls. Two federal agencies and both companies acknowledge they have a problem with companies that disguise the origin of Chinese honey contaminated with a powerful antibiotic that in some cases can cause anemia, The American Reporter has learned..."

White House politicos commit treason

One sidelight to this is that a lot of bloggers who are not necessarily sympathetic to the Bushies are quick to decry any suggestions that Novak should be compelled to reveal his source(s) as to who told him that Valerie Plame was a "CIA operative". Well, yes, First Amendment and all that, but do you think for one minute if this was the Clinton White House, and it was someone like Helen Thomas who broke the story, she wouldn't be subpoenaed and subject to government coersion?

I say drag the son-of-a-bitch Novak in front of a judge and make him defend the First Amendment and journalistic rights.

And get it on television.

(They should "frog march" him to the courthouse, too)

Poverty evokes petulance

Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"What should be surprising, even alarming, is the reaction of the Bush administration, which seems to range from indifference to petulance. Just three weeks ago, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced proudly that the number of people receiving welfare benefits continued to fall last year. Does the administration really believe that when the number of people who need public assistance goes up, the number who actually receive it should go down? As recently as the mid-1990s, eight out of 10 families who were eligible for public assistance actually received it. Today, that figure is five out of 10..."

Disaster waiting to happen

And since many of these corporations are run by pro-Republican managements, quess who the disaster will stike first?

Madison Capital Times: High-tech voting must be fraud-free

"What we know is that the machines can't be trusted, it's an unlocked bank vault, a disaster waiting to happen," a Stanford University computer science professor was quoted as saying in the Denver Post..."

Palpitating

Maureen Dowd: A neoconservative's love ode to Rumsfeld

"Now Mom has written a love ode to the 71-year-old defense secretary so palpitating it recalls the clip of a teenage Judy Garland singing "You Made Me Love You" to a picture of Clark Gable..."

Speaking out of both sides of their mouths

Helen Thomas: Hussein Link Was Sales Job

"We shouldn't take Bush's 180degree switch on Hussein and al Qaeda as evidence of an administration-wide confessional. At his U.N. speech earlier this week, the president returned to his old selfimpeached arguments for war, carefully picking his words so that he can imprint the American public with his argument that Iraq's fingerprints are all over the Sept. 11 attacks, but without saying those exact words..."

Bad to worse

The more complaints roll in that some legislation is egregiously terrible, the more the Republicans find ways to make it worse. "Oh, you think this is bad? Just watch."

New York Times: The Energy Bill Gets Worse

"This country needs a purposeful long-term energy strategy that reduces its dependence on foreign oil and deals with climate change and all the other air-quality issues that are directly related to the burning of fossil fuels like oil and coal. So how has Congress chosen to develop such a strategy? By passing two mediocre energy bills and then handing the task of reconciling them to Senator Pete Domenici and Representative Billy Tauzin, both reliable allies of the fossil fuel industry (although Mr. Domenici is also a big fan of nuclear power) and neither a visionary thinker. Since Labor Day, these two veteran deal makers have been cherry-picking provisions they like, discarding those they don't and for good measure infuriating their colleagues by adding new items of their own..."

Anti-American? No, anti-Bush

Toronto Sun: No wonder America has so many enemies

"Recent polls show that even among traditional friends abroad, America is no longer regarded as a champion of freedom, democracy and human rights, but increasingly as a dangerous aggressor bent on imperial domination and exploitation.

America's most precious and proudest asset, its moral reputation, has been gravely damaged by the Bush White House. The only positive note: rising anti-Americanism is largely associated in the eyes of non-Americans with the persona of George Bush, a man who projects almost all the negative stereotypes foreigners hold of Americans..."

Informed Speculation

Josh Marshall has some "informed speculation" as to the identity of the leak re: "at least six Washington journalists" quote in the WaPo at Talking Points Memo.

"The phrase "senior administration official" customarily refers to cabinet secretaries and their deputies and some similarly ranked people in the administration. It doesn't mean an Assistant Secretary or something like that. So we're talking about a pretty small group of people..."

"Third Rate Burglery" Redux

The other day I said that the "investigation" by Ashcroft's Injustice Department would go nowhere. It still might go nowhere. But we should all remember that Watergate was considered a "third rate burglery" for many months before the shit-hammer came down on Nixon. If anything, this has the potential for getting rid of some very high up White House operatives. "Frog-marched", indeed.

Washington Post: Bush Administration Is Focus of Inquiry

" Yesterday, a senior administration official said that before Novak's column ran, two top White House officials called at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identity and occupation of Wilson's wife. Wilson had just revealed that the CIA had sent him to Niger last year to look into the uranium claim and that he had found no evidence to back up the charge. Wilson's account touched off a political fracas over Bush's use of intelligence as he made the case for attacking Iraq.

"Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge," the senior official said of the alleged leak..."

What went wrong?!

What went wrong?! The Republican party under the control of rich and powerful reactionary cranks stole the presidential election and handed it to a dim-bulb fratboy mental and emotional defective who proceeded to populate his "administration" with more reactionary hard-right cranks and "crazies", each with their own vision for undermining the American government. No taxes, no government, no problems.

Time:So, What Went Wrong?

"On Capitol Hill, Bush's eye-popping supplementary budget request of $87 billion in the current fiscal year for military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan?which includes $20 billion in grants to rebuild Iraq?has left even Republicans gasping. As it becomes clear that there will not be a sudden influx of non-American troops into Iraq, the Pentagon is having to extend tours of duty there of regular soldiers and reservists. Bush's travails have invigorated the Democratic Party; all the Democrats running for the White House make criticism of Bush's record in Iraq a part of their pitch. And although few are brave enough to say it, other world leaders?most of whom opposed the war?can hardly hide their sense that the Bush Administration is getting what it deserves. When Bush spoke before the U.N. General Assembly last Tuesday, he faced an audience he has often described as having the enthusiasm of a "wax museum." The applause that greeted his speech was tepid, while that reserved for war opponent Jacques Chirac, the French President, was, at least by the U.N.'s decorous standards, positively thunderous..."

Unequal sacrafice

St. Petersburg Times: Unequal sacrifice

While American troops and their families bear the burden of the war in Iraq, the Bush administration gets no help from abroad and asks for none at home.

"The administration now plans to call up thousands of additional National Guard and Reserve troops in a desperate effort to shore up our overburdened forces in Iraq. Thousands of troops who already have served for months under dangerous and oppressive conditions are having their tours of duty extended on short notice. Most of the National Guard and Reserve forces being asked to assume a greater burden in Iraq are inadequately trained for the duties they will perform. And their families and employers are being asked to bear a disproportionate share of the burden of the war at home..."

Undemocratic

Los Angeles Times: Why the Recall Is Wrong

"So why not replace him? The Times opposes the recall because it doesn't make sense. There were no reasonable standards in calling for a new election. Davis was elected last year with 47% of the vote; months later, political opponents spent millions to replay the election. Now the state will spend $66 million for a special election, with 135 official candidates, come one, come all. If the recall prevails, the winner, with a minority of the overall vote, would replace a governor who got a large plurality. It's undemocratic.

There is another good reason why we oppose this recall. The alternatives ? as much as truth hurts in this nation-sized state that deserves better ? are not superior to Davis. In fact, they are potentially worse. Consider:.."

Hard-right agenda

New York Times: The Right's Grip on the Capitol

"...Another hard-right chestnut, a so-called victims' rights amendment to the Constitution, was forestalled in the past as critics warned it would go beyond legitimate concerns about crime victims to complicate prosecutions and undermine defendants' rights. But it has gotten a new lease on life this year, given the constitution of the House and Senate, and the new power of the Republican Party's right wing to have its agenda passed, especially with a kindred spirit in the White House. Pressure is also growing on Senate leaders to finally pass another perennial, the House's ban on flag desecration. Approval of that would be an attack on an important Supreme Court free-speech ruling. It would also add a triumphalist exclamation mark to a banner session for the hard-right agenda."

Patently stupid

Denver Post: Ashcroft's plea ploy

"Some observers say Ashcroft's plan is merely a ploy to make his boss, President George W. Bush, look tough on crime for the 2004 election. But all this sound-bite buffoonery accomplishes is to make the Bush administration look patently stupid..."

The monkey in the monkeywrench

Boston Globe: The Terminator trips up

"After all that effort, Arnold, it probably wasn't the best idea to tell Arianna Huffington, "I have a perfect part for you in `Terminator 4.' " I mean, even those who never saw "Terminator 3" (or 2 or 1) know how you triumphantly dump the little woman, uh, the Terminatrix, into the hopper. We know how you bragged about creating this scene to Entertainment Weekly last July: "How many times do you get away with taking a woman and burying her face in a toilet bowl?..."

Bad news and getting worse

Mike Hersh:W's Double Quagmires and a Return of the American Dream

" Bush cannot blame these economic catastrophes on anyone but himself. With a lock-step loyal Republican Congress rubber-stamping his borrow and spend budgets, Bush cannot blame Democrats for a dime of these deficits. Rebuilding after 9/11 actually added to GDP, so he cannot blame terrorism for economic stagnation. His foolishness and failures in Iraq already added $160 billion to the debt and continue to add another $billion a week. That's not even including the additional $87 Billion Bush says he needs to clean up the messes he made in the Middle East.

The news for Bush is bad and getting worse. Recent opinion polls show Bush behind named Democratic rivals in head-to-head tests. He is trailing an unnamed "generic" Democrat, as well. Even this hides Bush's weakness in critical swing states as it reflects lingering high levels of support for Bush in his base, concentrated in a few dozen states..."

Panderers

Christian Science Monitor: Hoist by Its Own Tariff

"It hasn't worked out quite as planned. Two ITC reports last Friday found that while the US steel industry has successfully restructured, US companies that make goods from steel were hit with steep price increases and shortages of quality supplies. Many of these consumers are small and medium-sized metal-stamping and auto-parts firms in states like Michigan and Tennessee. The resulting job losses may be costing the president voter support in two more states he hopes to win in 2004..."

Retreat from democracy

William Pfaff: The Retreat From Baghdad

"Saddam's foreign intelligence service people are already being signed up. Bremer's people have already gone to the tribes to renew their traditional arrangement of subsidy in exchange for oil pipeline security.

All this may be the practical course. But it's not what was promised, either to Iraqis or to the Americans who are paying for it all..."

What they paid for

St. Petersburg Times: Bill of favors

The energy bill in Congress is an exercise in corporate tax breaks and special interest favors.

"Congressional efforts to write an energy bill have been so secretive and corrupted by special interests that the whole mess ought to be thrown out. Republican leaders have not only kept Democrats in the dark, they have ignored concerns expressed by their own party's members. Taking advantage of the urgency to do something after a massive failure of the power grid, they are promoting unrelated policies that reward favored industries while ignoring any balance between consumption and conservation..."

Ashcrank

Madison Capital Times: Ashcroft is a false patriot

"There is a dawning recognition on the part of Americans that no one exploited the sorrows and fears stirred by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon more aggressively than Ashcroft. Long before the nation had begun to adjust to its shock, the attorney general pried open the file marked "unconstitutional" and pulled out every ridiculous, retrograde and reactionary proposal that his overzealous aides had sought without success to advance. He tossed the constitutional castoffs into the Patriot Act, ran up to Congress and got the package passed into law without anything resembling proper debate..."

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: On the stump for Patriot Act, yet he refuses to talk to public

"Ashcroft is often quoted in mass media saying that people have got entirely the wrong idea about USA Patriot -- he uses phrases like "public hysteria."

Yet in the cities he visits, he doesn't address the public, to explain to us regular folks how we've got it wrong, and help ease our hysterical fear of unaccountable government.

Instead, he speaks to select groups, usually law enforcement personnel, and keeps his itinerary so secret that even the media often don't know until shortly before he arrives..."

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Talking tough

"Federal prosecutors are serious people. Federal courts are somber places. With very few exceptions, those who represent the United States against those who have violated its laws do so to the best of their abilities and the most reasonable extent of the law.

By insinuating that they do not, Ashcroft at once belittles their good efforts and denigrates their good character..."

We need to cut more taxes

Salon: Bush abandons troop-protection plan

A decision by the White House and a GOP-dominated Congress would leave troop-transport jets vulnerable to missile attack.

"The measure, first advanced by the Pentagon, would have begun an ambitious program to equip the commercial airliners that are used for troop transport with advanced technology to protect them from the shoulder-fired missiles. Confused by disarray in the administration's plans to protect airliners from missile attack, the House of Representatives slashed the original $25 million request to $3 million. Congressional officials say the Bush administration did nothing to win approval of the full measure -- despite recent missile attacks on U.S. military craft flying near the Baghdad airport.

The outcome shocked many in the Defense Department and, critics said, it clearly could leave troops vulnerable. "I am appalled," said one Defense Department official who asked to remain anonymous. "We are setting ourselves up for a fall. We are paying lip-service to force protection and instead are digging a deeper hole in which to bury our head."

The $25 million measure was approved by the U.S. Senate, but slashed to $3 million in the powerful House Appropriations Committee, chaired by U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, a Florida Republican. The lower sum, part of the proposed $400 billion defense budget for 2004, was approved in negotiations between the two chambers and is all but certain to be in the budget sent for approval to the president..."

Bush abandons troop-protection plan
A decision by the White House and a GOP-dominated Congress would leave troop-transport jets vulnerable to missile attack.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Paul J. Caffera

Sept. 27, 2003 | Even as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made headlines this week by announcing that up to 20,000 fresh troops may be called to Iraq, President Bush and members of the congressional leadership were quietly abandoning a plan to protect troop-transport airliners from missile attack by terrorists or Saddam loyalists.

The measure, first advanced by the Pentagon, would have begun an ambitious program to equip the commercial airliners that are used for troop transport with advanced technology to protect them from the shoulder-fired missiles. Confused by disarray in the administration's plans to protect airliners from missile attack, the House of Representatives slashed the original $25 million request to $3 million. Congressional officials say the Bush administration did nothing to win approval of the full measure -- despite recent missile attacks on U.S. military craft flying near the Baghdad airport.

The outcome shocked many in the Defense Department and, critics said, it clearly could leave troops vulnerable. "I am appalled," said one Defense Department official who asked to remain anonymous. "We are setting ourselves up for a fall. We are paying lip-service to force protection and instead are digging a deeper hole in which to bury our head."

The $25 million measure was approved by the U.S. Senate, but slashed to $3 million in the powerful House Appropriations Committee, chaired by U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, a Florida Republican. The lower sum, part of the proposed $400 billion defense budget for 2004, was approved in negotiations between the two chambers and is all but certain to be in the budget sent for approval to the president.

No president in recent memory has been a fiercer ally of men and women in uniform. "We will not cut corners when it comes to the defense of our great land," Bush said last year. Even Ronald Reagan, one of the most forceful proponents of a strong military ever to inhabit the White House, never donned a flight suit and flew onto the deck of an aircraft carrier aboard a Navy plane. But this week, officials said, the Bush administration offered no support to protect the troop-transport planes.

"The administration never made the case for why it needed the money," said John Scofield, a spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee. "It was never clear what they were going to do with the money." An aide to a Republican senator, who asked to remain anonymous, said the full funding would have been approved if Bush had pressed for it. "If the president says that something is important, he will get the funding from this Congress," the aide said. "All he has to do is ask."

In a series of stories since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Salon has disclosed that the proliferation of shoulder-launched missiles has alarmed airline security officials and many congressional officials. The launchers are small, light and easy to hide, and they are known to be in the hands of al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations. Late last year, suspected al-Qaida terrorists fired on a charter jet filled with Israeli travelers at Mombassa, Kenya, but the missile narrowly missed its target. Top national security officials began meeting last year to assess and address the risk, and some have suggested it would cost around $15 billion to equip 5,000 U.S. jetliners with anti-missile technology. But to date, critics say, the federal government has done almost nothing to prepare for the possibility -- some call it a probability -- that terrorists will use shoulder-launched missiles against American commercial jetliners, either within or outside the United States.

Contrary to the images portrayed in movies, most combat troops and other military personnel do not cram into the back of military transport planes when deploying around the world. Like the rest of us, they usually fly in commercial jets both within the United States and abroad.

Through the Civilian Reserve Aviation Fleet program, the Defense Department contracts with commercial airlines to provide jets and air crews during times of crisis. In return for participating in the program, airlines are guaranteed peacetime business with the Defense Department. The reserve aviation fleet "forms the majority of the DoD's passenger airlift capability," according to Navy Capt. Stephen Honda, spokesman for the Pentagon unit responsible for airlifting military personnel and equipment. By some estimates, over 90 percent of the military personnel moved by the Defense Department are transported on aircraft operated by CRAF carriers. And like every other commercial airliner in this country, these airliners are completely unprotected from the threat from shoulder-fired missiles.

But military craft flying in and out of Baghdad have been targeted at least three times since May by anti-U.S. forces with shoulder-launched missiles. All of those aircraft likely had sophisticated anti-missile countermeasures, and all of the shots missed their targets. Still, the threat of shoulder-fired missiles remains so great in Iraq that the Baghdad airport has remained closed to all but essential military and aid aircraft. That is the risk facing the planes that would ferry up to 20,000 reserves and National Guard troops to the Iraqi capital if Rumsfeld goes ahead with the call-up.

Pentagon documents show that shoulder-fired missiles are the single greatest killer of military aircraft, accounting for well over 50 percent of all combat losses in recent decades. Additionally, Pentagon documents show that these missiles have successfully hit 41 civilian aircraft and destroyed at least 30 of these. In the process, about 1,000 passengers and crew have been lost. Air Force Gen. John W. Handy, head of the U.S. Transportation Command, recently said that the danger posed by shoulder-fired missiles "is perhaps the greatest threat that we face anywhere in the world, and the proliferation of MANPADS is well documented."

Some in Congress are deeply concerned about the elimination of funding to begin protecting the troop-transport aircraft. U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, a New York Democrat and outspoken proponent of federal spending to protect commercial jetliners, blasted the Bush administration in an interview this week for failing to take care of troop-transport planes. "Out of a $400 billion defense budget, $3 million is completely inadequate, particularly against thousands of shoulder-fired missiles in the hands of terrorists including al-Qaida," Israel said. "We have simply got to stop shortchanging this glaring threat to American airplanes."

According to Pentagon budget documents obtained by Salon, the missile defense program for aircraft in the military reserve program would have leapfrogged the lethargic anti-missile efforts currently gearing up at the Department of Homeland Security. In its first year, the Defense Department program would have measured the "heat signatures" of the commercial airliners used to transport troops, and then begun devising anti-missile measures to protect those planes. Measuring the heat signatures is a critical step, since shoulder-fired missiles are "heat seekers" and home in on the infrared radiation given off by aircraft. Currently, the DHS has no plans to conduct similar measurement efforts.

With $3 million, defense officials will be able to record those heat signatures, but little work on missile-jamming equipment will be possible unless money can be found elsewhere in the Pentagon budget.

Should terrorists begin targeting the troop-transport aircraft, there likely will be widespread political and economic effects. "The ability to rapidly deploy military force across the globe is a key element of American power and influence in the world and helps to create the stability and security that is the basis for investment and trade on which the prosperity of the U.S. and others depend," says James Bodner, former undersecretary of defense in the Clinton administration.

A research study currently underway at the RAND Institute estimates that the direct cost of one plane's being shot down - for the loss of life and the cost of the aircraft -- would be $1 billion. The ripple effect of such a loss would likely be enormous, as people reassess the wisdom of traveling by air.

The military has taken a multi-pronged approach to protecting its combat jets and the Air Force's large transport aircraft. It uses intelligence to uncover threats, conducts missions to capture shoulder-fired missiles from terrorists and other groups, and has installed sophisticated systems on its aircraft to jam attacking missiles and direct them away from the targeted aircraft. As a backup, since no electronic countermeasures system is 100 percent effective, the military also designs its aircraft to be able to withstand the detonation of a shoulder-fired missile warhead.

Shortly after the failed missile attack in Kenya last year, the administration formed an interagency task force to seek solutions to the shoulder-fired missile threat. Soon, however, that effort was being criticized for focusing on window-dressing solutions that cost little -- and provide little protection. Confronted by congressional pressure, the administration pledged to put together a plan for combating terrorist missile attacks.

In March, Transportation Security Administration head Adm. James Loy seemed to call for an expedited push to address the threat. Speaking to CBS News' "60 Minutes," he said, "I think the right thing for us to do is to continue the methodical study process that has been undertaken by the National Security Council, not with years of study to come but with weeks of study to come." Still, the administration failed to act. During congressional deliberations leading up to the vote to fund ongoing operations in Iraq, Congress ordered the Department of Homeland Security to come up with a plan to counter the threat from shoulder-fired missiles.

The department delivered a report in May that proposed spending $2 million this year to set up an administrative office to coordinate the anti-missile activities and up to $60 million next year. The White House, however, failed to seek any funding to implement the plan. Instead, the Department of Homeland Security began a much-hyped program that was supposed to have identified one or two promising technologies before the end of this month. Instead, the program petered out. In recent days a department official told Salon that the program "was never going to solve the problem [because] it lacked the necessary funding." Still, despite the department's dismal track record on this issue, the official insisted that a new Homeland Security program -- funded in the first year with $60 million that the Congress appropriated after the White House failed to request any funding at all to address the threat -- will begin the process of finding a solution. In early October, the Homeland Security officials will brief defense contractors on its goals and requirements for a missile countermeasures system for use on commercial airliners. But the program won't yield significant progress before 2006.

"We're heading out on a long, slow jog, when a faster pace is warranted," says Israel. "I am convinced that the threat of shoulder-fired missiles to our commercial airplanes is serious enough to merit significantly more energy and resources."

In the meantime, U.S. troops are being transported around the globe on aircraft that are unable to ward off a missile attack and have not been designed to take a missile hit. For the families of the troops about to be called up and sent to Iraq, this must be a chilling proposition.

Expect nothing

In the real world, before Bush, there would be a serious investigation and possibly jail time. In our new and improved Republican world, Ashcroft will either kill it out-of-hand, or give it to some "select" FBI investigators who will, quelle suprise, find "no evidence of wrong doing". Remember, there are NO guilty Republicans. Ever.

MSNBC:CIA seeks probe of White House

"The CIA has asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations that the White House broke federal laws by revealing the identity of one of its undercover employees in retaliation against the woman?s husband, a former ambassador who publicly criticized President Bush?s since-discredited claim that Iraq had sought weapons-grade uranium from Africa, NBC News has learned..."

Unspeakable

Common Dreams: A Conservatism That Once Conserved

"The odd part is that this man and many of the rest of my neighbors call themselves conservative. I am not assuming; one only need read the stickers and flags covering their SUVs. Yet what is the foundation of this conservatism if it disregards what the neighbors might think, that is, ignores the community standard?

This is not a small matter. A misguided notion of freedom lies at the heart of the suburban cancer on the landscape. My neighbors will tell you they moved because in rural America you are free to do as you please. Where did they get this idea? Rural America, at least when there was a functioning rural America, never advertised any such freedom. Just the opposite.

All of this would be only so much personal vexation if they didn't extend their disregard of community standards to the natural community. Miss the bluegrass lawn you had in New Jersey? No problem. Rip up that stand of Montana short grass prairie. No rain? Pump the aquifer dry to keep it green. Like horses? Go ahead. Fence that pasture big enough to feed 2.5 percent of one horse then put four in and graze it to rocks.

If you are oblivious to the natural community's feedback, you can get away with these things for a while. You'll not notice the elk disappear, the streams dry up, the noxious weeds creep up the dirt-bike trails. You'll not hear these complaints if your relationship with community is fed through a satellite dish..."

Serving a higher god

A lie is not a lie when it serves a higher truth: that the Radical Right is here to save America.

But who will save us from them?

David Corn: Bush's Other Lies

"George W. Bush is a liar. He has lied large and small, directly and by omission. His Iraq lies have loomed largest. In the run-up to the invasion, Bush based his case for war on a variety of unfounded claims that extended far beyond his controversial uranium-from-Niger assertion. He maintained that Saddam Hussein possessed "a massive stockpile" of unconventional weapons and was directly "dealing" with Al Qaeda ? two suppositions unsupported then (or now) by the available evidence. He said the International Atomic Energy Agency had produced a report in 1998 noting that Iraq was six months from developing a nuclear weapon; no such report existed (and the IAEA had actually reported then that there was no indication Iraq had the ability to produce weapons-grade material). Bush asserted that Iraq was "harboring a terrorist network, headed by a senior Al Qaeda terrorist planner"; US intelligence officials told reporters this terrorist was operating ouside of Al Qaeda control. And two days before launching the war, Bush said, "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."

Yet former deputy CIA director Richard Kerr, who is conducting a review of the prewar intelligence, has said that intelligence was full of qualifiers and caveats, and based on circumstantial and inferential evidence. That is, it was not no-doubt stuff. And after the major fighting was done, Bush declared, "We found the weapons of mass destruction." But he could only point to two tractor-trailers that the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency had concluded were mobile bioweapons labs. Other experts ? including the CIA's own engineering experts ? disagreed with this finding..."

Posted by fightingdem at 11:08 AM

With your credit card, by-the-way

Baltimore Sun: Bush's binge

"...Mr. Bush's tax-cut agenda has been a trickle-down gamble at best. Its supporters now find it hard to argue that the cuts will so stimulate the economy that the nation won't continue sliding into deep debt. While it may be necessary to borrow to see the nation through tough times or war, it's absolute lunacy to borrow in order to further widen the yawning gap between America's very richest and everyone else."

Things are just hunky-dory, thank you. Now shut up.

Bill Berkowitz: Bush's bad news blues

"The new campaign is clearly aimed at putting a positive spin on the declining situation in Iraq by pointing to some of the coalition's achievements over the past several months. To do this, it must counter the trend of negative stories flowing out of Iraq. "The illegal war and the botched occupation don't leave a lot of space for happy talk," Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive, told me in a recent telephone interview. This new propaganda effort appears to be a case of "the Bush administration grasping at straws. It dragged the nation into war on a leash of lies and now it's entangled on that leash. For those lies, US soldiers are paying with their lives every day and for the loved ones of these soldiers it must be a tremendously galling thing to have their love ones die for this Bush league escapade..."

Doctrine of "Going it alone" abject failure

tompaine.com: The Unilateral Party's Over

"Flash forward to Kosovo, 1999. In response to yet more "ethnic cleansing," Clinton quickly assembled an international coalition. Military action, when it came, involved an almost even split of combat aircraft between the United States and Europe (including, most notably, the French). Germans provided ground troops, transport planes and logistical support. Even the Serbophilic Russians agreed eventually to send security forces. In both Balkan crises, Republicans were quick to condemn military action and subsequent peacekeeping efforts, even though the moves had considerable support in the world community.

Dr. James Lyon directs the widely respected International Crisis Group in Belgrade and holds a PhD in Balkan history. He harkens back with some nostalgia to the days of American multilateralism. "Clinton's foreign policy is certainly looking pretty good [by comparison]," he says..."

Radical Right Unbound

It's less about the oil than it is about the rape of nature. NOBODY will tell these guys what to do. There are no laws, regulations, conventions or rationales that they accept that will prevent them from having anything they want, when they want it.

Seattle Times: Drilling for symbolism

"House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, wants to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to create a precedent for exploration in other sensitive areas..."

Ir-rationale

Daniel Schorr: A war still in search of a rationale

"It is more than six months since the invasion of Iraq, and it remains a war in search of a rationale..."

Shadow government hates your freedoms

John Dean: Bush's Unofficial Official Secrets Act

How the Justice Department Has Pushed to Criminalize The Disclosure of Non-Security Related Government Information

"Except in a few highly egregious circumstances relating to national security information (espionage and atomic secrets), the U.S. Congress has, in the past, never made it a crime to leak information to the news media. As a result, for over two hundred years, our government has operated without an "official secrets act."

In contrast, Great Britain and other nations have long criminalized the disclosure of government information. But there's a crucial difference between them and us: They lack an equivalent of our First Amendment.

Despite the free speech costs, President George W. Bush has created the equivalent of an official secrets act for America - and it is only growing stronger. Indeed, by cobbling together provisions from existing laws, Bush's Justice Department has effectively created one of the world's most encompassing, if not draconian, official secrets acts..."

Budget Buster: More jails, more judges, more lawyers

Newsday:Ashcroft Plea-Bargain Order Is Potentially Disastrous

"... Plea bargains not only ease the burden of the federal courts' crushing caseload - 54,851 criminal cases in 2001 - they also serve the interests of justice by allowing officials who know the details of individual cases intimately - prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges - to fine-tune punishments to reflect the unique circumstances each crime presents. And, rather than the delay and uncertainty of trials, they deliver punishment that is swift and sure. Those advantages should not be discarded."

Right-Wing First Amendment

Madison Capital Times: Skin's thin on far-right Bush backers

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, except to encourage attendance in Christian churches, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, except to require prayer in schools, or abridging the freedom of speech, except for those questioning the Bush administration, or of the press, except that not owned by Rupert Murdoch, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, except those protesting pre-emptive wars, and to petition the government for a redress of grievance, except those we don't like."

Bush, Energy Industry Lobbyist

Washington Post:

"OPEC is a conspiracy to fix prices. It is a textbook example of how to violate the Sherman Antitrust Act. As sovereign nations meeting in faraway luxury hotels, rather than American business executives exchanging furtive messages across state lines, OPEC's members probably can't be prosecuted. But we shouldn't forget the true nature of the organization. And we certainly shouldn't be legitimizing and strengthening it by nominating members..."

"Ignore Vietnam" Syndrome

Los Angeles Times: Vietnam's Shadow Lies Across Iraq

"His (Bush) optimism notwithstanding, Americans remained haunted by the specter of a defeat in some distant realm, and their uneasiness continued as President George W. Bush made his plans to invade Iraq. The younger Bush excoriated pundits who cautioned that we faced a catastrophe there, and at first he seemed to have been proved correct, as Americans witnessed the amazing speed with which our battalions drove into Baghdad. But it has since become apparent that Iraq, if not exactly "another Vietnam," could degenerate into an equally calamitous debacle..."

Everyday hero

Sen. Robert C. Byrd: A Nation With Questions

"The President's unsubstantiated justification for his war in Iraq has left the nation questioning the White House's current efforts. The Administration was wrong, it seems, on its claims of an Iraqi broad-scale, advanced weapons of mass destruction capability; the Administration was wrong on its claims that American soldiers would be welcomed with open arms as liberators; and the Administration remains wrong in its refusal to share authority and responsibility for the restoration of Iraq with the rest of the world. We obviously cannot accomplish this task alone; yet, that is exactly what we continue to attempt. It is no wonder that the country is losing confidence and patience in the President's Iraqi program. Many of us on this panel have seen what a loss of public confidence and trust can do to a war effort, to a government, and, indeed, to the fabric of a nation. I saw it in Vietnam. Have we not learned the lessons of our own past?..."

Changing their minds

Alternet: Framing a Democratic Agenda

"Taxes look very different when framed from a progressive point of view. As Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said, taxes are the price of civilization. They are what you pay to live in America ? your dues ? to have democracy, opportunity and access to all the infrastructure that previous taxpayers have built up and made available to you: highways, the Internet, weather reports, parks, the stock market, scientific research, Social Security, rural electrification, communications satellites, and on and on. If you belong to America, you pay a membership fee and you get all that infrastructure plus government services: flood control, air-traffic control, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and so on..."

Awakening from a long, deep sleep - to a nightmare

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Deceit spurs rank and file to rethink Iraq

"The Bush administration took a calculated risk with that deception, believing that its exaggerations would quickly be forgotten in the glow of victory. Many members of Congress, including a few Democrats now running for president, made a similarly crass calculation, voting to authorize war despite deep misgivings because they did not want to be stuck on the sideline when the victory parade marched by later.

Of course, that isn't exactly how things have worked out. We now find ourselves committed to a long struggle in Iraq that will tax our persistence, our military, our treasury. The Bush administration has already become worried, and with good cause, about the willingness of the American people to pay that price over the long haul..."

Sometime in the future...

the truth will be known. For the Bushies, the future will always be another day.

Washington Post: Waiting for Mr. Kay

"So when can we expect to hear from Mr. Kay? There, it seems, is the catch. Asked this question at a briefing on Monday, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice responded: "David Kay is not going to be done with this for quite some time. And I would not count on reports. I suppose there may be interim reports. I don't know when those will be, and I don't know what the public nature of them will be." In other words, the Bush administration seems to be saying, any explanation of the missing weapons will come from Mr. Kay -- but don't "count on reports." This is an unacceptable dodge..."

Trifecta of a different kind

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: This round, Bush really hits the trifecta

"The problem wasn't the speech itself -- although the president, far from his swaggering style on the aircraft carrier, was back to his wary, suspicious look, as if he thought someone was about to ask him to spell something. The problem was the check that Bush produced like a waiter at the end of a meal -- $87 billion in the next fiscal year for Iraq and Afghanistan..."

Crank-in-Chief

Newsday: A Headstrong Bush Has Gone Way Too Far

" Bush might still hunker down at home, play to his base and win re-election. But his foreign policy "vision" has been shattered. The pieces that once reflected his own vain posturing are strewn across America. They are drenched in blood but, of course, it's not Bush's..."

Boston Globe: Don't blame Bush's speechwriters

"Our current president, who disdains international law and organizations, does not consider himself to be a "citizen of the world," much less a mere "fellow" among many. And, bent as he is on unilateral actions like preemptive strikes, he has no interest in doing anything "together" with anyone..."

New York Times: The Presidential Bubble

"Mr. Bush and his aides also seem to go to great lengths to underline the degree to which the president closes himself off from the news media. In an interview with Fox News this week, the president said he learned most of what he needs to know from morning briefings by his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and his chief of staff, Andrew Card.

As for newspapers, Mr. Bush said, "I glance at the headlines" but "rarely read the stories." The people who brief him on current events encounter many of the newsmakers personally, he said, and in any case "probably read the news themselves..."

Right-wing Crank: John Ashcroft

Chicago Sun-Times: Ashcroft edict ties hands of his own prosecutors

"As worrisome as the logistics are for what Ashcroft is trying to do, the implications for consolidation of power are even more ominous. Just last month, Ashcroft got Congress to grant him the authority to establish what amounts to a blacklist of federal judges who impose sentences that for some reason deviate beneath the legal maximum. Having tightened the reins on the federal judiciary, he is now seeking to turn a vital part of our criminal justice system -- federal law enforcement operating with discretion on a local level -- into volitionless puppets of Washington bureaucrats..."

St. Petersburg Times: Ashcroft's edict

"Attorney General John Ashcroft apparently doesn't trust the legal judgment of his own corps of professional prosecutors in the field. A new directive sharply limits the ability of federal prosecutors to seek plea bargains with defendants, ordering attorneys to charge the most serious legally sound offenses available. The Justice Department says this is a way to establish uniformity so the same crimes result in equivalent charges. But as prosecutors themselves are saying, the consequence of this wrongheaded policy will be overloaded federal courts and the removal of vital discretion at the local level that the system relies upon for truly just outcomes..."

St. Petersburg Times: Ashcroft Is Unprintable, and Glad of It

On tour, he bars the press and cozies up to local TV reporters.

"Ashcroft's avoidance of the print press reveals something important about this administration ? the zealotry with which it goes about protecting itself from scrutiny. This zealotry is linked with the paranoid streak that, as the historian Richard Hofstadter taught us long ago, runs like a bright thread through American history. Ashcroft's segregation of journalists is paranoid, in the sense Hofstadter meant, because it turns fantasies of persecution into a conspiracy among print reporters to deny the attorney general a fair hearing. So he denies them access...."

Dean breaks fundraising record for Dems

Yahoo News: Dean Leads Dems in Fund-Raising for 2004

"Front-runner Howard Dean has broken former President Clinton's Democratic record for most money raised in a three-month burst, while new rival Wesley Clark is turning to some of Clinton's most loyal and effective fund-raisers to help him jump-start his presidential campaign..."

Re-boot! re-boot!

The Hill: Administration stuck in an infinite loop

" Many of us are familiar with the five stages of grieving identified three decades ago by the psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler Ross. As individuals face death or any great loss they go through five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

Those stages apply to the demise of major policy initiatives as well and we're watching that happen now as the White House comes to grips with the collapse of its policy on Iraq.

The administration keeps seeing what the problem is but cannot bring itself to take the cure.

It's stuck. It cannot get past stages one (denial) and two (anger). And the clock is ticking..."

Loathing ain't the word

Molly Ivins: Fear and loathing in America

Novak and Krauthammer get it wrong -- it's not about hate, it's about bad policy

"For eight long years, this country was a zoo of Clinton-haters. Any idiot with a big mouth and a conspiracy theory could get a hearing on radio talk shows, "Christian" broadcasts and nutty Internet sites. People with transparent motives, people paid by tabloid magazines, people with known mental problems, ancient Clinton enemies with notoriously racist pasts -- all were given hearings, credence and air time. Sliming Clinton was a sure road to fame and fortune on the right, and many an ambitious young right-wing hitman -- like David Brock, who has since made full confession -- took that golden opportunity..."

The truth shall set you free

Boston Globe: Owning up to deceptions on the Iraq war

"...Now Bush comes clean. There is no link between Saddam and 9/11. There is no evidence that Iraq "planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001." Coming clean only uncovers the dirt. The links were a lie. The invasion was based on no principles whatsoever."

No public school left standing

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: No illusion left behind by school legislation

"I'm a recently retired Iowa elementary school principal, and I can't figure out why educators all over the United States aren't screaming and yelling about the federal No Child Left Behind law.

It's hard to tell whether this law is more a product of arrogance or ignorance, but either way it's shaping up to be a spectacular train wreck of a collision between bureaucracy and reality..."

Right-wing demagogues vs. the U.N.

Since the creation of the United Nation, the reactionary right has screamed that the U.S. had abandoned it's sovereignty. All the ills that befell the U.S. were the work of leaders who defered too much to "foreigners". They've wrenched control of the wheel of U.S. diplomacy from sober, thoughtful people and driven us into a tree. Hopefully soon we will undo this disaster and their doctrine of "unilateralism" will be long forgotten.

Los Angeles Times: More Than Ever, We Need the U.N.

"Right-wing demagogues in our land have so unremittingly denigrated the organization for so long ? calling it bloated, anti-American, a body that wastes time on speechmaking, abdicates its responsibilities and remains out of touch ? that leading members of the Senate now routinely dismiss its importance and argue that it unnecessarily limits our sovereignty..."

Not anti-American, just anti-Bush

Alternet: Annan Trounces Bush at UN

"In his distinctively quiet-spoken manner, Annan trounced the Bush administration's foreign policy doctrine of unilateral preemptive strikes at the United Nations General Assembly. Saying the world had "come to a fork in the road," at what "may be a moment no less decisive than 1945 itself, when the United Nations was founded," Annan spelt out explicitly and in the most public way possible the position he has until now reserved for quiet off-the-cuff sessions with the media. Drawing on the power of his office, he ripped apart the U.S. policy of hot preemption ? though without pointing specifically at the Bush administration:.."

President Screw-up strikes out again

Another reason Bush avoids press conferences and public speaking.

Newsday: Bush Should Have Listened Instead

"...In the face of such significant omissions, it is not surprising that the world's leaders sitting in session were a little underwhelmed when the president tried to project compassionate conservatism on a global scale with his call for action against sex-trafficking. Was this addressed to the Soccer Moms or the Bible Belters, and if so, do they listen to UN speeches? Certainly, on the evidence of the president's own speech, he does not listen much to others'. The sound of silence is often deafening when statesmen speak, but in the case of George. W. Bush it is the deafness that is almost as stunning. He neither hears nor mentions disagreement."

Washington Post: A Failed Address

"On his return yesterday, Mr. Bush read an address that conspicuously lacked such passion, determination or vision. His defense of his decision to proceed with an invasion of Iraq without Security Council support was almost perfunctory, as was his acknowledgement that many nations opposed the war. He spoke one sentence about the so-far unsuccessful search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and provided no new information to an audience that last year heard him describe at great length the threat posed by those weapons. Most remarkable, Mr. Bush had nothing new to say about the struggle to stabilize Iraq and establish a new government; more of his speech was devoted to the problem of human trafficking than to Iraqi reconstruction. If the president's intention was to rally international support for a vital cause, the burden of which cannot and should not be borne so disproportionately by the United States, he missed an important opportunity..."

Baltimore Sun: Lost in translation

"IT WAS TELLING that President Bush began his major speech to the United Nations on Iraq yesterday by talking about Sept. 11 - telling, because the president himself has acknowledged that Baghdad had no role in planning or carrying out the hijackings of those four jets. Yet he still can't resist wrapping American policy in the mantle of that terrible day. And that is a measure, perhaps, of the underlying flimsiness of the entire American enterprise in Iraq..."

San Jose Mercury-News: Bush has a funny way of asking U.N. for help

"...But his overall point is right. U.S. domination is stirring ill will, resentment and rebellion. America must cede some power to Iraqis and share control with the United Nations. Too much is at stake for the United States to go it alone."

Media echo chamber

And Dean's operating outside of it.

tompaine.com:White Like Me

"But the really sad thing is, Kurtz is probably right: these reporters really are influential. To see the influence of the Times, for example, check out the network news about 12 hours after the paper comes out; you'll see stories cribbed straight from the paper. Ditto for NPR. If you watch the political chat shows on Sunday, you can see how Friday's papers shape the conversational agenda. It takes only a few amplified voices to fill the Beltway's echo chamber..."

Bush has different rules for U.S. and France

Time: The Real Reason Americans Bash the French

It's not because they are so different, but because they are so similar

"There's more. It's a bit much for the U.S. to criticize a nation for pursuing policies that enhance its own interests, since - you'll be shocked to hear this too - that is precisely what Washington does. In a famous Foreign Affairs article in 2000, Condoleezza Rice, who later became George W. Bush's National Security Adviser, established the pursuit of national interests as the bedrock of U.S. policy. You may think, as I do, that most Administration decisions in the past few years have benefited the world as a whole, but there is no point in imagining that those decisions were taken for any reason other than that they suited Washington. Rice put the position perfectly: "There is nothing wrong with doing something that benefits all humanity, but that is, in a sense, a second-order effect..."

Unintended consequences of the good kind

Madison Capital Times: State's presidential primary may have local ramifications

"So let's say that next February's presidential primary draws what could reasonably be considered the base turnout for a competitive primary - 35 percent of eligible voters. That means that the turnout will be five or six times the level usually seen in a February primary. And, because President Bush is unlikely to face serious competition in the Republican primary, most of the "extra" voters will be liberal-leaning Democrats. That has the potential to reshape a lot of local contests. If tens of thousands of additional Democrats pour into the Milwaukee mayoral primary, doesn't that increase the likelihood that two liberal Democrats - one of them, almost certainly, 2002 gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett - will be nominated?..."