licentious radio

Friday, September 5, 2003
[3:18:10 PM]

"The president goes around the country speaking Spanish. The only Spanish he speaks when it comes to jobs is hasta la vista." --John Edwards

[11:55:16 AM]

Twin reversals this week! Bush went begging to the United "irrelevant" Nations for help with the Iraq debacle/quagmire/catastrophe. The he abandoned his stupidest North Korea ploy -- in the face of North Korean intransigence.

Does America love a loser?

The problem for Bush/Rove on Iraq is that all the hate-mongering rhetoric toward France and Germany won't convince them to put *their* children in harms way instead of ours. And why the heck would they help pay for the catastrophe when they were opposed to it in the first place? To help get Bush elected? Just say 'non'!

The problem is that in both Iraq and North Korea, Bush has created disasters that we could have avoided easily, but that will be hugely difficult to correct -- if it's even possible to undo the damage Bush has caused up until now.

There was no urgency to invade Iraq. We could have waited until we had a plan for stability and security immeidately after the invasion, and broad international military and financial support. Certainly it turns out that the invasion was unwarranted with respect to immediate danger from so-called WMD or terrorist ties. It's entirely possible that with the support of the entire United Nations, we could have achieved regime change without invasion, though, of course we'll never know.

North Korea needed attention from the first day of the Bush administration. Rather than provoking North Korea, we should have continued Clinton's policy of aggressively engaaging with them to make sure they didn't build nuclear weapons. The dire need was to prevent them from building weapons. Bush failed utterly, miserably, despicably. Bush betrayed the security of this nation -- perhaps only out of hubris, but it certainly *looks* like Bush intended to provoke North Korea.

[11:32:16 AM]
"Would you like some freedom fries with your crow, Mr. President (sic)?" --Gary Kamiya

[11:29:30 AM]
Time Magazine's article on Posner's book, Why America Slept provides the key details of Saudi complicity with Bin Laden.

It's widely known that Saudi Arabia paid Osama Bin Laden. The official line is that Bin Laden was paid so that he would postpone terrorist activities during the First Bush Gulf War, and later so that he would do his terrorism elsewhere.

But paying a terrorist at all is bad, and the motive is questionable. Was it really a sort of blackmail, or did the Saudis -- some or many -- *want* to support Bin Laden. The evidence is that Bin Laden had widespread support in the Saudi ruling family, including among the most powerful members.

Bottom line: the Saudi ruling family bankrolled the terrorists who attacked us repeatedly, including the September 11 attacks.

Is it about time for regime change in Saudi Arabia?

And if it turns out that Bush was protecting the Saudis, and that those protections left us vulnerable to the attacks, isn't it *more* than time for regime change here?

[11:12:59 AM]
"Cover-up" is a loaded, incendiary term. Rightly so.

We have conclusive proof of the Bush administration cover-up of their role in making the infamous September 11 attacks successful.

We have proof that Rice, for example, lied repeatedly when she said things like "no one could have predicted...."

The Bush administration pattern of secrecy, stone-walling, and cover-up is in full view with respect to the September 11 investigations.

We look forward to the Democratic nominee for president knocking Bush around for the cover-up. Since the cover-up is documented fact, Rove will have to try to distract. But we expect a strong candidate will get the message through. You can only fool *some* of the people all of the time.

During the campaign, the Democratic nominee should promise a complete investigation and public accounting of what worked and didn't work. FBI headquarters personnel who thwarted investigations will have to explain themselves fully, including who (if anyone) ordered them to block the investigations. Under Bush, some of these FBI people received presidential citations and large cash bonuses. Somebody has some explaining to do for that, as well.

We believe Bush has been an utter disaster for this nation, and that a Democrat with the guts to call him on it -- and fight through Rove's dirty tricks -- will prevail easily.