BUSH BLOG - Archives: April

"Ignorance is not a firm basis for democracy."

- Thomas Jefferson

This footage, obtained and presented exclusively by The Memory Hole, shows President Bush sitting in a Florida classroom for 5 minutes after he was told that the second Twin Tower has been hit and that America was being attacked. A truncated version of this footage that has been available online since June 2002 shows Bush for only 2 minutes, 10 seconds after being told. This new footage more than doubles this length of time.

Not only did the leader of the free world sit as his country was attacked, the Secret Service also did nothing. Bush was appearing in public at a previously announced photo-op. He was a sitting duck. The attacks were ongoing at that point (planes had yet to hit the Pentagon or the field in Pennsylvania), and nobody knew how much more destruction was going to happen. Were there two, three, four, eight more planes hijacked and on their way to crash into prominent buildings? Was one headed for the school, where anyone who checked the President's public itinerary would know he was located? Were other terrorists planning to detonate dirty nukes? Were they going to release anthrax or smallpox or sarin? Was an assassination squad going to burst into the school and get Bush? Was a suicide bomber going to ram a truck full of explosives into that classroom?

During the midst of the attacks, any of these things could've happened. Yet there sits Bush, seemingly unconcerned. His Chief of Staff likewise doesn't think that America in flames warrants the President's immediate attention. And the Secret Service utterly fails to do its job by grabbing the President of the United States and getting him to safety. It's truly inexplicable.

And it's something the administration isn't too eager to trumpet. They haven't released footage of the President's (non)actions during this historic moment of American history. Until now, the only available footage had been a little film put together by Booker Elementary. [See it here.] The problem is, there's a jump edit in the footage: From the time Card whispers to Bush until the end of the scene in the classroom, only 2 minutes and 10 seconds elapse.

But this new, fuller footage shows Bush sitting for a full five minutes after he'd been told that "America is under attack."

He declined to take action even longer than this, but unfortunately this footage ends before he leaves the classroom. Thanks to an amazing article by Allan Wood and Paul Thompson, we know what happened after the footage suddenly cuts off. Read about it here.

What they are: Sunni henchmen. Regime sympathizers. Baathist loyalists. Remnants. Holdouts. Fedayeen. Thugs. Protestors. Looters. Criminal elements. Warlords. Tribal resisters. Fundamentalists. Rouge agitators. Unknown saboteurs.

In Iraq, fighting [forays and self-defensive operations] has not stopped. It unexpectedly continues. It exceeds expectations. It persists in pockets. It has flared more than anticipated. It has resulted in unforeseen skirmishes.

Click here for the Iraqi body count. Click here for updates on American casualties, including press release links to the names of the 50 or so US soldiers who have died [and continue to do so] since Bush declared victory and an end to his war.

In this article from The Nation, Renana Brooks writes of how Bush has used the language of emotion to master and dominate others. Bush is far from the inept mangler of the English language that his detractors portray. Until his opponents realize this, Bush will be always at the advantage. "Bush's political opponents are caught in a fantasy that they can win against him simply by proving the superiority of their ideas," and, "Bush's opponents must combat his dark imagery with hope and restore American vigor and optimism in the coming years." This is because, "People do not support Bush for the power of his ideas, but out of despair and desperation in their hearts." Bush plays on people's fears in much the same way that the 11 o'clock news preys on people, instilling a paranoia that the whole world around them is one big, integrated crime wave.

More on fascism, here - this time from the British viewpoint. What do Fascism's belligerent founding father and the democratically elected Prime Minister of Great Britain have in common? A great deal more than you might imagine, according to Nicholas Farrell, the author of a major new biography of Benito Mussolini. "For a start, Blair extols the virtues of the Third Way, which was the phrase coined by the Fascists, no less, to describe their alternative to capitalism and communism. Blair began as a left-wing pacifist and became a right-wing warmonger. He is dictatorial and ignores Parliament if he can and he is a master of propaganda (spin)." It goes on from there.

Did you know..? According to the United Nations High Committee on Refugees, the US Census Department and the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association, as reported in the July, 2003 Harpers Index in Harpers Magazine, the chance that a human being alive today is a refugee is 1 in 318 and the chance that an American lives full-time in an RV is 1 in 290.

Harpers Index also reports that in the Sovereign State of New Jersey, since September 2001, the US Attorney's Office [as reported by their office in Newark, NJ] in the "Garden State" has brought 62 terrorist indictments. Of those, 60 were brought against Middle Eastern students for paying someone else to take their English proficiency tests.

Finally, you will be happy to know that, according to Amnesty International, there are an estimated 1000 foreign human-rights violators living in the United States - land of the free and home of the brave.

Great news for investors. The National Park Service is for sale. When it comes to the privatization of public-service jobs, will competition amongst private contractors keep costs down in years to come? Or will domination by a few key contractors result in escalating costs to the public for services currently provided under public control? And once jobs are removed from public control, will the NPS be allowed to compete for those jobs in the future, or will contract provisions with the private section and the federal government mean that those public services forever remain within the control of the private sector? And how will the public sector budgets be paid for? No doubt they will be financed by "flat-rates" and user-fees. "User-fee payers" are people who once were know as tax-payers. "Flat-rate payers," on the other hand, are a mix of persons and corporations asked to support public services via sponsorships and naming rights.

Free speech is alive and living at Rockford College [alma mater of pacifist Jane Addams]. Listen to it here.

So, where are all those WMD that the Bushies have talked about. Check out this web site for a list of quotes made by the Bush Administration about how certain they were that Saddam had WMD up the wazoo.

CEO's suck dick, in case you were too busy praying - or is that preying - to notice. It's amazing what Americans are willing to swallow without the benefit of oral sex.

You may still have the right to defend yourself in court, but you may not be able to pay the cost of admission.

You may also not be able to afford the kind of trial to which you (as a citizen) thought you were entitled.

I wonder, what is the fee one can pay if one wishes to be found innocent without the inconvenience of being tried?

"Poor people have access to the courts in the same sense that the Christians had access to the lions."

- Judge Earl Johnson, Jr.

The Senate voted today 51-50 to approve Bush's latest $330 billion tax cut. Veep [and Republican - Duh!] Dick Cheney cast the tie-breaking vote. The House had approved the tax cut earlier this week. In further business today, the Senate approved a measure to increase the national debt [the amount of money the government allows itself to borrow] to nearly $1,000,000,000,000.00 [that's $1 trillion]. Does anyone else appreciate the irony besides me? The Senate also approved another $400 million for the War Department, as if they don't already get enough. Let's see. Cut taxes. Increase borrowing. Yup; that's our borrow and spend, fiscally conservative, small government Republicans for you. The next step is to cut budgets and privatize everything because private companies can run everything more efficiently. Maybe we can use that excuse to replace the current Administration?

More on poor Jessica Lynch and her "rescue" from the meanies in an Iraqi hospital. This from The Guardian, an Australian newspaper. Unlike American media, this ally of ours chose to report what really happened, sans media hype and spin from embedded reporters. As for Jessica's version of the events, The Guardian article reports, "Trouble is that doctors now say she has no recollection of the episode and probably never will. Her memory loss means that "researchers" have been called in to fill in the gaps."

Bush likes to think of himself as a modern-day Theodore Roosevelt tilting at the windmills of oppressive government. But he, and his buddies, don't like it when the plebeians take issue with him or his policies. Bush would rather we all trust in him and in his God. Look at what Roosevelt had to say about those who question their president.

David Corn at The Nation asks "Why has it taken so long for the Pentagon and the Bush administration to seriously search for weapons of mass destruction?" in this article. In an earlier article, Corn discusses that though Bush and other war cheerleaders spoke of liberating Iraq, and their concern of the threat posed by Saddam's WMD, once US troops were in country they were lackadaisical about locating any such weapons. "Weeks after the April 9 fall of Baghdad, the Pentagon was still in the process of assembling a survey team of 1000 experts to search for chemical and biological weapons and signs of a nuclear weapons program." During his April 17 press conference, Rumsfeld stated, "I don't think we'll discover anything, myself... The inspectors didn't find anything, and I doubt that we will." To that, Tony Blair says we can "take our time" in investigating WMD. Take our time? Don't think we'll discover anything? Wasn't the whole invasion about finding WMD before they could be used on the US or sold to other rogue nations? Does ANY of this surprise you? If not, you must be part of the "coalition of the willing."

Updated Lies, Magnificent Seven and Media Watchdog. Check them out! Also activated the

sign.

"The coordinated and decades-long effort to privatize the public lands of the United States, nearly a third of the nation, is now bearing fruit. The Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1970s that sought to transfer power to states and local units, and that provided the Reagan Administration with James Watt as Interior Secretary, morphed into the Wise Use Movement that sprinkled antigovernment grassroots organizations across the nation. Wise Use, in turn, has given rise to so-called "free- market environmentalism" that consists largely of a network of corporations and conservative foundations and think tanks intent on gaining control of the public domain," according to this story from the web site, Liberal Slant. There are those who see the Bush administration push for pre-emptive wars all around the world as a distracting ploy while they pursue their domestic agenda of selling off the public domain [public land, public airwaves, public you-name-it] and curtail civil rights to make it difficult [and downright illegal in some cases] for the public to protest. Soon we will all be good little consumers and happy for it.

As this story from PC World shows, the Bush Administration has found another way to discount the opinions, thoughts and feelings of the American people. The USFS proposes to ignore all comments submitted to that agency that come in the form of pre-printed postcards, email or web petitions. "In fact, dealing with electronic correspondence is an ongoing challenge for the federal government. Elected officials and federal agencies have long said e-mail is not the most effective way to reach them; they also acknowledge they are challenged by the volume." Most likely they are also challenged by their constituents.

An update on how George W. Bush believes we should support our troops - by cutting Veteran's benefits.

The whole world has been holding its breath. First Afghanistan. Then Iraq. Where would Bush turn to pursue his endless war on terrorism? Would it be Iran or North Korea [probably not: they have nukes]? Well, well well. Looks like Syria will be next.

As Norman Solomon explains in this article, "In times of war, journalists can serve as vital witnesses for the people of the world. So it's especially sinister when governments take aim at reporters and photographers."

Check this message from someone who feels the US of A did a good [no; make that GREAT] job in Iraq. It's from someone else's Blog - Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens is a liberal who saw the error of his ways and has gone over to the "other" side - becoming more radically conservative than even George Will. Granted, this is only one day after the media declared victory in Iraq and repercussions have yet to be felt. But it is depressing that such things [even on a Blog, where one must always be careful to not consider the info as "informed" or as "news"] which parrot the drivel that passes for informed reporting is so quickly thrown up for review [or ridicule]. It reminds us that embedded journalists spend most of their time making us feel good about what is happening in Iraq rather than telling us the truth. Reading through Hitchens' article reminds me of a comment attributed to John F. Kennedy. "He has the benefit of opinion without the advantage of experience."

US marine Warrant Officer John Collins had this to say with the fall of Baghdad today and widespread looting throughout the city. "It's out of control," he said. "But the shackles are off after years of repressive rule ... you can see, people are happy." I know that when I'm happy the first thing I want to do is loot some government buildings and shops. Rumsfeld said, "Stuff happens." Read this to learn what hubris means. For those who need a dictionary definition and where the term comes from- An arrogance due to excessive pride and an insolence toward others.

On NPR this morning we were treated to a snippet of BushSpeak from his summit with Tony Blair in Ireland. Bush kept talking about what would now be happening in, "A free Iraq." A free Iraq would get this and a free Iraq would get that. One thing he didn't mention is that a free Iraq would get an unelected leader, just like the United States. Reuters has more information.

Here is an example of true American entrepreneurship. Army Chaplin Josh Llano has taken control of a desert pool of water in Iraq and won't allow soldiers to use it. Says Llano, "It's simple. They want water. I have it, as long as they agree to get baptized.'' Heebs, Rag-heads, Buddha-boys and other religions need not apply.

I am fed up with the liars and hypocrites in the Bush propaganda department telling me that I am not supporting our troops because I am against the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq. Our military is trained and expected to do as they are told. As far as I can see, they are doing their job admirably. If I protest pre-emptive military attacks in Iraq, I do so because I do not support the unelected members of the Bush administration and their program to extend their compassionate conservatism by bombing, killing and overthrowing governments they don't like. The last I heard, we still lived in a democracy where people were allowed to express their support AND their non-support of what our country does. To those people who see dissent as being unpatriotic; who believe that dissenters should be shut up or locked up; who see dissenters as traitors, I suggest a better place for people like you to live in would be Nazi Germany.

And speaking of propaganda. Have you considered the costs to the United States of the Bush war in Iraq? The $75 billion [$63 billion for our military; the rest to pay off our "allies"] Bush asked for to finance a month's worth of war in Iraq is money coming right out of budgets for our own people. Bush has repeatedly said, and demonstrated through such actions as tax cuts for his wealthy buddies, that he doesn't care one whit about budget deficits. In affect, this "borrow and spend" unelected president is mortgaging not only our children's future but our grandchildren's as this article from FinalCall.com and this story from the San Francisco Chronicle makes clear. No matter what your politics are, it is impossible to deny what is happening to the United States due to the fascists in Washington DC. State governments are hollering to no avail for the Bush-promised funds to pay for federally-mandated security costs for terror alerts. The exorbitant costs of war are taking much-needed funds away from health, education, highways, public health, national parks and forests, environmental cleanup - you name it. Do you have a favorite program you feel your tax dollars should support? How about veteran's benefits? As this shows, while Bush is touting "Support our troops," he is knifing them in the back by withdrawing funding for vets. Is this the height of hypocrisy?

While Bush spends billions on war, more than 30 million people in the United States go hungry daily and homelessness is on the rise. The U.S. Census Bureau reports an estimated 33 million residents live below the poverty line and identifies children, single mothers and the elderly as the most likely to face hunger. U.S. labor statistics show that the poverty rate was 11.7 percent in 2001, up from 11.3 percent the year before, with rates nearly double that among Latinos and Blacks. The way Bush spends our nation's wealth on frivolous things and gives our money away to his rich friends is very much like a deadbeat dad who takes his paycheck down to the bar and stands drinks for all his buddies while his wife and children remain home, unclothed, unfed and uneducated.

As Ruth Rosen asks in her San Francisco Chronicle article, "Whittling away government services has always been the political agenda of the ultraconservative Bush administration. Privatization, of course, is not always a bad idea. But why should people in the wealthiest society on Earth have to worry about basic access to health care or education?" Why, indeed.

There are many people who think that Bill Clinton's presidency was the epitome of lawlessness. This cartoon from Garry Trudeau reminds us differently.

It's just war as usual and the liberal press in America continues to not live up to their reputation. FAIR [Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting] reports, "In two separate incidents last week, dozens of Iraqis were killed by what eyewitness survivors claim were U.S. airstrikes. U.S. officials, however, offered a range of denials and evasions about what may have caused the explosions. Despite evidence uncovered by one British newspaper about the second (and more deadly) of the incidents, however, most U.S. media outlets have allowed the story to end with the official denials." Their correspondent also reports that Saddam is still alive at this time. Rumsfeld was quoted on NPR the other day making some kind of vague comments about how Iraqi low-level military leaders should give up and no harm will come to them. Higher ranking people though, and this presumes politicians as well, are different. "Their fate is sealed," Rummy said. Comments like that are guaranteed to inspire people to revolt against Saddam, don't you think? Someone recently said that the best use for duct tape would be to put it over the mouth of Rumsfeld. This must be one of the reasons they were thinking of.

Warner Brothers doesn't want anyone to confuse the entertainment giant with making any political statements. Perish the thought anybody would be paying attention. Check out the before and after.

"What should the world do when confronted with a country that has a large arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, has declared itself willing to use them, has already used them in the past, has a long tradition of gaining advantage by using military power abroad and is prepared to act in accordance with its deeply rooted culture of violence. Clearly, war cannot be the answer. There must be other ways to stop the US." Read the answer in The Sydney Morning Herald from Australia.

"I refuse to kill," says Marine reservist, Stephen Funk. "I object to war because I believe that it is impossible to achieve peace through violence. I am a conscientious objector because there is no way for me to remain a Marine without sacrificing my entire sense of self-respect." Funk said he would rather face the military's punishment than act against his beliefs. The military said it will be happy to punish him. I agree with Mr. Funk 's reasons for refusing to go to war. But anyone who says when they enlisted in the reserves that they didn't realize the job of the military is to kill people has definitely not grown up in the same United States as the rest of us.

A US POW was rescued from an Iraqi hospital. This is good news. But I was intrigued by the comment six paragraphs from the end of the article, "U.S. commandos had to shoot their way in and out of the hospital, but suffered no casualties."

"Top U.S. official: Iraq has executed some POWs." Here's a story from CNN that came and went. Could we have a little facts here? Or truth? I'll even take a follow-up story.

The US consumes 25% of the world's energy yet contains only 3% of the world's oil. Developing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would take ten years and provide six months of oil to the US.

"Loyalty to my country; always.

Loyalty to my government; only when it deserves it."

- Mark Twain