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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

All Hail The Liar In Chief.

WASHINGTON - A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The study concluded that the statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."

The study was posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Center for Public Integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism.

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White House spokesman Scott Stanzel did not comment on the merits of the study Tuesday night but reiterated the administration's position that the world community viewed Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, as a threat.

"The actions taken in 2003 were based on the collective judgment of intelligence agencies around the world," Stanzel said.

WMD, al-Qaida links debunked
The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al-Qaida or both.

"It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al-Qaida," according to Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism staff members, writing an overview of the study. "In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003."

Named in the study along with Bush were top officials of the administration during the period studied: Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan.

Bush led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq's links to al-Qaida, the study found. That was second only to Powell's 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq and al-Qaida.

Media 'validation'
The center said the study was based on a database created with public statements over the two years beginning on Sept. 11, 2001, and information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches and interviews.

"The cumulative effect of these false statements — amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts — was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war," the study concluded.

"Some journalists — indeed, even some entire news organizations — have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical. These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, 'independent' validation of the Bush administration's false statements about Iraq," it said.

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I'm glad he's going to be gone next year. Too bad he's been around this long.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

"Hostile -Remove From List", damn skippy jerk

Where is it written that your political affiliation dictates your stand on abortion? We just got a call from a man,(who will NEVER face an unintended pregnancy), with a "pro life alliance" (read anti choice, archaic, dictatorial, you will do things my way little woman- and you won't be able to get birth control covered in your heath plan but I'll be able to get viagra [ BNSF railroad's healthplan]), I asked if he could take us off the list. His response was ,"We have an option for that: hostile-remove from list", and I answered him with, "Yup, we're pro choice here, ya called the wrong house."

You want to stand there and say to folks walking into clinics, "Mama, don't kill me", well, until you figure out how to get that fetus out alive of the person who doesn't want to be a walking incubator for a child they don't want, you figure out who is going to raise that child,(that may very well have health issues because of drug use), and protect the unwilling mother from the child showing up as an adult full of resentments for being given up.

I'm strongly pro choice and I agree abortion is ugly. But I find any woman dying because of what should be a safe, legal procedure, after wrestling with the decision and talking with her partner, or surviving rape, molestation by someone she should be able to trust even uglier. Thank goodness for RU-486/ Mifiprex, women and MEN who have already made a difficult choice don't have to face zealots who want to force feed their ideas down other's throats.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Relatives

It's true you can't chose your relatives, the way you do your friends. I'm not even talking about mine. I love my husband more than I can put into words. And I love some of his family as well. There are, however, others I would love to rip the heads off of and shit down their necks, after flaying the skin from their backs and sprinkling salt on it. I will never be able to do that, for several reasons, but today I was able to do a little something to a representation of one of them that made me feel MUCH better.
It was small, it was petty, and it was long overdue.Thank you darling, I love you a little more for that little indulgence.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Take a Mexican Vacation...HELL NO!

My sister and her fiance vacation somewhere down there, and my brother and his female "domestic partner" were down there last December,( they came back with some neat stuff, and he also got a scorching case of food poisoning). I personally don't see any reason to go unless you're a college student looking to score some ADD/ADHD medication to ace those classes to justify mommy and daddy spending a bundle of money on you to "party", I believe it's still called.

Any nation that puts up with stuff like this: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22735810/ , needs LOTS of help. However, people in a position to help are much more interested in lining their pockets with money from the drug dealers.
My dad,my dad,(as well as mom), who taught me to judge people by what they do and not what they look like made a comment once that made my jaw drop. He said that the Mexican government had been giving it's citizens that were going to make an illegal border crossing backpacks with food, water, maps, etc., "And do you know what they're calling them? Wetbackpacks."
I wonder if these guys were carrying a wetbackpack when they hit the Border Gaurd. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22747304/