Milking the tragedy will backfire
posted by Rick at 10:40 PM

I turned on CSPAN to see the first night of the Greedy Oil Party convention, and what was the first thing I saw? Bowed heads in darkness, and the words "September 11, 2001" splayed across the screen. Then a hymn for the departed of that awful day. Then Rudy Giuliani came out and said "September 11 September 11 Saddam Hussein September 11 George W. Bush thank God horror shock devastation George W. Bush." And of course, the crowd roared.

The Repugnant Party is playing the September 11 card for all they think it's worth. They are doing it because September 11, 2001, was the best day of George W. Bush's political career (with the possible exception of the day the five Republican appointees to the Supreme Court handed him the White House). They are hoping to reawaken the bump Bush got out of that attack. They want to bring back the day Bush hit the trifecta. But that's a desperate ploy. It's almost certain to backfire on them--because today America knows how badly Bush botched both the prevention of and the response to the attacks. America knows how, having heard of the attacks, he sat there stunned for seven interminable minutes in that Florida classroom "collecting my thoughts," then flew away and hid until he was assured that his own skin would be safe if he got back to work in Washington. America knows the White House pressured the EPA to lie to the people of New York about the safety of the air in lower Manhattan. America knows that Bush exploited the tragedy of 9/11 as an excuse to attack Iraq although there was and is not a shred of evidence linking that country to the attacks.

They're still trying to tie Iraq to the September 11 attacks, although they know full well that there is no such tie. They're trying desperately to convince us that they are the party that can win the war on terror, although Bush himself said today that the war on terror cannot be won. And one almost has to suspect that they are trying to convince themselves that their message of fear and loathing can be spun into a supposed message of hope, that their systematic attacks on American freedom can be justified as a defense of American freedom, and that they can win an election with a mishmash of losing ideas.

Greg Palast Blogs Another Bombshell
posted by Rick at 4:30 PM

In his latest blog entry, "STILL UNREPORTED: THE PAY-OFF IN BUSH AIR GUARD FIX," investigative reporter Greg Palast presents evidence bearing on the how and why of George W. Bush's having gotten into the Texas Air Guard, and the price Bush eventually paid for the favor.

In 1994, George W. Bush was elected governor of Texas by a whisker. By that time, [confessed string-puller and former Lt. Gov. Ben] Barnes had left office to become a big time corporate lobbyist. To an influence peddler like Barnes, having damning information on a sitting governor is worth its weight in gold – or, more precisely, there’s a value in keeping the info secret.  Barnes appears to have made lucrative use of his knowledge of our President’s slithering out of the draft as a lever to protect a multi-billion dollar contract for a client.  That's the information in a confidential letter buried deep in the files of the US Justice Department that fell into my hands at BBC television.

How much of this will you see in the corporate American media? Probably very little, considering that when Palast first reported it in 1999 they ignored it, and that last year they declined BBC's offer to run Palast's one-hour "Bush Famnily Fortunes" report ("Wonderful film, but Time-Warner is not going to let us put this on the air") which included the story. However, you can buy it on DVD next month--and see a preview here right now.

Michael Moore Makes Nice With Bush
posted by Rick at 4:12 PM

Here's a must-read: Michael Moore's open letter to George W. Bush thanking him for clearing up John Kerry's wartime record, and offering to let bygones be bygones...

I know you and I have had our differences in the past, and I realize I am the one who started this whole mess about "who did what" during Vietnam when I brought up that "deserter" nonsense back in January. But I have to hand it to you on what you have uncovered about John Kerry and his record in Vietnam. Kerry has tried to pass himself off as a war hero, but thanks to you and your friends, we now know the truth.
. . .
What would we do without you, Mr. Bush? Criticize you as we might, when it comes to pointing out other men's military records, there is no one who can touch your prowess. In 2000, you let out the rumor that your opponent John McCain might be "nuts" from the 5 years he spent in a POW camp. Then, in the 2002 elections, your team compared triple-amputee Sen. Max Cleland to Osama bin Laden, and that cost him the election. And now you are having the same impact on war hero John Kerry. Since you (oops, I mean "The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth!") started running those ads, Kerry's poll numbers have dropped (with veterans, he has lost 18 points in the last few weeks).

Some people have said "Who are you, Mr. Bush, to attack these brave men considering you yourself have never seen combat -- in fact, you actively sought to avoid it." What your critics fail to understand is that even though your dad got you into a unit that would never be sent to Vietnam -- and even though you didn't show up for Guard duty for at least a year -- at least you were still IN FAVOR of the Vietnam War!

Moore goes on to point out some of the injuries Bush sustained while Kerry was over there playing war hero just so he could come back and run for President some day...and proposes some straightforward ads that put forth the Bush League's position on Kerry's (and Sen. Max Cleland's) service in the armed forces.

When Bob Dole Said No
posted by Rick at 7:06 PM

Noel Koch, former Special Assistant to President Richard M. Nixon and Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration, writes in the Washington Post that Bob Dole should know better--and used to know better--than to serve as a GOP attack dog over the quality of the opposition candidate's record of military service.

It is not surprising to hear John Kerry's wounds belittled by men who have avoided all risk of being wounded. Someday perhaps we will be able to plumb the neuroses of those who avoided Vietnam and have ever after had difficulty living with the choice. But it is surprising to hear Bob Dole doing it.
...
Time in-country, how often a man was wounded, how much blood he shed when he was wounded -- it is hurtful that those who served in Vietnam are being split in so vile a fashion, and that the wounds of that war are reopened at the instigation of people who avoided serving at all. It is hurtful that a man of Bob Dole's stature should lend himself to the effort to dishonor a fellow American veteran in the service of politics at its cheapest.

Taking the Florida show south of the border
posted by Rick at 6:52 AM

Greg Palast is at it again.

The investigative reporter's work has been deemed not ready for prime time by the corporate media in the US, so now he reports for the BBC and the Guardian in a country where they have no "First Amendment rights" but somehow they have freer speech than we in George W. Bush's America.

Anyway, Palast and his team have uncovered evidence that our government is paying ChoicePoint, the company that helped Brother Jeb disenfranchise thousands of Florida Democrats in 2000, $67 million to compile dossiers on the citizens of Venezuela and a handful of other Latin American countries....

The choice of which nation's citizens to spy on caught my eye. While the September 11th highjackers came from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and the Arab Emirates, ChoicePoint's menu offered records on Venezuelans, Brazilians, Nicaraguans, Mexicans and Argentines. How odd. Had the CIA uncovered a Latin plot to sneak suicide tango dancers across the border with exploding enchiladas?

What do these nations have in common besides a lack of involvement in the September 11th attacks? Coincidentally, each is in the throes of major electoral contests in which the leading candidates -- presidents Lula Ignacio da Silva of Brazil, Nestor Kirschner of Argentina, Mexico City mayor Andres Lopez Obrador and Venezuela's Chavez -- have the nerve to challenge the globalization demands of George W. Bush.

The last time ChoicePoint sold voter files to our government it was to help Governor Jeb Bush locate and purge felons on Florida voter rolls. Turns out ChoicePoint's felons were merely Democrats guilty only of V.W.B., Voting While Black.

Palast also notes that our government is paying tens of thousands of dollars to the organizers of this Sunday's recall election in Venezuela, "who claim to be armed with computer lists of the registered." Hmmm...

read Palast's full article here: Will The Gang That Fixed Florida Fix the Vote in Caracas this Sunday?