bush

bush’s WMDs

This entry was posted in bush Domestic Terrorism Iraq War on Terrorism on by

Some folks had expectations that David Kay would present his report on IRAQI WMDs in September. If he did deliver a report it apparently was not adequate and he is back working in Iraq. The current timetable? Whenever he gets the truth:

HUME: What do you say to the notion — you’re beginning to hear it more and more now — that actually he got rid of them but he didn’t want his neighbors to know that, you see, because he wanted to be able to continue to intimidate them? What do you say to that?
BUSH: I think, like I said, be patient. The truth will be out. I told David Kay to go find the truth and to bring back reports based upon his own timetable that are solid reports about what he has found. We’re analyzing miles and miles of documentation, we’re interviewing all kinds of people in Iraq. Some of the famous cards in the deck of cards, and just average citizens who are bringing information.
We’ve been there for about four months. And David is spending a great deal of time learning the truth. And the truth — we’ll find out the truth.

For some value of truth. What does w believe the truth is:

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campaign fundraising racket

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bush is busy gathering funds into his campaign treasury. This WaPO article talks about it and Skimble summarizes one aspect of it like this::

So if you are a supplier or subcontractor of Merrill Lynch’s, you would undoubtedly be “receptive” to Merrill Lynch’s suggestion that you donate to Bush-Cheney 2004 in the same way that any supplier of Tony Soprano’s would be to a request for contributions to his pet political cause. They call it “bundling” – we call it “extortion.”
It’s only 2003, and already Merrill Lynch has loosened $265,000 from its network. Imagine what they’ll come up with next year.

This process is not unique to bush and his cronies. The whole election process seems to have devolved to an issue of who can be bought buy the most votes rather then who is most qualified to serve the citizens. Skimble also wonders why a firm that aided and abetted Enron has not met a fate closer to that of Arthur Anderson:

Merrill Lynch has cut a deal that ensures it will not meet the same fate as the scapegoat firm of Arthur Andersen, which acted not only as Enron’s auditor, but also Halliburton’s while Dick Cheney was CEO. Killing two birds with one stone, as it were. Under the politico-plutocratic logic of the Bush administration, Andersen the auditor was dispensable; Merrill Lynch the wealth manager is not

This is a good question and I wonder just how many other similar cooked deals are waiting to see the light of day.

What does the truth mean?

This entry was posted in bush on by

Skippy suggests that this is the reason bush has told the truth about saddam and 9/11.
Really, I’m not holding my breath for any more truth. He needs to establish a consistent new pattern for this to mean much. And, with rummie, rice and mcclellan working hard to revise history I don’t think we will see the pattern:

White House spokesman Scott McClellan reiterated to reporters yesterday that the administration never directly linked Saddam to the Sept. 11 strikes.
“If you’re talking specifically about the September 11th attacks, we never made that claim,” McClellan said.

As you will see below this is not quite true.
Rantavision posits that bush may be getting ready to cut out cheney:

The other interesting thing is that in distancing himself from Cheney, Bush might be paving the way for cutting him loose from the ’04 ticket, letting him take the blame, and picking up a Powell (or someone else equally outside of the Chaney/Rumsfeld/Wolfwitz camp) for VP?

And points us to The Left Coaster who believes that bush in admitting this has provided grounds for his own impeachment:

The failure to find any imminent WMD threat has now negated Article 1 of the rationale Bush used above. Today he says he has no evidence that Saddam was involved in September 11(when on March 18 he says he did have such evidence), which then negates Article 2 of his legislatively-required justification for war as outlined under PL 107-243.

The Left Coaster is referring to the letter bush sent to the Speaker of the House justifying his authorization of the invasion. Best to go read the entire post but I have copied the justification letter into the extended entry section if you just want a quick look:

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Checking up on You

This entry was posted in bush Constitution Domestic Terrorism Law Libertarianism on by

This has the potential to put to make Hoover’s files and the FBI’s ’60s files look like childs play.

(12) The TTIC identities database, and the FBI’s database containing Purely Domestic Terrorism Information, will incorporate, to the extent permitted by law, available biometric dta, including data on persons who even if otherwise unidentified are known or appropriately suspected to be or have been involved in activities constituting, inpreparation for, in aid of, or related to terrorism.

It was just a week ago that we were talking about rummie describing the opposition as “encouraging Washington’s enemies.” That certainly reads similar to ‘in aid of’ in the above paragraph.
The administration seems intent on getting its database on everyone up and running no matter the oppostion. And if you think it will not impact you because you haven’t done anything wrong, well, you are wrong.
1) To help them identify potential bad people they need an inclusive database. They need to have your data before you turn bad if they are going to quickly spot you before you do a bad thing.
2) Using the rummie rule I’m probably a candidate on the basis of this post alone let alone others. Think about how you fit into the bushies scheme of things.
Wake up and just say no! Now!
Via Talkleft.

Late Night Reading

This entry was posted in bush Constitution Economics Intellectual Property Late Night Reads on by

More D-Squared. This time on the microprobabily of micropayments. Which leads to:
Micropayments: First Clay Shirky and then Scott McCloud.
Reading Update (9/18): Kip, Longstory; shortpier, thinks micropayments for the right stuff will fly and suggests we also read Dirk Keppey’s supportive discussion at The Comics Journal.
Brian at Samizdata writes at leeennnnggth to suggest we all check out the new blog from the Adam Smith Institute. It may seem too free market for some but if they adhere to free market principles they will be an anathema to bush, et al.
Good Night!