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Monday, June 2, 2003 |
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction (as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one reason everyone could agree on."
- - Paul Wolfowitz, Vanity Fair interview, May 28, 2003
JUNE 2nd IN HISTORY:
1989 - - 10,000 Chinese soldiers are blocked by 100,000 citizens protecting students demonstrating for democracy in Tienanmen Square, Beijing.
RHINO HERE:
In place of my words, today I give you a sampling of words from various members of the shrub gang, sampled from a collection posted at the excellent blog known as "billmon".
"What a Tangled Web We Weave" Posted at billmon.org 5/31/03
http://billmon.org/archives/2003_05.html
"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." - - Dick Cheney, Speech to VFW National Convention, August 26, 2002
"We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more." - - Colin Powell, Remarks to UN Security Council, February 5, 2003
"We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have." - - George W. Bush , Radio Address, February 8, 2003
"Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly . . . all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes." - - Ari Fleisher, Press Briefing, March 21, 2003
"There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. And . . . as this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them." - - Gen. Tommy Franks, Press Conference, March 22, 2003
"I have no doubt we're going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction." - - Defense Policy Board member Kenneth Adelman, Washington Post, p. A27, March 23, 2003
"One of our top objectives is to find and destroy the WMD. There are a number of sites." - - Pentagon Spokeswoman Victoria Clark, Press Briefing, March 22, 2003
"We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." - - Donald Rumsfeld, ABC Interview, March 30, 2003
"Obviously the administration intends to publicize all the weapons of mass destruction U.S. forces find -- and there will be plenty." - - Neocon scholar Robert Kagan, Washington Post op-ed, April 9, 2003
"I'm absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We're just getting it just now." - - Colin Powell, Remarks to Reporters, May 4, 2003
"U.S. officials never expected that "we were going to open garages and find" weapons of mass destruction." - - Condoleeza Rice, Reuters Interview, May 12, 2003
"I just don't know whether it was all destroyed years ago -- I mean, there's no question that there were chemical weapons years ago -- whether they were destroyed right before the war, (or) whether they're still hidden." - - Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, Commander 101st Airborne, Press Briefing, May 13, 2003
"Before the war, there's no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical. I expected them to be found. I still expect them to be found. " - - Gen. Michael Hagee, Commandant of the Marine Corps, Interview with Reporters, May 21, 2003
"Given time, given the number of prisoners now that we're interrogating, I'm confident that we're going to find weapons of mass destruction." - - Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, NBC Today Show interview, May 26, 2003
"They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer." - - Donald Rumsfeld, Remarks to Council on Foreign Relations, May 27, 2003
"It was a surprise to me then - it remains a surprise to me now - that we have not uncovered weapons, as you say, in some of the forward dispersal sites. Believe me, it's not for lack of trying. We've been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they're simply not there." - - Lt. Gen. James Conway, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, Press Interview, May 30, 2003
"Do I think we're going to find something? Yeah, I kind of do, because I think there's a lot of information out there." - - Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton, Defense Intelligence Agency, Press Conference, May 30, 2003
Rhino counts himself fortunate to have a real honest to goodness government representative as his Congressman. Representative Henry Waxman is bulldogging the Pentagon as all real representatives of the people should be when the military is spending a million U.S. Taxpayer dollars a minute. I urge anyone who's as grateful as I am to the Congressman ,to give his office a call and tell him what a great job he's doing. Phone (202) 225-3976
Today's BOTTOM LINE is an article in Government Executive Magazine that chronicles Waxman's efforts to hold the shrub administration accountable.
7:35:16 AM 
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RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE
Tilting at the Pentagon
By George C. Wilson, National Journal, Published in Government Executive Magazine, 5/27/03
Rep. Henry Waxman of California, ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee and a bulldog the Bush White House loves to hate, has sunk his teeth into the Pentagon for the first time. He told National Journal that partly because no one else is willing to, he is taking on the world's biggest enterprise, the Defense Department, which now spends almost $1 million a minute.
Never in his 28 years in Congress has the legislative branch been so soft on a president, Waxman lamented. In saying that, he conceded that his own Democratic Party seems to have lost its voice. But he expressed hope that Democrats will get it back once they pick a presidential candidate to challenge George W. Bush in 2004.
If it weren't for his success in tackling such other giant enterprises as Big Tobacco and the drug industry, Waxman's tilting at the Teflon-like Bush administration might be dismissed as another futile charge by a legislative Don Quixote. But the record shows that Waxman is no lightweight. He has a reputation for persistence, and he keeps asking questions until he gets what he considers satisfactory answers.
"I thought Henry's first name was `Sonuvabitch,' " says Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., recalling his early days of working with Waxman in the House. Waxman, 63, is getting started on the Pentagon by asking Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld this question: Why are you giving Vice President Cheney's old company, Halliburton, a $7 billion, no-bid contract to help rebuild Iraq when the oil and gas giant has worked in terrorist states and has run up big cost overruns on previous government contracts?
"I take the oversight responsibility of Congress seriously," said Waxman in what tobacco executives and other witnesses who have appeared before him might consider an understatement. Giving Halliburton such a huge noncompetitive contract after it was found in the 1990s to be "routinely overcharging the government just struck me as a very odd situation, so I decided to get involved," Waxman said...
THE REST IS POSTED AT:
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0503/05273db.htm
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6:52:20 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.
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