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 Wednesday, March 17, 2004
Memogate Update. MEMOGATE UPDATE....The Senate's sergeant at arms, Bill Pickle, has decided to refer his report about memo pilfering to the Justice Department for a possible criminal prosecution. The ringleader of the pilfering, Manuel Miranda, has insisted all along that he didn't... [Political Animal]
ANother republican on the block. They got Martha for this. Maybe this guy will be there shortly. But, of course, any prosecution will take place after the election, I am sure. And we can not comment on an ongoing investigation, right? this is the card they pulled for the Plame investigation. 11:50:50 PM 
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Now, About Those WMDs..... NOW, ABOUT THOSE WMDs....At the White House yesterday:Q Thank you, Mr. President. Candidate Kerry has suggested he has support of world leaders. Do you think he should -- that should be a factor in the campaign? Was that an appropriate... [Political Animal]
This is just great. Pot meet the Kettle. Frankly, how much US aid do you think any country that did want Kerry elected, and said so publically, would then lose? Rove plays hardball and everyone knows it. 11:49:22 PM
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Disconnect. The WaPo really has become like the WSJ - with those who write the editorial page failing to read the rest of the paper. On Spain:
MADRID, March 16 -- In the first frantic hours after coordinated bomb blasts ripped through several packed commuter trains Thursday morning, the government of outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar undertook an intense campaign to convince the Spanish public and world opinion-makers that the Basque separatist group ETA had carried out the attacks, which killed 201 people and wounded more than 1,500.
Beginning immediately after the blasts, Aznar and other officials telephoned journalists, stressing ETA's responsibility and dismissing speculation that Islamic extremists might be involved. Spanish diplomats pushed a hastily drafted resolution blaming ETA through the U.N. Security Council. At an afternoon news conference, when a reporter suggested the possibility of an al Qaeda connection, the interior minister, Angel Acebes, angrily denounced it as "a miserable attempt to disrupt information and confuse people."
"There is no doubt that ETA is responsible," Acebes said.
Within days, that assertion was in tatters, and with it the reputation and fortunes of the ruling party. Suspicion that the government manipulated information -- blaming ETA in order to divert any possible link between the bombings and Aznar's unpopular support for the war in Iraq -- helped fuel the upset victory of the Socialist Workers' Party in Sunday's elections. By then, Islamic extremists linked to al Qaeda had become the focus of the investigation.
Government officials insist that they never misled the public, and that they released in a timely manner all the information and evidence they had gathered. "We told the truth at all times to the Spanish people," Acebes said on Monday.
In retrospect, however, there were signs that the government was at least selective in releasing information about possible culprits. By 11 a.m. Thursday, police had already discovered an abandoned white van in Alcala de Henares -- a town where the bombed trains passed through -- containing seven detonators and a cassette tape containing verses of the Koran recited in Arabic, officials said later. Sources familiar with Spanish intelligence services said the CNI, the National Intelligence Center, had suspected al Qaeda from the beginning.
Click the link - there's more. It's about time a major American newspaper actually addressed these issues.
And, hey, warbloggers - thanks for pissing on the graves of the dead once again. [Eschaton]
While Eschaton may have more inflammatory comments that I might make, the link to the Washington Post article begins to delineate just how culpable the old government was in its own downfall. A democracy does not like being lied to amd misled by its elected officials. 11:24:39 PM
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More Spain. Even more truth trickling into US newspapers:
Voters said they were enraged not only by the government's insistence that the Basque separatist group ETA was responsible, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, but they also resented its clumsy attempts to quell antigovernment sentiment.... [Eschaton]
Read it all. The Spanish Administration misled its own people, trying to create the impression the Basques were the ones reesponsible for the bombings when the government already had doubts. This is because of its fears for the political raminications if the bombing was done by Islamic fundamentalists. It was only through the pressure of independant people that the government even admitted anything differently. The wrath of a people misled and lied to is what changed governments in Spain, not al-Queda! Who knew that another country had an Adminstration so similar to ours. 11:15:11 PM
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Bush's anti-woman isolationism. Here's an article from Planetwire, forwarded from a friend who prefaces it by saying: "In case you were on the fence about who to vote for..." New York City: This week the Bush Administration sought to reverse historic agreements that have significantly contributed to advancing the rights, economic status and health of the world[base ']s women. The United States was the only country to reverse long-standing support of the historic agreements reached in Cairo in 1994 and Beijing in 1995. [base "]This is a devastating blow to women around the world. The actions of the Bush Administration means more women will... [Joho the Blog]
We used to be a leader in the rights of women around the world. Now we are the only country to reject a resolution of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women that "condemned violent acts as the consequences of hostage taking, in particular, torture, murder, rape, slavery, and trafficking in women and children." It called "for the immediate release of women and children taken hostage in armed conflict." And we rejected it. This Adminstration continues to isolate us in the eyes of the world. Instead of the isolationist policies of the Republicans of 50 years ago (i.e. we just hole up in our little part of the world) we are getting the new isolationism (i.e. the loneliness of a bully). Funny how bullies never have many friends.
For those who want to know, here is the vote: In favour: Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, China, Congo, Croatia, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Germany, Guatemala, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, South Africa, Sudan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom.
Against: United States.
Abstain: None.
Absent: Gabon, Malaysia, United Republic of Tanzania. 10:51:51 PM
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More information that demonstrates how this Administration will mislead members of its own party in order to win. Nothing else matters. They interpret laws and regulations for their own purposes and ignore anything that would prevent them from gaining as much power as possible. Deliberately misleading Congress is such a habit with these guys. They lied aout Iraq, about WMDs, about the economy and now about Medicare. Remember, they all started doing it with Iran-Contra and have only been honing their skills since. They have never had any respect for the Legislative side of the government. Their contempt will eventually bring them to grief but could cause tremendous problems until then. 10:37:50 PM
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The same county that brought us the Scopes Monkey trial now wants to charge homosexuals with crimes against Nature. They also want to find a way to prevent gays from living in the county. The Scopes trial was a publicity stunt but this seems far more odious. This is something right out of the 19th Century. The actions of this Administration (see below) only serve to strengthen this sort of bigotry against our fellow citizens. This is America, where no governmental body should even want to prevent ANY citizen from living anywhere in the US. That these morons do is an insult to morons. This should be slapped down as hard as possible by any sane person in the government.
Doing a little checking online, one can find out that in a county of 28,400 people, 27,097 are white, 580 are African American and 10 are Polynesians (How did they get there?). So the county has already done a pretty good job getting rid of anyone who does not fit. I wonder how many are first cousins. All in all, a good reason to stay clear of Tennessee. 10:22:26 PM
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What a great country this Administration is giving us. Not only can gays not live happily ever after, they can be fired from the federal government simply for being gay, because their sexual orientation is no longer covered by civil rights rules. This new interpretation, going against all previous ones back to 1980, is the result of a recent political appointee. They can't be fired a minority but they can fire someone for being gay. But since no one can really tell, only those who tell can be fired. I guess that if they would just stay in the closet, stay in their place, then everything would be alright.
The interesting thing here is that he said they could not be fired for their behavior, such as attending a gay rights rally, but could be fired for simply being gay. Bloch said he does not believe it is correct to equate conduct based on sexual orientation with sexual orientation itself. He is separating behavior from sexual orientation. But if homosexuality is not a behavior, if it is not the manner in which they conduct sex, what is it? Is this what we want, a world where someone can be fired for being out of the closet? Where the possibility that you might be labeled gay could lose you your job, with no recourse? That someone's bigotry would have the sanction of the state? This is just wrong! another example of being a divider and not a uniter. 9:49:37 PM
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I need a spell checker and a good editor sometimes. Or, more to the point, I need to use my spellchecker and reread what I write sometimes. I hate going back and reading something I wrote a week or more before and finding all sorts of errors. It usually happens when I am working late at night or am on a ranting roll. When I get the fever up, I just DON'T have the time to do simple error checking. But it is a problem when I check later and find i used 'guts' instead of 'guys' (At least the 't' key is next to the 'y' key and spell checking would not have picked this up, but still...) I'll try to do better in the future but don't hold your breath. 8:51:03 AM
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