A-Changin' Times (ACT)
Born in the aftermath of 9/11, ACT has become as political as the times.
Now a blog for alternative news, views and rants offered with a twist, a song and a smile. Fair and balanced.

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize [sic] with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
 — Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan Copyright 1963
(1991 Special Rider)

"A-Changin' Times: taking the best from the past to make the most of the present and to create a better future."

"What marching through the streets was to the Sixties, walking through the halls of Congress is now."

 — Marianne Williamson

You're visiting a website that incorporates a blogging feature, not "just" a blog.

Blog entries follow, most recent entries at the top

Saturday, August 02, 2003

	:: DUG853		8/02/2003 08:10:00 PM

Iraq: Soldiers Doling Out "Dirty Harry" Style Vigilante Justice


BAGHDAD (AFP) - At the checkpoint, the Americans found a handgun, ordered the 56-year-old man out of his car and proceeded to bash his head with a rifle butt. 

Rahim Nasser Mohammed points to his right temple, the side of his mouth and lifts his shirt, to show the spots where the soldier cudgeled him again and again nearly a month ago. 

His story -- that of a government employee pulled over in his car by the US army -- seems one in a thousand as reports mount of beatings and sometimes deaths of Iraqi civilians at the hands of US soldiers. 

On Sunday, five Iraqis were killed during a raid on a home in Baghdad's wealthy Mansur district, witnesses said, as troops searched the house of a relative of Saddam Hussein for the strongman himself. 

The same day, a demonstration over a nighttime patrol near a holy shrine in the southern Shiite holy city of Karbala,
turned ugly, ending with marines firing in the air and a protestor dead. 

"It's an embarrassment for us.

A lot of this has to do with the war being over, and there being not a lot for us to do and soldiers getting killed and then
their friends taking it out on regular civilians," said a US military police officer investigating instances of excessive force. 

The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, vented anger over the army's failure to make a real example of those soldiers doling out their own "Dirty Harry" style of vigilante justice or operating in brutish fashion. 

"They should do certain things like sting operations and arrest those soldiers like common criminals.

A lot of them should be relieved and reassigned ... That's not happening," he said. 

"I've seen at least 20 cases," he added, referring to incidents where soldiers have beaten or robbed civilians at
checkpoints. 

In a first sign the Pentagon was starting to deal with the problem, it announced Saturday four US soldiers were under investigation for beating Iraqi prisoners of war. 

Asked if there were any other cases under investigation, a senior coalition military official said Sunday he was not aware
of any other such disciplinary inquiries. 

But Mohammed's story is a cause for alarm, with his account backed by US military officers and Iraqi police during
interviews with AFP. 

"They beat him pretty bad. They beat him, tied him up and beat him again," said a US officer on condition of anonymity. 

On July 3, Mohammed, an electricity department employee, was stopped by two army vehicles and his government car searched at 9:30 pm. 

The soldier found a small handgun, which Mohammed said he carried to protect the car and himself, but immediately the soldier started to beat him. 

"He cuffed my hands behind my back and taped my mouth and started to beat my face, hands and stomach using his
rifle," Mohammed said, faint bruises still visible on his face. 

The rifle was butted into his stomach repeatedly even as Mohammed tried to warn him he had just received an operation
for a hernia, with the scars fresh on his belly. 

CONTINUE

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	:: DUG853		8/02/2003 07:22:00 PM

Inside the Pentagon: Defense Spending Map

In all but a handful of states, Department of Defense dollars account for by far the majority of federal dollars.

Check out your state's share.

CONTINUE


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Inside the Pentagon: Defense Dollars:

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience.

The total influence, economic, political, even spiritual--is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address to the Nation

CONTINUE


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A Warning: President Dwight Eisenhower: Farewell to the Nation:

We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.

We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

CONTINUE

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	:: DUG853		8/02/2003 06:45:00 PM

Inside The Pentagon: Franklin "Chuck" Spinney
Bill Moyer's 'NOW' on PBS 9/1/03


It seemed almost a given that Franklin "Chuck" Spinney, son of an Air Force colonel, would devote his life to the U.S.
military.

What is more surprising is that this man who would later be called "the conscience of the Pentagon" by Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa would also be criticized by many of his colleagues and superiors for his lifetime of work.

After graduating from Lehigh University in 1967 with a degree in mechanical engineering, Spinney started his first post working in the flight dynamics lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, the very base where he was born.

His job was to study the effects of bullets on fighter planes shot down in Vietnam.

From the start, he was known as a "brash young officer" and a "smart-ass lieutenant" but at the same time, hard working and responsible.

In 1977, Chuck Spinney joined the Pentagon's Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation (a division set up in 1961 to make independent evaluations of Pentagon policy) to work with John Boyd who, with his open contempt for authority, had become somewhat of a mentor to Spinney.

Not long thereafter, Spinney began work on what became his "Defense Facts of Life," commonly known as the "Spinney Report," said to be one of the most important documents ever to come out of the Pentagon.

In it, Spinney wrote that the pursuit of complex and expensive weapon systems was wrecking the budget.

Word of Spinney's bold report and his updates over the next few years quickly spread within the Air Force.

In response to his 1982 report, according to THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, at least one top Pentagon official contended
that the report "contain[ed] data that [was] flawed and dated and that figures [were] under revision."

But all of Spinney's information was based on Pentagon documents and was confirmed by the Pentagon to be accurate.

CONTINUE

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	:: DUG853		8/02/2003 05:56:00 PM

US Homelessness and Poverty Rates Skyrocket While
Billions are Spent Overseas on Occupation

By: Jay Shaft, Coalition For Free Thought In Media 7/30/03


As I watch far away images of body bags being filled, I see much closer images of bodies. I went by a local park the other day and it looked like a concentration camp crossed with a mass murder scene. There were people in rags and covered with filth lying scattered all over the place.

At least twenty people were on crutches, had parts bandaged, or with open wounds not even covered. They were all hungry and a large majority was sick.

All around this city I live in, and nationwide, the level of homelessness and poverty is growing alarmingly. From the last counts and estimates nation wide, there has been at least a 35-45% increase in homelessness and poverty.

The increases have come over the last two years with the biggest increases being in 2002 and especially in the first six months of 2003. Add to that the barely subsisting or borderline homeless/poor and we start to see a very alarming trend that shows no sign of going away.

Over 30% of Americans are on the borderline of poverty. A lot just do not quite make the cut to receive food stamps or some kind of benefits and live on a razor edge of desperation and starvation. I have talked to people that run food banks, soup kitchens, and homeless shelters. Places like Day Star, Catholic Charities, St. Vincent De Paul, and many other major support agencies. They all tell me they have seen a vast increase in people that would starve or be without clothes if not for their services. The most shocking sight to see is homeless and starving children, living right near some of the richest neighborhoods!!!!!

Right here in "humanitarian" America, home of the worlds largest "humanitarian" and "liberating" force (or is it FARCE?).
This country is putting more and more of our citizens on the brink of homelessness and desperate poverty. In addition, it seems that we have pushed countless others over the brink and into the bottomless pit of despair and need.

All you have to do is look around, open your eyes, and you will see the vast sea of hungry and destitute. I have seen more and more children and families out on the street or in feeding centers and at food handouts.

To think that the world's richest country allows this to happen is sickening! To think that we turn a blind eye to starving children because it is easier to tolerate than do something about it! We cannot afford to hire teachers, build new schools, or even maintain the ones we have. Our children slip farther into the void of illiteracy and neglect. We are the lowest among the industrialized "first" world nations in literacy scores! Many "third" world countries now have higher literacy rates than the U.S.

We are setting ourselves up to turn the world's richest country into a third world quagmire. This country is sinking into a swamp of drowning poor and so-called "Economically Challenged!"

The rich meanwhile buy bigger S.U.Vs (self-indulgent, ubiquitous vulture-mobiles), and bigger gated houses to keep out the flotsam and detritus of the cast aways.


Homelessness Reaches New Levels

3.5 million people, 39% of them children, currently experience homelessness every year. 60% of all new homeless cases are single mothers with children. Recent studies suggest that the United States generates homelessness at a much higher rate than previously thought. By its very nature, homelessness is impossible to measure with 100% accuracy.
More important than actually knowing the precise number of people who experience homelessness is how to go about ending it.

CONTINUE

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	:: DUG853		8/02/2003 01:43:00 PM

Senators Slam Shifting Iraq War Justification

WASHINGTON, July 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) The Bush administration came Wednesday, July 30, under a barrage of criticisms from members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who charged the administration had
"shifted justification" of the Iraq war from alleged weapons of mass destruction to simply the human rights violations of ousted president Saddam Hussein, a leading U.S. daily reported Wednesday, July 30.

During a stormy three-hour hearing, Republican and Democratic senators said the administration's prewar focus on Iraq's alleged WMDs had now been replaced by reports on Saddam's human rights violations and arguments by grilled
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz that Iraq has become the "central battle in the war on terror," the Washington Post said.

"In the months leading up to the war, it was a steady drumbeat of weapons of mass destruction," said Senator Lincoln D. Chafee, a Republican.

"All the testimony this morning . . . is about what a tyrant Saddam Hussein is, who brutalizes the people. . . . So I'll ask the question, Secretary Wolfowitz: What are we doing there (in Iraq)?"

CONTINUE

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	:: DUG853		8/02/2003 01:20:00 PM

US scraps nuclear weapons watchdog
By Julian Borger, The Guardian in Washington

Thursday, July 31, 2003


A US department of energy panel of experts which provided independent oversight of the development of the US nuclear arsenal has been quietly disbanded by the Bush administration, it emerged yesterday.

The decision to close down the national nuclear security administration advisory committee - required by law to hold public hearings and issue public reports on nuclear weapons issues - has come just days before a closed-door meeting at a US air force base in Nebraska to discuss the development of a new generation of tactical "mini nukes" and "bunker buster" bombs, as well as an eventual resumption of nuclear testing.

Ed Markey, a Democratic congressman and co-chairman of a congressional taskforce on non-proliferation, said: "Instead of seeking balanced expert advice and analysis about this important topic, the department of energy has disbanded the one forum for honest, unbiased external review of its nuclear weapons policies."

CONTINUE

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	:: DUG853		8/02/2003 09:58:00 AM

Modified CAPPS II airline security plan criticized
Wired

"The second-generation Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening   System ... will rate every passenger by checking dates of birth,   home addresses and phone numbers against commercial databases and   the government's terrorist watch lists."

Civil libertarians are concerned that it still expands into police territory, and makes   the U.S. "a checkpoint society". (8/1/03)

Full Text

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	:: DUG853		8/02/2003 12:18:00 AM

Detention Deficit
The president's lawless treatment of suspected terrorists
By Jacob Sullum

During the Korean War, the U.S. Supreme Court rebuked President Truman for trying to seize control of the nation's steel mills. Although Truman argued that an impending nationwide strike by steelworkers threatened the war effort, the Court insisted that he needed congressional authorization.

"The executive action we have here originates in the will of the President and represents an exercise of authority without law," wrote Justice Robert Jackson in his concurring opinion.

"No penance would ever expiate the sin against free government of holding that a President can escape control of executive powers by law through assuming his military role."

If the president cannot use national security to justify the unilateral seizure of U.S. steel, how can he use it to justify the unilateral seizure of U.S. citizens?

That is one of the important questions raised by a friend-of-the-court brief challenging the president's authority to detain indefinitely anyone he designates as an "enemy combatant" without charge, without counsel, and without legal recourse.

Click to Continue and for Text with Links

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Friday, August 01, 2003

	:: DUG853		8/01/2003 11:22:00 PM

Collectivism versus private property fight ongoing in Russia
Moscow Times


"A preference for large collective farms that feed the masses, instilled over seven decades of socialism, still runs deep.

Colliding with that is a growing desire among individual farmers to have a piece of land they can call their own."

New legislation often counters older law allowing for private property ownership.   (8/1/03)

Full Text

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	:: DUG853		8/01/2003 09:50:00 PM

Scientists Still Deny Iraqi Arms Programs
U.S. Interrogations Net No Evidence
By Walter Pincus and Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writers

Thursday, July 31, 2003; Page A01

Despite vigorous efforts, the U.S. government has been unsuccessful so far in finding key senior Iraqi scientists to support its prewar claims that former president Saddam Hussein was pursuing an aggressive program to develop nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, according to senior administration officials and members of Congress who have been briefed recently on the subject.

The sources said four senior scientists and more than a dozen at lower levels who worked for the Iraqi government have been interviewed by U.S. officials under the direction of the CIA.

Some scientists have been arrested and held for months, others have made deals in return for information and at least one has agreed to be interviewed outside Iraq.
No matter the circumstances, all of the scientists interviewed have denied that Hussein had reconstituted his nuclear weapons program or developed and hidden chemical or biological weapons since United Nations inspectors left in 1998.

Several key Iraqi officials questioned the significance of evidence cited by the Bush administration to suggest that Hussein was stepping up efforts to develop new weapons of mass destruction programs.

CONTINUE

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	:: DUG853		8/01/2003 12:02:00 PM

UNITED STATES AND ICC

The United States played a central role in the precursors to the ICC: the Nuremberg trials, the international tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, and the Sierra Leone court.

Yet the U.S. government always demanded a high degree of control over the Court and resisted its authority to prosecute U.S. military and government officials.

President Clinton authorized signing -- but not ratifying -- the Rome Statute on December 31, 2000, just before leaving office and on the deadline set by the statute.

In May 2002, a new position emerged as the Bush administration nullified the United States' signature on the Rome Statute.

In so doing, the administration withdrew U.S. support for the creation of the ICC and asserted the exclusion of U.S. citizens from the ICC's jurisdiction.

The American NGO Coalition for the ICC describes and responds to the Bush administration's concerns.

http://amicc.org/usinfo/administration.html


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USAforICC.org goes on to explain why the "unsigning" sets a bad precedent domestically and internationally.

http://usaforicc.org/facts_unsigning.html


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After unsigning the Rome Statutes, the U.S. government passed domestic legislation withholding military aid from
countries that ratify the ICC unless they agree not to turn over U.S. citizens or employees to the Court.

The legislation also authorizes the U.S. President to use "all means necessary and appropriate" to free U.S. personnel detained by the ICC.

http://www.wfa.org/issues/wicc/article98/article98home.html


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In June of this year, the U.S. insisted the UN Security Council extend immunity from ICC prosecution for its peacekeeping forces.

http://www.wfa.org/issues/wicc/article98/article98home.html


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The Victims Trust Fund is asking U.S. citizens to send a $5 check to the ICC to alert elected officials that international
justice is a priority for them.

http://www.victimstrustfund.org

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	:: DUG853		8/01/2003 10:26:00 AM

PROGRAM ALERT

"Inside the Pentagon"
A Special Edition of NOW with Bill Moyers

NOW with Bill Moyers
PBS Airdate: August 1, 2003
Local listings

Click Here For an in-depth Commentary on this Show

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	:: DUG853		8/01/2003 08:42:00 AM

The Bush Administration's Top 40 Lies About War and Terrorism
(links-annotated version)

Click Here

[The list keeps getting longer and longer! -v]

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Thursday, July 31, 2003

	:: DUG853		7/31/2003 05:07:00 PM

Civil Rights Violations are Nothing New
By Elaine Cassel, AlterNet

July 30, 2003

Last week, the Justice Department's Office of Civil Rights reported that it had documented 34 "credible" civil rights complaints arising under the implementation of the USA Patriot Act.

Only 34?

By definition, a "civil rights" violation usually means that a law enforcement officer, acting as agent of local, state, or federal government, deprived someone of life, liberty, or property without regard for the law or due process.

The violation often involves an unlawful search of one's person or a wrongful seizure of property.

The report found that jail guards in New York beat several immigrants detained after 9/11. Most would say that this is a civil rights violation.

And that is what the Justice Department found, as well.

The major media outlets covered the story of the report, and people everywhere were expressing their dismay.

But I could not get excited about the report.

Why?

Because brutal treatment of prisoners in America is a fact of prison life.

One that is little covered and, when it is, is justified as being the product of an animal-like environment in which the strong prey upon the weak and guards abuse for self-protection.

Our Supreme Court has pretty much decided that any kind of prison torture squares with the Constitution. Justices Scalia and Thomas have gone on record as saying that there is really no such thing as the cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the 8th Amendment to the Constitution.

They and some of their colleagues argue that the Constitution does not address what is "too much" punishment and that proportionality -- let the punishment fit the crime -- is not what the Amendment is about.

If the electric chair is not cruel and unusual then what is?

Full Text

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	:: DUG853		7/31/2003 03:50:00 PM

AMERICA'S NEW FREEDOMS
By Jack Ballinger, AlterNet

President Bush has given us a whole new set of "freedoms" to call our own -- including the freedom to be tortured and the freedom to be ignored.

Full Text

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	:: DUG853		7/31/2003 12:59:00 AM

Universal fascism, freedom betrayed

What is Mr. Bush doing in your name? A Must Read

CONTINUE


[NOT BY OUR HAND. NOT BY OUR WILL. NOT IN OUR NAME. -v]

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	:: DUG853		7/31/2003 12:26:00 AM

Why the US needs the Taliban

It may sound unbelievable, but the United States is prepared to permit the return to rule in Afghanistan of its erstwhile arch-enemies, the Taliban.

Click Here

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Wednesday, July 30, 2003

	:: DUG853		7/30/2003 11:42:00 PM

Damaging Sources and Methods
by Bridget Gibson, Information Clearing House
7/30/03

"Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method
inexorably must choose lying as his principle.
-- Aleksandr  Solzhenitsyn


Somewhere in the bowels of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue there must lie at least one answer.

Some file or note must contain a reason for the deafening silent treatment that the citizens of this country are receiving.
We, the people, have become secondary (or is it tertiary?)

Our nation was founded by men and women, not unlike any of us – they walked on their legs and did not possess wings – they made decisions and attempted to set out a map or path for future generations to share in the bounty and resources of our vast and wonderful country.

It is unfortunate that today our politicians have been awarded special status – their mere existence is more valuable than any of ours – special laws regarding their deaths or lives have been passed.

Their retirements are protected, their income streams are not to be disturbed, their offspring are so much more prepared to take over the reins of domination and "leadership."

There are twenty-eight (28) pages that might cause the current administration "embarrassment."

I say it is mine and your right to know exactly what "sources and methods" of failing to heed the security of this country might cause "embarrassment" to George Walker Bush, his minions, his sycophants, his proxies, his lying cheating cronies and his entire family.

This man's obsession with secrecy has undermined the entire security of this country.

Two years ago, August 2001, George Walker Bush took a month long vacation in Crawford, Texas.

History is about to repeat itself as he prepares to take another month long vacation in Crawford, Texas.

Our country is currently under a new threat of hijacked airliners – although the terror warning level will not be raised – and our country is reducing the security at airports and reducing the number of air marshals.

Before Thursday, July 24, 2001, John Ashcroft was warned not to fly on "commercial" airliners and was flying on chartered government jets.

What did the FBI know and when did they know it?

On August 6, 2001, the President's Daily Briefing Report contained warnings of the attacks that our country suffered on 9/11, but that information has not been released by this administration either.

There is a pattern here and it is plain to see by any and all that are looking.

The pattern is the hiding and obscuring from the view of the American people the facts.

The facts must be very damning if they must be hidden.

There must be very damaging information about the "methods and sources" of this administration's guilt and complicity in the failure to secure our country.

It is already apparent that George W. Bush will lie to get what he wants.

Lying in the State of the Union Address about the Niger/Iraq uranium claim was possibly the least of George W. Bush's lies.

He has lied about the reasons for every policy decision that he has made.

He told the American people that his "tax cuts" were to bolster our economy; what do the facts show us now?

The facts show that our country has lost three and ½ million jobs since March 2001.

He told the American people that his "war on terror" would make them safe; what do the facts show us now?

The facts show us that we are under a continual threat from terrorists – as witnessed by the "color chart" of the Homeland Security unit.

He told us that Saddam Hussein was making bombs and had the capability to strike the United States; what do the facts show us?

The facts show that there were and are not WMDs and that there was no capability of delivery to our shores.

We now have lost almost 250 of our best and brightest with the continued deployment of more than 150,000 troops in Iraq and daily attacks and loss of life and no end in sight.

George W. Bush has damaging "methods and sources" – he rules over the most secretive and corrupt administration in the history of our country.

Demand a full and independent investigation of September 11, 2001.

Demand the disclosure of those "twenty-eight pages."

Richard Milhouse Nixon's administration was characterized by 18 ½ minutes of blank tape.

Are these 28 blank pages the character of George Walker Bush?

Do these pages include the details of Unocal's oil pipeline plans through Afghanistan?

Do these pages include the "sources and methods" of politicizing the tragedy of 9/11 (including the "United We Stand" message and the squashing of all dissent throughout the media and Congress)?

Do these pages include the blaming of 9/11 on Saddam Hussein to further the profits of Halliburton and Bechtel?

Do these pages include the relationship between The Carlyle Group and the bin Laden family?

What is this administration hiding and why are they hiding it?

It is not what you know that will harm you. 

It is what you don't know.

SOURCE

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	:: DUG853		7/30/2003 11:06:00 PM

Al-Jazeera Accuses US of Harassment in Row Over "Bias"
By Robert Fisk, The Independent
30 July 2003


BAGHDAD -- A day after Paul Wolfowitz, the US Deputy Defence Secretary, claimed that the Arabic Al-Jazeera television channel was "inciting violence" and "endangering the lives of American troops" in Iraq, the station's Baghdad bureau chief has written a scathing reply, complaining that in the past month his offices and staff in Iraq "have been subject to strafing by gunfire, death threats, confiscation of news material, and multiple detentions and arrests, all carried out by US soldiers".

The unprecedented dispute between an Anglo-American occupation authority supposedly dedicated to "democracy" in Iraq and an Arab station once praised by Washington for its services to free speech in the region comes as the US administration appears ready to close down Al-Jazeera's operations in Iraq - along with Al-Arabiya channel - for alleged "incitement to violence".

The US proconsul in Iraq, Paul Bremer, said he would shut newspapers or television stations guilty of "incitement to violence" - without explaining what this phrase means.

Mr Wolfowitz, a right-wing ideologue, is one of the cabal that pushed the US into war on the grounds that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that destroying the regime would open the way to a new, democratic Middle East.

He used the Murdoch-owned Fox channel to make his allegations against Al-Jazeera, many of which are palpably false.

For example, he accused Al-Jazeera of "slanting the news incredibly ... the minute they get something that they can use to spread hatred and violence in Iraq, they're broadcasting it around."

As the bureau chief, Wadah Khanfar, points out in his letter to Mr Bremer - a copy of which has been obtained by The Independent - "Al-Jazeera did not cover Saddam Hussein favourably.

Both Yasser Abu Hilala [a senior reporter] and I have been expelled from Baghdad by the former regime for our reporting.

The bureau was shut down twice by the former ministry of information for unfavourable coverage ... Al-Jazeera reporters have even been physically assaulted by the former information minister Mohammed Saeed as-Sahaf, for daring to broadcast events which cast the regime in an unfavourable light."

But the dispute has already gone beyond words.

US troops have raided the bureau's offices in Ramadi and arrested reporters, harassment that has been accompanied by claims from US officers - Col Teeples of the 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment especially - that Al-Jazeera has advance notice of attacks on US troops.

The station sometimes receives unsolicited videotapes - hand-delivered by unidentified men - showing ambushes of US convoys. In many cases, Al-Jazeera decided not to show the tapes - but this has had no effect on the Americans.

The antagonism between Washington and Al-Jazeera goes back to the 2001 bombing of Afghanistan when, after the station showed a tape of Osama bin Laden, a US cruise missile hit the Kabul bureau.

Then in April, after beaming pictures of Iraqi civilians mutilated by US air raids and tape of American prisoners in Iraqi hands, a US jet targeted the Baghdad bureau, killing a reporter.

Al-Jazeera had earlier given the co-ordinates of the offices to the Pentagon to prevent any accidental bombing.

These events, seen by much of the international press as a deliberate bid to murder Al-Jazeera staff, mean that reporters regard themselves at risk if they offend Americans.

CONTINUE

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	:: DUG853		7/30/2003 09:59:00 PM

US army admits Iraq suicides

From correspondents in Baghdad
23jul03

US forces in Iraq have suffered cases of probable suicide, a senior military official said today, amid slumping morale among troops faced with daily and deadly attacks.

The senior officer, who asked not to be named, said that among 53 US military non-combat deaths since May 1, when the war was declared effectively over, were "probable" suicides as well as a large number of road accidents.

He did not say how many soldiers were suspected of committing suicide.

There have been a number of "non-hostile gunshot incidents" among US troops in that time, with suspected suicides and accidental discharges of weapons, for example during cleaning, included under the category.


CONTINUE

[During cleaning? Yeah, right! -DUG]

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	:: DUG853		7/30/2003 07:44:00 PM

BILL SEEKS INFO ON GOVERNMENT USE OF DATABASES

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced a bill on July 29 to shed light on the government's use of commercial databases containing personal information for intelligence and law enforcement purposes.

"The power of technology that allows the Federal Government to pry into the personal lives of millions of Americans is only beginning to be understood," said Sen. Wyden. "It is a breath-taking power."

His bill would require a thorough report on government acquisition and use of such databases, and would prohibit the use of funds to procure commercial database information until the report is provided to Congress.

See the introduction of the "Citizens' Protection in Federal Databases Act" (S. 1484).

Full Text

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	:: DUG853		7/30/2003 04:05:00 PM

VOTING AND DEMOCRACY: THE CHALLENGES AHEAD
By Don Hazen, AlterNet

Voting security irregularities have put the populace on edge.

The solution?

Push hard on reform opportunities now, and don't stay home on Election Day.

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THE THEFT OF YOUR VOTE IS JUST A CHIP AWAY
By Thom Hartmann, AlterNet

Are computerized voting machines a wide-open back door to massive voting fraud ?

A growing number of Americans are saying our votes are too sacred to reside only on computer chips.

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BEYOND VOTING MACHINES: HAVA AND REAL ELECTION REFORM
By Miles Rapoport, AlterNet

The Florida 2000 election proved to Americans of all political persuasions that our election laws are broken.
Yet the debacle also created an opening for voting reform that we have not seen for decades.

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THE VOTING RIGHTS STRUGGLE OF OUR TIME
By Kim Alexander, AlterNet

California is at the forefront of the paper trail debate with electronic voting machines.
Thanks to a state task force, there's still time to weigh in on the controversy.

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	:: DUG853		7/30/2003 02:37:00 PM

Japanese reporters in Iraq say U.S. troops roughed them up

Monday, July 28, 2003 at 09:00 JST

BAGHDAD — A Japanese reporter was manhandled and temporarily detained by U.S. soldiers Sunday for filming without their permission in an area of Baghdad where they were conducting raids, another reporter who accompanied him said.

Japan Press reporter Kazutaka Sato, 47, was put in a hold, thrown to the ground and kicked, sustaining injuries to his face and hands, according to Mika Yamamoto, 36, a Japan Press reporter who was with Sato at the time of the incident.

She said the two had been in the Mansur district of Baghdad filming the damage caused to civilians by the U.S. military when they had their cameras confiscated.

After being thrown to the ground and assaulted by several U.S. soldiers,

Sato had his hands tied and was detained for about one hour.

The soldiers did not explain why photography was forbidden in the area.

"By obstructing our legitimate news gathering activities, I suppose they had something to hide from us, such as bodies of civilians," Yamamoto said.

Sato and Yamamoto had been in Iraq since July 19 doing coverage for Nippon Television Network Corp. (Kyodo News)

SOURCE

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	:: DUG853		7/30/2003 12:57:00 AM

Operation Oil Immunity

By Steve Kretzmann and Jim Vallette, Analysts
Sustainable Energy & Economy Network of the Institute for Policy Studies


During the initial assault on Baghdad, soldiers set up forward bases named Camp Shell and Camp Exxon.

Those soldiers knew the score, even if the Pentagon's talking points dismissed any ties between Iraqi oil and their blood.

The Bush/Cheney administration has moved quickly to ensure U.S. corporate control over Iraqi resources, at least through the year 2007.

The first part of the plan, created by the United Nations under U.S. pressure, is the Development Fund for Iraq, which is being controlled by the United States and advised by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The second is a recent Bush executive order that provides absolute legal protection for U.S. interests in Iraqi oil.

CONTINUE

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Tuesday, July 29, 2003

	:: DUG853		7/29/2003 10:12:00 PM

Autopsy: No Arabs on Flight 77
By Thomas R. Olmsted, M.D


I am an ex Naval line officer and a psychiatrist in private practice in New Orleans, a Christian and homeschool dad.

It troubled me a great deal that we rushed off to war on the flimsiest of evidence.

I considered various ways to provide a smoking gun of who and why Sept 11th happened.

Astute observers noticed right away that there were no Arabic sounding names on any of the flight manifests of the planes that "crashed" on that day.

A list of names on a piece of paper is not evidence, but an autopsy by a pathologist, is.

I undertook by FOIA request, to obtain that autopsy list and you are invited to view it below.

Guess what?

Still no Arabs on the list.

It is my opinion that the monsters who planned this crime made a mistake by not including Arabic names on the original list to make the ruse seem more believable.

When airline disasters occur, airlines will routinely provide a manifest list for anxious families.

You may have noticed that, even before Sep 11th, airlines are pretty meticulous about getting an accurate headcount before takeoff.

It seems very unlikely to me, that five Arabs sneaked onto a flight with weapons.

CONTINUE

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	:: DUG853		7/29/2003 08:36:00 PM

Love it or leave it

Liberty For All
by Mike Ruff

"The government was organized under the Constitution, essentially an employment contract, with the people of the United States as the employers.

The Constitution established exactly what the government was allowed and required to do, and with the addition of the 9th and 10th Amendments, was told that anything not expressly assigned to it in the contract was none of its damn business." (07/28/03)

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	:: DUG853		7/29/2003 02:31:00 PM

[This Breaking News Yet to be Confirmed by Other Sources -DUG]

U.S. Soldiers Reportedly Escape From Iraq
Contributed by: Admin

BAGHDAD, July 27 - U.S. soldiers in Iraq are escaping from Iraq under the guise of Kurdish citizens, wearing the famous Iraqi and Arab al-Dashdasha (loose headdress) which has become mush sought-after recently, Iraqis told IslamOnline.net Sunday, July 27.

However, a U.S. colonel categorically denied that 2,500 U.S. soldiers have escaped from duty so far, noting that it was a rumor propagated by the Baathists and the loyalists to ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Saeed al-Aidany, a galabia (gown) seller, said, "We were surprised at the very beginning to see a lot of U.S. soldiers buying al-Dashdasha, but it came to our knowledge that they used it as a camouflage to make their escape to Gulf states".

Aidany further claimed that U.S. soldiers were also seen buying Kurdish costumes to make their way to Turkey through northern Iraq.

Abdul Amir al-Hasnawi, a truck driver, alleged he helped two U.S. soldiers escape to Kuwait.

"Two Black U.S. soldiers arrived in Basra through a Christian go-between from Baghdad, who used to work as a translator with the Americans.

They were in jeans and I smuggled them to Kuwait in return for $450 each," Hasnawi told IOL.

"The go-between told me that the two soldiers did not to be gunned down in Iraq without a cause," he added.

Kazem al-Badri, a taxi driver, claimed that cab and truck drivers nowadays are testing the pulse of search themselves or through go-betweens for U.S. soldiers who want to escape from the war-scarred country in return for bucks.

"It is not a rumor or an Iraqi propaganda but it is a fact, because I myself know a lot of drivers who helped U.S. soldiers escape from Iraq," Badri insisted, adding that smuggling rates hit first a mind-boggling $5,000 for each soldier but were not put down to $500.

SOURCE

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	:: DUG853		7/29/2003 01:58:00 PM

Remain ever vigilant for opportunities to take action!


1) Oppose the War on Immigrants

Anti-immigrant opportunists continue to use the war on terrorism as a cover for their war on immigrants and to push the development of a National ID.

Current regulations allow immigrants to open bank accounts with foreign identification papers, such as Mexico's matricula consular.

However, under pressure from anti-immigrant groups, the Department of Treasury is considering re-opening these regulations with the possible result that immigrants will be unable to use legal banking institutions and that the government may begin exploring the implementation of a national ID for immigrants (a pre-cursor of a national ID for all people).

We need to ensure that our privacy is respected and that immigrants are not forced into illegal banking institutions.

Changing these regulations will only reduce freedom, not increase our security.
Click here to get more information and to comment on the proposed new rules:


2) Thank (or Spank) Your Representative for their Vote on a Key PATRIOT Act Provision

Last Tuesday, Congress began its revolt against the USA PATRIOT Act by passing an amendment that would limit the use of "sneak and peek" search warrants for your home. These search warrants, also called "black bag" searches, allow government agents to secretly search homes, confiscate certain types of property and essentially bug computers without notifying the subject of the search that it is happening.

By voting to block the use of these searches, the House has taken an important first step toward undoing the parts of the PATRIOT Act that invade our freedom.

It is crucial that you give feedback to your Representative on his or her vote on this important amendment.

Click here to get information and to send a free fax to your Representative


3) Mark Your Calendar

ACLU Associate Legal Director Ann Beeson will conduct a live online chat from 1-2 p.m. (ET) Thursday, July 31, about the FBI's broad new surveillance powers under the USA PATRIOT Act.

Learn about the Fourth and First Amendment defects in a provision of the law that allows the government to obtain records or personal belongings from any person or entity, including public libraries, upon the mere claim of "relevance" to a terrorism investigation.

More details will be available Wednesday at this link.

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	:: DUG853		7/29/2003 12:14:00 AM

Who Made George W. Bush Our King?
He Can Designate Any of Us an Enemy Combatant
By Nat Hentoff, The Village Voice

Courts have no higher duty than protection of the individual freedoms
guaranteed by our Constitution. This is especially true in time of war,
when our carefully crafted system of checks and balances must
accommodate the vital needs of national security while guarding the
liberties the Constitution promises all citizens.
—Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals judge Diana Gribbon Motz, dissenting,
Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, July 9.


Some of the most glorious illuminations of the Bill of Rights in American history have been contained in Supreme Court dissents by, among others, Louis Brandeis, William Brennan, Hugo Black, and Thurgood Marshall.

Equal to those was the stinging dissent by judge Diana Gribbon Motz when the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (8 to 4) gave George W. Bush a fearsome power that can be found nowhere in the Constitution—the sole authority to imprison an American citizen indefinitely without charges or access to a lawyer.

This case is now on appeal to the Supreme Court, which will determine whether this president—or his successors until the end of the war on terrorism—can subvert the Bill of Rights to the peril of all of us.

Judge Motz began her dissent—which got only a couple of lines in the brief coverage of the case in scattered media reporting—by stating plainly what the Bush administration has done to scuttle the Bill of Rights:

"For more than a year, a United States citizen, Yaser Esam Hamdi, has been labeled an enemy combatant and held in solitary confinement in a Norfolk, Virginia, naval brig.

He has not been charged with a crime, let alone convicted of one.

The Executive [the president] will not state when, if ever, he will be released.

Nor has the Executive allowed Hamdi to appear in court, consult with counsel, or communicate in any way with the outside world."

I have not seen what I am about to quote from her dissent anywhere in the media. You might want to send what follows to your member of Congress and senator. Judge Motz said accusingly:

"I fear that [this court] may also have opened the door to the indefinite
detention, without access to a lawyer or the courts, of any American
citizen, even one captured on American soil, who the Executive designates
an 'enemy combatant,' as long as the Executive asserts that the area
in which the citizen was detained was an 'active combat zone,' and the
detainee, deprived of access to the courts and counsel, cannot dispute this
fact." (Emphasis added).

CONTINUE

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Monday, July 28, 2003

	:: DUG853		7/28/2003 11:44:00 PM

TruthOut Report to Those in the Battle Zone
By Marc Ash
Tuesday 29 July 2003

This report is intended to provide accurate information to U.S. servicemen and women stationed in Iraq.

Our pledge to you is that this report will contain only fact.

We will not embellish.

This is the straight story.

Please forward throughout the ranks.

Full Text

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	:: DUG853		7/28/2003 09:26:00 PM

Billionaire challenges case for war

Billionaire philanthropist George Soros is running full-page ads in major U.S. newspapers challenging the honesty of the Bush administration's case for waging war in Iraq.

Click Here to Continue


View The Full Page Ad That Ran In U.S. Press On Sunday Here


---0---0---0---

The American People Deserve The Truth

Urge your Congressperson and Senators to get the truth.

We Deserve the Truth

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	:: DUG853		7/28/2003 05:49:00 PM

Overcoming Terror
By Philip Zimbardo with Bruce Kluger -- Publication Date: July 24, 2003


Summary: Is Washington terrorizing us more than Al Qaeda?

Log on to the Department of Homeland Security's Web site, ready.gov, and click on "nuclear blast."

Thanks to the recently formed agency, ordinary citizens can now get a crash course in emergency preparedness in the event that a big bomb is dropped on their block.

Step one, says the terse tip sheet, is to "take cover."

Step two: "Assess the situation."

Step three? "Limit your exposure to radiation."

While the well-meaning 300-word document goes on to reveal a few other curious dos and don'ts for a doomsday scenario (e.g., ingesting potassium iodide is definitely a bad idea when radioactive iodine is coursing through the atmosphere), what's missing from the text is an acknowledgment of the psychological damage that such cursorily assembled, blithely disseminated information can wreak on the public.

Presumably intended as a mental health balm in this time of unprecedented global stress, these simplistic big-blast CliffsNotes merely skate atop the frozen pond of the nuclear nightmare, ultimately leaving the befuddled citizen to wonder--and often panic--about the real and present danger that lurks just beneath the ice.

Unfortunately, the Department of Homeland Security's site is just one example of a national warning system that in the end stirs up more anxiety than it quells.

Loaded with scientific terminology, yet woefully bereft of any tangible data, the U.S.' early-warning mechanism has transformed us into a nation of worriers, not warriors.

Forcing citizens to ride an emotional roller coaster without providing any clear instructions on how to soothe their jitters, the current security system has had a profoundly negative impact on our individual and collective mental health.

I call this a "pre-traumatic stress syndrome," and its effect on our day-to-day lives is debilitating.

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	:: DUG853		7/28/2003 01:28:00 PM

Voting Machines Blasted by Scientists

SCOOP EDITOR'S NOTE:

What follows is a set of discoveries, the result of the first-ever public examination of a secret, proprietary computer program used to count votes in 37 states.

A hundred dollar item allows anyone to stuff the ballot box; remote access was left unprotected, encryption keys were made available to hackers, and passwords, audit logs and votes were easily compromised.

This report, and all information not attributed to others here, was provided by Bev Harris, author of "Black Box Voting: Ballot-Tampering in the 21st Century."

CONTINUE

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	:: DUG853		7/28/2003 01:11:00 PM

Mafia Justice: Saddam Hussein'S Sons Assassination

By K. Cagle

There is something here that bothers me more than a little bit.  In just about every war that has occurred from World War I on, the intent was not in general to kill the opposing leader. 

It was to bring that leader to justice. 

Sometimes, they happened to die, usually at their own hands, but the American ideal of justice is that when you are accused of a crime, no matter how heinous, you should be tried before a jury of your peers in a legitimate trial, with evidence shown that you have in fact committed the crimes in question.  

That Hussein's sons probably did in fact commit crimes against the people of Iraq, it should be the same people who should be allowed to try them and acquit or condemn them on the basis of the known facts. 

Yet, somewhere we've crossed over a line that says that if our president feels that a person is evil, based upon whatever convenient information he has and his own personal biases, then he has the right to arbitrarily kill or order killed that person, with no access whatsoever to a jury of his peers or anything resembling justice.

This is mafia justice, ladies and gentlemen, it is justice of a dictator, not someone who has sworn to uphold both the letter and spirit of American Law. 

It is justice that is administered by a person who realizes that the person being accused could potentially spill damning information (one who knows too much).  

This was what bothered me about the Afghan war; it was not intended to capture a person who had performed a criminal act, albeit one of extreme magnitude, but was an attempt to punish a nation and hopefully kill Bin Laden in the process. 

Justice is often not convenient: it is long and drawn out, and can be thwarted if the people who administer that justice do not follow the rules. 

But justice is also a protection and an affirmation - a protection for those people who are accused but innocent, and an affirmation that in order for a society to remain civil, those who have been granted power must follow the rules for the use of that power. 

CONTINUE

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	:: DUG853		7/28/2003 01:14:00 AM

Uranium: Deja DU

The Agent Orange of Eternity
By Ed Ward. MD
07/24/03:

According to the U.S. government and affiliated agencies, Depleted Uranium (DU) is a safe, cheap and effective material. 

The illnesses of our soldiers and any civilians, after a thorough investigation by the government regarding government actions, are all imagined, the lies of the those that support our enemies, the result of post traumatic stress syndrome, or are no more common than what would be encountered in the general public.  

The exact same story told to the soldiers returning from Vietnam with similar devastating effects from the government's unbridled use of dioxin in that country. 
 
The government merely turned on the word processors, highlighted Vietnam, dioxin, trees, and defoliant, and hit the global replace to substitute Iraq, DU, tanks and weapon. 

Viola!  Presto!  Shezaam! 

The new intensive study was formulated, written, completed and the finding was the same. 

"Spin" anything not proven beyond the shadow of a doubt. 

Ignore, classify or delete anything showing a possible correlation. 

Deny treatment, clean up and responsibility.  

Who knew? 

Who could have figured?   

After intensive review of all information that does not show the substance to be unsafe, the substance in question is undoubtably, unquestionably, irrefutably and undeniably SAFE!    

CONTINUE

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Sunday, July 27, 2003

	:: DUG853		7/27/2003 11:32:00 PM

USA: Indecent and internationally illegal, the execution of child offenders

The USA continues to defy the United Nations and flout international law in its pursuit of the death penalty against children, Amnesty International said today, as it released two new reports on the execution of people who were under 18 at the time of the crime.

"Two thirds of the known executions of child offenders in the past decade were carried out in the USA", the organization said.

"It is clear that the United States is the world's leading perpetrator of this universally condemned human rights violation."

In his recent speech on Iraq to the UN General Assembly, President George Bush spoke of "broken treaties", UN resolutions being "unilaterally subverted", and of the USA's wish for the UN to be "effective, and respected, and successful".

"The execution of child offenders leaves treaties just as broken, resolutions just as subverted, and respect for the UN and international law just as undermined," Amnesty International said.

CONTINUE

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	:: DUG853		7/27/2003 06:31:00 PM

War on drugs causes patients to suffer needlessly
by Danny Brooks

"As a pain clinic nurse told me recently, all doctors could treat pain, but unfortunately very few choose to treat pain.

A patient who requests pain medication is immediately suspected of being a junkie, labeled a 'drug-seeker' and treated accordingly. ...

Often, patients are told that they are depressed.

Gee, I can't imagine why anyone living in constant agony, treated like a drug addict and ignored or yelled at by doctors would be depressed." (07/23/03)

Click Here To Continue

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	:: DUG853		7/27/2003 01:40:00 PM

Congressional Reports: Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001

In February 2002, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence agreed to conduct a Joint Inquiry into the activities of the U.S. Intelligence Community in connection with the terrorist attacks perpetrated against our nation on September 11, 2001.

This report (available as both S. Rept. 107-351 and H. Rept. 107-792) consists of 832 pages that presents the joint inquiry?s findings and conclusions, an accompanying narrative, and a series of recommendations.

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	:: DUG853		7/27/2003 11:11:00 AM

Arm the photon torpedoes
by Gabriel Ash, YellowTimes.org

"Like a pack of wolves, our brave journalists and politicians are gregarious.

They only attack in tight formation, and they never bite before checking left and right with their peers.

But they are wrong.

Bush never lied to them.

The problem isn't only that Bush has used 'technically correct' but misleading statements.

It is funny to see the man who promised to restore dignity to the White House defending himself with the equivalent of Clinton's 'it depends on what the meaning of 'is' is.'

But that doesn't even scratch the surface of Bush's unreality." (07/21/03)

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