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

Friday, March 26, 2004

	:: DUG853		3/26/2004 07:36:00 PM

Terror experts 'almost quit' in frustration with Bush

[Not to mention how many OTHERS that HAVE resigned/quit in DISGUST at the "performance/s" of this Mis-Administration] [DUG]

The Bush regime's failure to prevent the 11 September attacks came under even fiercer scrutiny yesterday, when it emerged that two veteran CIA counter-terrorism experts were so frustrated in summer 2001 that they considered resigning and making public their fears about an imminent terrorist strike against US targets.

CONTINUE

[]

Link to This Post

	:: Nora		3/26/2004 09:42:00 AM

Palestinians: U.S. Veto Gives Israel License to Kill

GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinians accused the United States on Friday of granting Israel a license to kill by vetoing U.N. condemnation of its assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin ...

At the United Nations, the United States late on Thursday vetoed a Security Council resolution by Arab nations to censure Israel for assassinating Hamas's wheelchair-bound founder in a missile strike outside a Gaza mosque on Monday.

Washington, alone among major powers in not condemning Monday's assassination as an extrajudicial killing, rejected the resolution because it did not also denounce Hamas for suicide bombings in Israel. The vote was 11 in favor, three abstentions, and the United States veto that killed the measure.

Source

[]

Link to This Post

	:: Nora		3/26/2004 08:51:00 AM

Running scared

The Bush administration fears voters will believe Richard Clarke's allegations, writes Philip James

March 26, The Guardian

The swiftness and ferocity of the Bush White House's attack on Richard Clarke tells you two things: his story may be largely true, and the Bush administration is terrified that the American people will believe it.

The central allegation -- that Mr Bush was so obsessed with going after Saddam Hussein that he openly challenged his counter-terrorism adviser to find a link between September 11 and Iraq the day after the attacks took place -- is serious.

It threatens the fundamental platform of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign: that you are safer with them than you are with the Democrats.

The White House did not let a single news cycle go by before questioning that the alleged encounter between the president and Clarke had ever taken place, assigning dark motives to a man who has served four presidents, three of them Republicans.

But you don't have to be Bob Woodward to check Clarke's story out. There were other witnesses to this meeting, one of whom spoke to me.

"The conversation absolutely took place. I was there, but you can't name me," the witness said. "I was one of several people present. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that the president had Iraq on his mind, first and foremost."

This former national security council official was too terrified to go on the record -- he knows how vengeful this administration can be.

He remembers the late night phone call former treasury secretary Paul O'Neill received just before he published The Price of Loyalty, his account of how the Bush White House set its sights on Iraq from day one. He was about to discover the price of disloyalty to this administration.

It was Donald Rumsfeld on the line, a man more used to authorising deadly force on the grandest scale, gently advising him that it might not be in his best interests to go public.

When O'Neill ignored him, he instantly became the target of an investigation by his former department, which claimed that he had revealed state secrets.

Bush's mantra to the international community during his inexorable march to war in 2002-2003 -- you are either with us or against us -- applies, with equal force, to all who serve him.

His inner circle has used fear and intimidation to keep the White House airtight. But the cracks are opening up, and those pesky facts keep resurfacing like unsightly flotsam, evidence that supports Richard Clarke's revelations.

The fact that the Pentagon pulled the fighting force most equipped for hunting down Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan in March 2002 in order to pre- position it for Iraq cannot be denied.

Fifth Group Special Forces were a rare breed in the US military: they spoke Arabic, Pastun and Dari. They had been in Afghanistan for half a year, had developed a network of local sources and alliances, and believed that they were closing in on bin Laden.

Without warning, they were then given the task of tracking down Saddam. "We were going nuts on the ground about that decision," one of them recalls.

"In spite of the fact that it had taken five months to establish trust, suddenly there were two days to hand over to people who spoke no Dari, Pastun or Arabic, and had no rapport."

Along with the redeployment of human assets came a reallocation of sophisticated hardware. The US air force has only two specially-equipped RC135 U spy planes. They had successfully vectored in on al-Qaida leadership radio transmissions and cellphone calls, but they would no longer circle over the mountains of the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.

The Bush White House has banked on all who were privy to these details keeping the code of silence. But too many people outside the White House sphere of influence are too well informed, be they commandos on the ground or career civil servants at the state department and CIA.

Some have come forward, risking the ire of the Bushies. Many more are considering it, weighing their conscience alongside their sense of self-preservation. Several who are talking are doing so on the condition of anonymity.

But, as this campaign heats up, some will rethink and go on the record. It is becoming clear their silence might ensure that the Bush White House gets away with the central lie of its tenure -- the blanket denial that it abandoned the war on terror to pursue an unrelated, pre-selected Iraq agenda.

The louder the Bush administration proclaims that it is the only qualified protector of national security, the more offensively that rings in the ears of those who know the truth. Sooner or later -- and certainly before November -- that truth will out.

· Philip James is a former senior Democratic party strategist

Source

[]

Link to This Post

	:: Nora		3/26/2004 08:45:00 AM

Bush's Iraq WMDs joke backfires

From the BBC:

US President George W Bush has sparked a political firestorm by making a joke about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

At a black-tie dinner for journalists, Mr Bush narrated a slide show poking fun at himself and other members of his administration.

One pictured Mr Bush looking under a piece of furniture in the Oval Office, at which the president remarked: "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be here somewhere."

After another one, showing him scouring the corner of a room, Mr Bush said: "No, no weapons over there," he said.

And as a third picture, this time showing him leaning over, appeared on the screen the president was heard to say: "Maybe under here?"

The audience at Wednesday's 60th annual dinner of the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association obviously thought the quips hilarious -- there were laughs all round -- but the next morning, in the cold light of day, things looked far less amusing.

The joke about the fruitless search for Iraqi WMDs so far, Washington's prime justification for the US-led invasion, has been branded as tasteless and ill-judged.

'Undermining' sacrifices

Mr Bush's election challenger Senator John Kerry described the president's attitude as "stunningly cavalier".

"If George Bush thinks his deceptive rationale for going to war is a laughing matter, then he's even more out of touch than we thought," he said in a written statement.

"Unfortunately for the president, this is not a joke."

Mr Kerry's statement also included a comment from Iraq war veteran Brad Owens, who said: "War is the single most serious event that a president or government can carry its people into.

"This cheapens the sacrifice that American soldiers and their families are dealing with every single day."

More than 500 US soldiers have died in the war and thousands more have been injured.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was asked what he thought of this incident at a press conference on Friday, but he dodged the issue, saying that he couldn't comment as he hadn't been at the event.

Source

[]

Link to This Post

	:: DUG853		3/26/2004 01:53:00 AM

The Pledge of Allegiance

Why we're not one nation "under God."

By David Greenberg

Poor Alfred Goodwin! So torrential was the flood of condemnation that followed his opinion--which held that it's unconstitutional for public schools to require students to recite "under God" as part of the Pledge of Allegiance--that the beleaguered appellate-court judge suspended his own ruling until the whole 9th Circuit Court has a chance to review the case.

Not one major political figure summoned the courage to rebut the spurious claims that America's founders wished to make God a part of public life.

It's an old shibboleth of those who want to inject religion into public life that they're honoring the spirit of the nation's founders.

In fact, the founders opposed the institutionalization of religion.

They kept the Constitution free of references to God.

The document mentions religion only to guarantee that godly belief would never be used as a qualification for holding office--a departure from many existing state constitutions.

That the founders made erecting a church-state wall their first priority when they added the Bill of Rights to the Constitution reveals the importance they placed on maintaining what Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore have called a "godless Constitution."

When Benjamin Franklin proposed during the Constitutional Convention that the founders begin each day of their labors with a prayer to God for guidance, his suggestion was defeated.

Given this tradition, it's not surprising that the original Pledge of Allegiance--meant as an expression of patriotism, not religious faith--also made no mention of God.

The pledge was written in 1892 by the socialist Francis Bellamy, a cousin of the famous radical writer Edward Bellamy.

He devised it for the popular magazine Youth's Companion on the occasion of the nation's first celebration of Columbus Day.

Its wording omitted reference not only to God but also, interestingly, to the United States:

"I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

The key words for Bellamy were "indivisible," which recalled the Civil War and the triumph of federal union over states' rights, and "liberty and justice for all," which was supposed to strike a balance between equality and individual freedom.

By the 1920s, reciting the pledge had become a ritual in many public schools.

Since the founding, critics of America's secularism have repeatedly sought to break down the church-state wall.

After the Civil War, for example, some clergymen argued that the war's carnage was divine retribution for the founders' refusal to declare the United States a Christian nation, and tried to amend the Constitution to do so.

The efforts to bring God into the state reached their peak during the so-called "religious revival" of the 1950s.

It was a time when Norman Vincent Peale grafted religion onto the era's feel-good consumerism in his best-selling

The Power of Positive Thinking; when Billy Graham rose to fame as a Red-baiter who warned that Americans would perish in a nuclear holocaust unless they embraced Jesus Christ; when Secretary of State John Foster Dulles believed that the United States should oppose communism not because the Soviet Union was a totalitarian regime but because its leaders were atheists.

CONTINUE

[]

Link to This Post

Thursday, March 25, 2004

	:: DUG853		3/25/2004 08:45:00 PM

PROTECTING YOUR PRIVATES

Michael Ventura, Austin Chronicle

Americans have been led to believe that their medical histories would remain confidential.

Now, in a radical flip-flop, the Bush-Ashcroft Justice Department wants hospitals and clinics to turn over thousands of records.

CONTINUE

[]

Link to This Post

	:: Nora		3/25/2004 07:06:00 PM

Iraq a big joke to GW?

TomPaine.com
From The Dreyfuss Report

"So Iraq is a big joke to President Bush. The frat-boy president thinks that not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, at the cost of a nation ruined and tens of thousands killed, is a towel-snapping hoot.

"In perhaps the most tasteless display ever put on by a president, Bush made a funny out of Iraq at last night's Radio-TV Correspondents Association dinner. (No, I didn't go to that event. I haven't ever been to one of those yuck-yuck insider sessions ever, and I wouldn't go if I were invited, unless it were to investigate the participants.)

"Anyway, here is the account of Bush's supposedly hilarious appearance before the tuxedo-clad elite, from The Washington Post this morning:

'He [Bush] put up dorky looking pictures of himself. A recurring joke involved photos of the president in awkward positions -- bent over as if he's looking under a table, leaning to look out a window -- accompanied by remarks such as 'Those weapons of mass destruction must be somewhere!' and 'Nope, no weapons over there!' and 'Maybe under here?'

"That's funny? I wish the tape of the president cackling about his lies over Iraq could be broadcast on Iraqi TV. And maybe shown to the families of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq."

Source: tompaine.com/blog

[]

Link to This Post

	:: Nora		3/25/2004 06:40:00 PM

FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH -- Actions to Take to Make a Difference

From ActForChange
Contributed by Working Assets

Dr. Condoleezza Rice, Tell the American Public What You Know

The American people deserve to know the truth about 9/11, but National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice refuses to testify under oath before the 9/11 Commission.

Cabinet officials from the Bush and Clinton administrations are cooperating with the commission by testifying in detail under oath. However, the official in possibly the best position to shed light on decisions that may have contributed to the tragic events of September 11 would rather spin the situation in the media than help the independent bipartisan commission get to the bottom of a matter of crucial importance to all Americans.

Recent revelations by former White House counterterrorism official Richard Clarke raise troubling questions about the Bush administration's actions before and after September 11, 2001. But while Rice has found ample time in her busy schedule to make the morning talk show rounds for the purposes of attacking the former head of the National Security Council, she has refused repeated requests from the commission to testify in public and under oath.

Rice's refusal to tell Americans the truth about 9/11 is not a partisan issue. Reacting to Clarke's allegations, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) cautioned: "This is a serious book written by a serious professional who's made serious charges, and the White House must respond to these charges."

Call to action:

Click HERE and tell Condoleezza Rice to stop playing politics with the security of Americans and testify under oath before the independent bipartisan 9/11 Commission.

[]

Link to This Post

	:: Nora		3/25/2004 08:37:00 AM

[]

Link to This Post

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

	:: DUG853		3/24/2004 07:23:00 PM

Bush Administration Resorts to Lies About 9/11

With President Bush's former top counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke issuing well-documented criticisms of the White House's failure to defend America, the Administration has resorted to outright lies and distortions about its record.

The president himself once again tried to deflect criticism, saying "had my administration had any information that terrorists were going to attack New York City on September the 11'th - a statement designed to deflect attention from the specific warnings that he personally received outlining an imminent Al Qaeda attack that could involve hijacked planes being used as missiles4.

Here are four other explicit lies that the Administration has told over the last few days:

CONTINUE

[]

Link to This Post

Monday, March 22, 2004

	:: DUG853		3/22/2004 07:18:00 PM

Carter: Iraq War Based On Lies

Ex-President Says Bush, Blair Knew Intelligence 'Uncertain'

LONDON -- Former President Jimmy Carter says the Iraq war was based on lies.

Carter was quoted Monday by a British newspaper -- The Independent -- as saying the war was based on lies and poor intelligence about weapons of mass destruction. Carter said there was no reason to attack Saddam Hussein.

The former president had harsh words for President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, saying they "probably knew that many of the allegations were based on uncertain intelligence."

CONTINUE

[]

Link to This Post

	:: DUG853		3/22/2004 12:26:00 AM

Iraq Abuse Allegations Came From Military
By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Reports that led to charges against six U.S. soldiers accused of abusing detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison came from within the military, not from prisoner complaints, a senior U.S. military official said Sunday.

The soldiers, members of a military police unit, were charged Saturday with a range of crimes, including conspiracy, dereliction of duty, cruelty and maltreatment, assault and indecent acts with another person. The military said about 20 detainees at the prison on the western outskirts of Baghdad were involved.

The alleged offenses were committed in November and December and came to the attention of military authorities in January.

The soldiers belong to the U.S. Army's 800th Military Police Brigade, which operates 12 prisons across Iraq. Their names were not released.

CONTINUE

[]

Link to This Post

Sunday, March 21, 2004

	:: DUG853		3/21/2004 11:07:00 PM

Journo claims proof of WMD lies
By Paul Mulvey in London

"And it's unravelling in America and Bush could lose the election
next year. I've not seen political leaders survive when they've
been complicit in such an open deception for so long."


AUSTRALIAN investigative journalist John Pilger says he has evidence the war against Iraq was based on a lie that could cost George W. Bush and Tony Blair their jobs and bring Prime Minister John Howard down with them.

A television report by Pilger aired on British screens overnight said US Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice confirmed in early 2001 that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had been disarmed and was no threat.

But after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11 that year, Pilger claimed Rice said the US "must move to take advantage of these new opportunities" to attack Iraq and claim control of its oil.

Pilger uncovered video footage of Powell in Cairo on February 24, 2001 saying, "He (Saddam Hussein) has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbours."

Two months later, Rice reportedly said, "We are able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt."

Powell boasted this was because America's policy of containment and its sanctions had effectively disarmed Saddam.

Pilger claims this confirms that the decision of US President George W Bush - with the full support of British Prime Minister Blair and Howard - to wage war on Saddam because he had weapons of mass destruction was a huge deception.

CONTNUE

[]

Link to This Post

	:: DUG853		3/21/2004 01:03:00 AM

Data Base on Bush Administration Lies

Established by Rep. Waxman

"The Iraq on the Record Report, prepared at the request of Rep. Henry A. Waxman, is a comprehensive examination of the statements made by the five Administration officials most responsible for providing public information and shaping public opinion on Iraq:

President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

This database identifies 237 specific misleading statements about the threat posed by Iraq made by these five officials in 125 public appearances in the time leading up to and after the commencement of hostilities in Iraq."

CONTINUE

[]

Link to This Post