i don't get it. we're expecting explanations from liars about their lies?

exactly how does that work?

sen. warner on larry king is incredibly stupid.

c-span has sen judd gregg, r-new hampshire

spewing out the venom repukes are famous for.

they use the phrase "well, rome wasn't built in a dayyyy" whenever the repukes try and dismiss what is happening in iraq.

excuse me, but are we trying to BUILD ROME?

the shrub's letter to the editor machine

they're getting 3x what they make here in iraq from KBR

the draft is coming
the draft is coming

448998, My oldest son wont re enlist and we got him out
Posted by Mari333 on Sat Mar-27-04 08:36 PM

by the skin of our teeth and some great DUers on here
But they got our other son
so, get that meme going to everyone you know

BUSH/CHENEY=2005 DRAFT
www.bushdraft.com

1994 - The Grand Chessboard by Zbignew Brzezinski compares Central Asia to a
chess game with Russia and China--which must eventually result in an
American "win". Control of the world's oil supply and dominance in the 21st
Century is at stake, as cheap oil ends in the 2010s. Noting that the Central
Asian Republics are infinitely more important than any other region--save
the Mideast--because "an enormous concentration of natural gas and oil
reserves is located in the region, in addition to important minerals,
including gold. Any successful American policy must focus on Eurasia as a
whole and be guided by a Geostrategic design.That puts a premium on maneuver
and manipulation in order to prevent the emergence of a hostile coalition
that could eventually seek to challenge America's primacy."

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0465027261/102-5321285-9 ...



1990s - "Project For A New American Century" and other right-wing
organizations develop strategy for a "uni-polar world" ruled by the United
States with many US bases in the Mideast and Central Asia. Invading Iraq and
controlling the world's oil supply becomes the Neo-Con manifesto.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/nightline/DailyNews/pnac_030310.html

http://www.presentdanger.org/pdf/frontier/1031neocon.pdf

Article by Will Pitt:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1665.htm

http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf



September 11, 2001 - The 9-11 Attack. A "War on Terror" is begun by Bush
with the agreement of the Congress. In the mission of the Selective Service,
it is stated that the Volunteer Army is only intended for peacetime. In case
of war, the nation may turn to the Selective Service. That is why it must
always be kept as an option, even if dormant.



January 8, 2002 - On January 8, 2002, President Bush signed the No Child
Left Behind Act, supposedly to provide accountability education policies.
Yet hidden within the 670-page piece of legislation is Section 9528: ".each
local educational agency receiving assistance under this Act shall provide,
on a request made by military recruiters or an institution of higher
education, access to secondary school students names, addresses, and
telephone listings." All schools must comply with this unfunded mandate or
they lose their federal funding. This amounts to legislated blackmail for
student names. The act also says: "A secondary school student or the parent
of the student may request that the student's name, address, and telephone
listing . not be released without prior written parental consent, and the
local educational agency or private school shall notify parents of the
option to make a request and shall comply with any request."

http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html



Early 2003 - Iraq War, 250,000 out of 480,000 active-duty troops deployed,
conquer Iraq within a few weeks. Yet the U.S. has no plan ready for
reconstruction or democracy and Iraqis, happy at liberation from Saddam,
grow sour at the slow pace, the continued lack of electricity and fuel and
the isolated civil control of the CPA. Garner soon replaced by Bremer who is
no better at speeding up Reconstruction, and the resistance grows with
disaffected Iraqis, old regrouped Baathists and new foreign fighters. Except
for the British, substantial foreign troops are impossible, given Bush's
desire to keep total control of Iraq. The lack of diplomacy, planning and
incompetence adds years to the time high US troop levels will be needed to
maintain control of Iraq and rebuild and exploit its oilfields.



Summer 2003 - Philadelphia Draft Board members "unexpectedly" told to
recruit new members for Board vacancies during Summer training. (from Nov. 3
Salon article)

http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2003/11/03/draft/index_np.html



July 25, 2003 - World Net Daily article on plans for the medical draft
(HCPDS). System could draft up to 80,000 doctors, nurses and specialists,
men and women.

http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33754



September 3, 2003 - The Congressional Budget Office warns that "the Army
lacks sufficient active-duty forces to maintain its current level of nearly
150,000 troops in Iraq beyond next spring (march 2004). "The Army does not
have enough active-duty component forces to simultaneously maintain the
occupation at its current size, limit deployments to one year, and sustain
all of its other commitments"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A16689-2003Sep2?language=prin ...



September 23, 2003 - Draft Board Recruitment ad appears on Defense.Link
site. First public ad for Draft Boards in decades. Page scrubbed within a
few days of being noticed by some media in early November. Spokesman says
there is "no plan" to reinstate draft, which must be authorized by Congress.
http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/sss092203.html

http://www.thememoryhole.org/mil/draft-boards.htm



October 16, 2003 - Donald Rumsfeld memo leaks, saying Iraq "will be a long,
hard slog". www.usatoday.com/news/washington/ executive/rumsfeld-memo.htm



Nov. 4, 2003 - NY Times article on Army Honor Guard Company B being sent to
MidEast, revealing how thin troops are being stretched to cover the
2004-2005 rotation.

http://villagenews.weblogger.com/stories/storyReader$10007



Nov. 5, 2003 - Toronto Star article quotes Ned Lebow "This (draft board ad)
is significant", Lebow, a presidential scholar at Dartmouth College in New
Hampshire and former professor of strategy at the National War College in
Washington, adds, "What the department of defence is doing is creating the
infrastructure to make the draft a viable option should the administration
wish to go this route."
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout ...



Nov. 5, 2003 - Guardian article on Draft Board ad. SSS spokesman Amon said
80% of 11,000 Draft Board slots are vacant. (2,000 local boards, over 8,000
empty seats) http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1077906,00.html



Nov. 12, 2003 - "If President Bush is re-elected, it is likely that he will
reinstate the draft. The war on terrorism will not end in Iraq, but instead
will proceed into countries like Syria and Iran," said Daniel Ellsberg, of
Pentagon Papers fame.
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/11122003/news/60246.htm



November, 2003 - Selective Service 2004 "Performance Plan" summarizes how
$28 million will be allocated in 2004 to reduce draft activation time from
current 8 months to just 75 days. Nation-wide Readiness Exercises, testing
the Draft Lottery and examination system, as well as gearing up the Medical
Draft (3.4 million doctors and nurses, men and women age 20-44 are
eligible). Ominously, the Alternative Service delivery system for
Conscientious Objectors is readied for the first time in decades, with the
SSS being funded to compile lists of available Alternative Service jobs for
those who win non-military CO status. All systems will be pushed to reach
95% readiness during 2004.

http://www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.html



Nov. 23, 2003 - Boston Globe article: "Army Reserve battling an exodus
War is seen as drain on ranks. The US Army Reserve fell short of its
reenlistment goals this fiscal year, underscoring Pentagon fears that the
protracted conflict in Iraq could cause a crippling exodus from the armed
services."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2003/11/23/army_ ... /



Nov. 24, 2003 - NY Times: Army plans for 100,000 troops until 2006 in Iraq.

http://www.iht.com/articles/118775.html



Nov. 26, 2003 - Ron Paul (R-TX) says "Draft likely to be reinstated".
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul144.html



December, 2003 - Draft Board Recruitment ad re-appears on the Selective
Service Home Page with 2 new sentences stressing the ad has "NO connection"
to Iraq. (recently scrubbed and replaced with a NO DRAFT message)
http://www.sss.gov



Dec. 4, 2003 - Ted Rall predicts Bush will "have to bring back the draft."
Notes 8,000 empty Draft Board seats to be filled by Spring 2005. Wonders
about a "February (2005) Surprise" if Bush is re-elected.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=127&ncid=742&e=7&u=/uc ...



December 22, 2003 - In an article entitled "Beware of Attempts to Revive
Military Draft," Newsday reports that "the Center on Conscience and War.
executive director, J. E. McNeil. has heard of rumblings, from the
Republican side of the aisle in Congress, about a draft after the election".
The opinion piece worries whether a revived draft "would give this
war-without-end presidency an endless source of warm bodies to pursue its
cowboy foreign policy." Author Keeler also wonders about a "February (2005)
Surprise".

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpkee223594883dec22,0,6735184.s ...



December, 2003 - The Selective Service Register magazine talks about the new
Special Skill Draft, a top priority for Director Lewis Brodsky. Like the
Medical Draft, the Special Skills Draft will induct men and women up to age
44 if they have needed DoD skills like computer expertise, engineering or
they are a linguist. As with the health care draftees, no medical deferments
are allowed except for total disability. Anyone with these skills will have
to register with the SSS if Bush is re-elected and asks Congress for this.
Moving quickly!

http://www.sss.gov/PDFs/NovDec2003-Register.pdf (go to P. 6) - from sss.gov
home page



December 29, 2003 - WP article: "Army Stops Many Soldiers From Quitting,
Orders Extend Enlistments to Curtail Troop Shortages" 40,000 soldiers and
Guard put on Stop-Loss. A "Draft Per Se" already exists! With the new
stop-loss orders the Armed Forces actually go 20,000 past 480,000 active
troops, the maximum before Congress steps in.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36979-2003Dec28.html

transferred fields out of blogspot into krak.farpoint

i know it's ben a while. had to take a break from all the politics, and drop dean like a hot potato. more on that later. today, it's the news of tax increases locally. from today's globe-gazette:

One of the big factors in this year’s budget is the loss of $478,000 in state funding. The result is the need to increase property taxes by 8 percent for the next year, an average of $32.55 for the average homeowner, according to City Administrator Tim Moerman.

He said investments in improvements to the water and sewer infrastructure will result in water and sewer rates going up 8.7 percent and 9.7 percent, respectively.

proof that the tax cuts aren't working as we were led to believe.

i think i know how to describe what is happening to our country now with the greatest of inferrence: a nazi attitude with an American twist. there's no ovens for the jews. we got bombs for the arabs. no more brownshirt brigades. we got radio. no more blind party devotion. ooops.

for some reason, watching aaron brown on cnn right now gives me hope that the sheeple will realize the dangers that we face should george be (re-)elected. on top of the nightline extra-long show on the 'real' iraq, it was heartening to see that hope still is alive. simmering, but alive.

watching 60 minutes and the o'neill interview. hopefully, God i pray, that CBS will do it true, American justice. and i have a feeling, 5 minutes into it, that they will.

here we have a (p)resident, who not only went his own way, disregarding what the world said, and acted like he could SAVE the world.

only thing is, NO one is capable of such a deed,
they're delusional if they think otherwise.

and do we REALLY want a delusional leader? gaffes and other 'silly' non-conequential mistakes are not only tolerated, but indeed expected. because we're all human and prone to such things.

but when you think you're the hand picked chosen one, by God nonetheless, you're not only unfit for the Presidency of the United States, but it's a wonder you've not been committed.

repukes keep saying that democrats whine and want big unemployment, bad economy, and all those sorts of things....

well, i got a news flash for ya: we don't WANT these things, they're getting shoved down our throats and we're gaggin on 'em.

watching christianne amanapour on cbs, her insightful look into the new iraqi police, and it's quite disturbing the utter lack of oversight and planning has gone into this operation. not only was the invasion shaky, but the aftermath is anything but stable. where the hell is alll that money?

prediction by david brooks on chris matthews show just now:

54-46

bush beats dean

ever notice that it's always the fighter who's fighting for peace, when the ones fighting back are always terrorists?

yah, we're feeling a lot safer now. we're in jail.

on the capture of saddam: seems there's some controversy surrounding a report that PUK actually captured saddam, and was holding him for the the right time to offer to the Americans - perhaps when the polls had george below 50 maybe?

anyway, posting some things to clear it up, since it was TPM who raised the possibility that it's bogus.

the original wire story

profile of yvonne ridley (the source of the story)

earliest reports of saddam's capture

i report, you decide

on edit: adding a post from DU

At first he says:

So, I've had a slew of readers write in to ask, Is there something to this story?

In a word? No.

Then he says:

Let me be clear: I'm not saying there's nothing to this.

Pardon? Asked is there something to this he says NO, then says I am not saying there is nothing to this? Hmmm, that is a good start!

So let's look at what we have in the rest of the article.

He points out that a name is wrong, saying that the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is being called the Kurdish Patriotic Front.

So, on a hunch, and to verify whether a person who thinks NO doesn't mean NO is actually checking his facts, I went to google. Guess what I found:

"The world is watching. Those that do not attend will lose out," Qubad Talabani, the Washington representative of the Patriotic Front of Kurdistan, one of two Kurdish parties from northern Iraq, said in an e-mail.
http://home.cogeco.ca/~konews/10-11-02-us-add-more-oppo-groups.html

This is from a web page that calls itself "Kurdistan Observer"!

Marshall would probably say, howver, that this page is not an "official source", and that the name is not quite the same. Well how about this:

The third round of the northern Iraqi peace talks ended Wednesday
in Ankara, but the major issues under discussion remained
unresolved. The two opposing parties, the Kurdish Democratic
Party (KDP) and the Kurdish Patriotic Front (KPF) made no
progress with respect to the distribution of Habur border gate
revenues, the rates of representation in local administrations,
election dates and the disarmament of Erbil.
http://www.byegm.gov.tr/YAYINLARIMIZ/CHR/ING97/01/97X01X16.TXT

Notice the source for that document. Who should we trust as to whether there is any such organisation as the Kurdish Patriotic Front? A blogger with an over inflated ego, or the Turkish government?

So what did Marshall have to say?

What's this group, the Kurdish Patriotic Front? Good question. As far as I know, there is no such group.

Well, Mr Marshall, if you had taken two minutes to type "Kurdish Patriotic Front" into Google you would have seen that there are four hits for that name, including the above linked Turkish Government site.

Thank you Mr Marshall for proving that self-important bloggers shouldn't be trusted any more than any other source!

Now, the final "proof" Marshall presents is the PUK denial that they were actually responsible for the capture.

Now lets consider the context of this for a moment. What we have is an accusation that the Kurds captured Hussein, held him in secret, and then negotiated a secret deal with the US to hand him over.

Now tell me, just how stupid does Marshall think we are? Does he really expect us to believe that within DAYS of this secret deal having been made, and before much of any of the supposed "payment" for Hussein's hand over could have been received (although three Kurds WERE promoted to the IGC), that the leader of the PUK would expose the deal and thereby embarass Bush? You know the man who wants to punish the French and Germans for not agreeing with him?

Does Marshall SERIOUSLY expect us to believe the Kurds would THROW AWAY the deal, losing anything they may have gained in the process, not to mention no longer having Hussein, JUST BECAUSE A REPORTER ASKED THEM?

Marshall should rethink his position, and stop acting like a fool.

Forget the South: "Consider the numbers. Democrats and Republicans agree that Bush and his eventual rival will each start the race with an ironclad base of states that are virtually unwinnable for the other party. Bush's base is rooted in the South, plains and interior West of the country, while the Democratic nominee can take for granted most of New England, the West Coast and a smattering of the Midwest. Most strategists calculate that Bush can count on 20 states with 170 electoral votes, and that the Democratic candidate starts with 11 states and the District of Columbia, totaling 168 electoral votes. That leaves the two candidates with a battleground of just 19 swing states.
Nine of those 19 states -- none of them in the South -- went for Clinton in 1992 and 1996 and for Gore in 2000. These are the blue-leaning states, and any Democratic candidate has to lock them up before dipping his toe below the Mason-Dixon line. Victory in all nine would increase the Democrat's total to 260 electoral votes, still 10 short of victory.
That leaves 10 "

Judge Frees 9/11 Suspect In Germany (washingtonpost.com): "In Washington, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft told reporters that he was 'disappointed that the case in Germany has taken the turn it has taken.' He added that 'fortunately, in the United States, we enjoy a legal structure which anticipates the need for protecting both national security and adjudicating the innocence or guilt of individuals who are charged.' "

Yahoo! Mail - iyam_leq@yahoo.com: "The WSJ says up high that the flu vaccine shortage is actually the eighth major U.S. shortage of a vaccine since 2000. Supplies of vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, chickenpox, and measles have all been inadequate at one point or another recently. Among the problems, profits for vaccines are thin. According to one apparently non-partisan study cited by the Journal, that's partially because the government keeps prices artificially low by buying about 50 percent of vaccine production and negotiating cut-rate deals."

Rumsfeld wants Iraq tied up: "The power transfer plan calls for putting a caretaker government in place by June next year after the drafting of a basic law by end-February 2004, and the selection of a transitional assembly by end-May 2004 through regional caucuses."

beware of upcoming RPM rev-up. under the guise of 'unifying national goals' will be lofty goals without much in the way of means to accomplish them.

"what's better? forcing people to do the right thing, or giving them an incentive to do the right thing" --EPA chief 12/3/03 ABC Evening News

remind us why we invaded iraq again?

so we should believe now, that Howard Dean wouldn't have done anything on 9/11. how absurd.

Pushing Technology And Fighting Skeptics (washingtonpost.com): "Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has extended Kadish's tenure twice, keeping the general in place to prepare for the planned deployment in September 2004 of antimissile interceptors in Alaska and California."

listen to bbc, and i'm wrondering just what the hell is going on. their attitude has changed with this latest attack in turkey. there's no doubt those that did this should pay. but likewise, what these attacks are in response to is still a mystery. unlike most of the ditto heads, i don't believe these attacks are just randomized targets. so these terrorists had to have an agenda.. but this is why they keep attacking us. because we won't listen to what that agenda is. god knows, everybody knows ours. and i somehow can't help but believing that it's that agenda of ours that is making theirs.

watching 60 minutes tonite, about how insecure chemical plants are, 60 in all uncovered by a pittsburgh investigator, makes me wonder. is the threat from terrorists really that real? i mean, c'mon. if terrorists really wanted to hit us like we're led to believe, what has stopped them? certainly not any security guard at these plants.

repukes will betray you. and they use it so hypocritically that it becomes evil. how? like this:

first they lie. the lie to gain your confidence. they want you to agree with them. that way, when the truth comes out, they can blame you because you agreed with them.

this is sinister betrayal. pure and simple. forget the hypocrisy. forget the lies. forget that the deed gets done.

but remember that those things happened by a 'friend'.

well, i got news for them. trust isn't in the republicon vocabulary. and in a way i'm glad. for if it was, we're really be in trouble.

if defeating the insurgents were as easy as we're being told, then why hasn't israel won by now?

ya know, the republicons keep on keepin on with this bashing about how democrats 'want this and what that' and yet, they jus can't get it through their lil' pointy heads that we want the same thing. its' HOW we get it that we'll do differenly.

can't ya hear all those republicons whining about how the democrats are pissed off at the republicans destroying everything? i swear, they are truly, and i mean TRULY out for blood, to destroy the democrats, not with kindness, but with real weapons simply by majority rule, which by virtue holds the purse strings. republicons know no compromise. they know no openness. they know no negotiation. they do everything behind closed doors, lock democrats out of important legislative meetings, and have come to be the 21st century version of facism.

my letter to the editor of the globe-gazette - it'll be in tuesday's edition. webb(master) cole was nice enough to allow me a day and i was able to take advantage of not displaying the wrong number of dead soldiers.

DesMoinesRegister.com | Opinion: "To require my time in military servitude would not guarantee that what I would do and whom I would shoot would be for Walt Shotwell's romantic sense of America's grandeur and betterment. I would simply be serving and killing based on the decisions of a presidential administration. To many of us, the current administration is profane to our idea of what makes America great. How then would it bind us together if we were required to die for such an administration?
A state of constant war with many nations (when at heart there is but a small group of radicals who want to fight us) is what would require this vast pool of soldiers, and that this state is not only inevitable but desirable is implicit in the author's argument.
I pray that, under the rubric of patriotism and ignorance, our nation does not take this path.
Eben Seaman
Iowa City."

put a democrat in charge, and stop this insanity!

i wish someone would do a poll and ask the basic question:

is gwb a liar?

plain and simple. yes or no.

too telling?

you goddamned right it is.

which proves my point: the media does NOT want us to flourish in knowledge.

bena while huh. ok, i promise to fill'er up over the next few days. but today, let's deal with crossfire. ever notice how paul will give credit and praise the "opposition", and agree even with his rival novak when appropriate, yet, novak, especially novak, NEVER EVER will side with paul, as if paul never ever says anything correct. but notice, the applause out of the audience is 99% supporting paul, much to the dismay of novak, and even tucker. true to form for the repukes: they will never accept the opposing party's position even if that position was that the sky is blue.

Medicare Premiums to Rise 13.5%
The monthly Medicare premium paid by most older Americans will increase by 13.5 percent next year, Bush administration officials said today.

The premium for Medicare Part B, which covers physician services, outpatient hospital services, durable medical equipment and some home health care, will go up $7.90, to $66.60 a month, for 2004.

Most Medicare beneficiaries do not pay a premium for Part A services, which includes coverage of inpatient hospital stays, because they have 40 quarters of Medicare-covered employment. The Part A deductible, however, will rise by $36, to $876 in 2004.

The Health and Human Services Department, which administers the Medicare program, will announce the new premium and deductible rates on Thursday.

The rates are updated annually according to formulas set in law. Under the formulas, the Part B premium must cover 25 percent of the Medicare program's estimated costs for enrollees who are 65 and older. General tax dollars cover the other 75 percent of the costs.

About 95 percent of Medicare's 41.7 million beneficiaries are enrolled in Part B.

Washington Post

the middle class is being destroyed. with every utterance of the leaders of our country, it becomes clearer and clearer every day. destroy the middle class, and not feel guilty about it is nothing but evil. because America was built for the middle class.

everybody talks about how people should 'quit whining' about paying more for their healthcare, pay more for their gas, pay more for their clothes. yet those same 'people' whine about raising the minimum wage.

those same 'people' don't get it. it's not how much one pays. it's the burden created by how much one pays. this is something a real, a REAL compassionate conservative would understand. Sadly, there aren't many of those left today.

TBRNews.org: "Only in America do we use the word 'politics' to describe the process so well: 'Poli' in Greek meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning 'bloodsucking creatures'"

i just have to post a bit of an article from the Washington Post today. things are getting so bizarre, i can hardly believe it's unfolding right before my eyes.

Cheney's speech was an uncompromising argument that far exceeded what other figures in the administration have asserted. Cheney, for example, dismissed a dozen years of inspections, patrolling of no-fly zones and strikes against military targets in Iraq, saying "all of these measures failed."

David Kay, the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, presented a different view in his congressional testimony last week. For example, he said: "Information found to date suggests that Iraq's large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new CW [chemical weapons] munitions was reduced -- if not entirely destroyed -- during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox, 13 years of U.N. sanctions and U.N. inspections."

Cheney outlined several findings from the Kay report yesterday that, while finding no actual weapons of mass destruction, found items that could have been used to create such weapons. The vice president cited equipment "suitable for" chemical and biological weapons research; prison laboratories "possibly used" for human testing of biological weapons; a microorganism "which can be used" to make biological weapons; "BW-applicable" materials; "not fully declared" aerial drones; and "design work" for missiles and "attempts" to acquire missile technology.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, each and every one of these findings confirms a material breach by the former Iraqi regime of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441," Cheney said. "Taken together, they constitute a massive breach of that unanimously passed resolution, and provide a compelling case for the use of force against Saddam Hussein."

But some of the items Cheney cited from Kay's report as violations remain unconfirmed. The prison laboratory story was first explored in 1998 by U.N. inspectors. Kay said U.S. inspectors still did not have enough evidence or witnesses "that would indicate that in fact that's what they [the prison facilities] were used for."

Similarly, a former U.N. inspector said that in the past, investigators in Iraq were continually discovering technical equipment that had not been declared or tagged "because almost any lab equipment is dual purpose." And experts say the drones Cheney cited probably could not travel far enough to violate U.N. requirements and were not designed to carry weapons.

Cheney made only one mention of evidence that Iraq had a nuclear program. The allegation had been central to the administration's case for going to war, noting that the "smoking gun" from Hussein could be a "mushroom cloud." Before the war, Cheney said Hussein had "reconstituted" his nuclear weapons program.

Kay's testimony noted: "Despite evidence of Saddam's continued ambition to acquire nuclear weapons, to date we have not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook significant post-1998 steps to actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material."

Cheney did not dispute that finding, but noted the discovery of equipment in scientists' homes "that would have been useful in resuming uranium enrichment by centrifuge and electromagnetic isotope separation." Kay had said that despite interviews with scientists involved, "the evidence does not tie any activity directly to centrifuge research or development."

there's much more on the WP site. a definite worthwhile read!

so arnold gets the gubnatorial trophy. whoopee. ya know why? because he wont get california out of the mess they're in. so this can only be a good thing for democrats. let them dig their own hole, and what better way than to start with the one and only mr dumbell.

the voting is underway. after hours and hours, it's still too close to call, unless of course you're listening to cnn, msnbc or *cough* fox. then you would know, arnold is going to win.
and if he didn't they could blame you.

if ever there was a need for a post, it would be today's. FUCK YOU CNN & MSNBC. fox duznt count. take your fuckn ARNOLD ARNOLD signs and shove them up your unfair & unbalanced cunts

ahh, so the truth finally emerges
DesMoinesRegister.com | Opinion: "During this interview, Cheney perpetuated the mythical connection between Saddam Hussein and the attacks of Sept. 11.
He said the cost of the war in Iraq would be a 'whale of a lot less than trying to recover from the next attack in the United States.'
He also supposed only two choices for where the 'war on terrorism' would be fought: there or here. Iraq is the place 'we want to take on the terrorists . . . and it's far more appropriate for us to do it there and far better for us to do it there than it is here at home,' Cheney said."

the inspectors "didn't do their job" because, you asshole, of the fact that you bombed the country before they could!

jeeezuz christ, if any of you are listening to meet the press, you must be getting awfully nauseated by now. i think i'll go for the pepto bismal myself.

another reason i love slate so much

When President Bush took office, the budget was $281 billion in the black, with a cumulative surplus of $5.6 trillion projected to pile up by 2011. Since then, the sluggish economy, three rounds of tax cuts, and the post-9/11 spike in defense spending have darkened the picture considerably, contributing to a decline that one analyst deemed "Miltonian" in degree. According to the Congressional Budget Office, by August of 2001, the projected total 2011 surplus had dropped to $3.4 trillion, and by January of 2002, to $1.6 trillion, before sliding further still to the current estimate of a $2.3 trillion deficit. For those keeping score at home, that $8 trillion swing in the projections is about equal to the total revenue the federal government collected between 1789 and 1983.

well, welll welllllll...

According to the WP's poll, which was conducted over the past four days, a 41 percent plurality of those surveyed thought that recent tax cuts should be rolled back in order to free up funds if Congress approves Bush's $87 billion reconstruction proposal. Overall, 52 percent said they approved of the President's handling of affairs in Iraq, a figure down 23 points since the end of the war in April.

at that rate, it'll only take another 10 months to completely wipe any chance of his continuing the conjob! woohoo