bush

Secret post 9/11 Flight?

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On 9/12/2001 many of my family members were getting into cars to drive many miles to a funeral service. The airports were closed. But were they? According to this article:

Members of Osama bin Laden’s family were allowed to fly out of the US shortly after the September 11 terror attacks, a senior official has said.
Even though American airspace had been shut down, the Bush administration allowed a jet to fly around the US picking up family members from 10 cities, including Los Angeles, Washington DC, Boston and Houston.
Some 140 high ranking Saudi officials were also on the plane.

The apparent source for this is Richard Clark the former White House counter-terrorism chief.
I hope this turns out to be false.
Via Skippy.

Taking on ashcroft’s campaign

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The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights filets an August 19th ashcroft speech.
ashcroft also announced a Patiot Act propaganda site: preserving life & liberty. blargblog took some issue with the campaign:

Angered by the ACLU’s lawsuit against what they consider the PATRIOT Act’s “radical expansion” of surveillance powers, the Ashcroftians have targeted three main ACLU claims as myths: 1) the suppression of political dissent through intimidation, 2) the surveillance of library usage and 3) the “sneek and peek” provision delaying notification of surveillance skirts the Fourth Ammendment. Go read it for yourself to see if you can spot gaping holes in the DOJ’s collective memory or some fine legal points it deliberately elides.

The Angry Bear found Dave Ross‘ defense of the patriot act wanting.
For a view supporting the patriot act from a philosophical perspective take a look at at David Veksler’s posts here and here.
Via beSpacific.

fuzzy words drive fuzzy policy

This entry was posted in al Qaeda bush Iraq US Foreign Policy War on Terrorism on by

When looking for the answer to a complex problem it is often the simplest that provides the most clarity. Eugene Oregon, responding to a Postrel post, provides a pretty simple answer to why the US invaded Iraq:

Thus, the simplest explanation for why we started this war is because the neo-cons wanted to. And September 11th just gave them a convenient excuse to do so.

While he is probably correct about why we started the war Eugene does not really address the question that Postrel

But Bush’s vagueness is maddening to people who are paying attention and confusing to people who aren’t.

and Josh Marshall are talking about:

But the White House is being run by men and women who’ve already made a lot of really stupid mistakes that are going to cost a lot of American lives, money and credibility. And now they’re trying to hide from accountability in their own idiot abstractions.

Not only can they hide from accountability but they can also forge ahead with their agenda for as long as they are able to fool enough people with fuzziness. If there is no tangible enemy there does not have to be a tangible end to the fight and this may be exactly what the bushies want.

supporting the troops

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

the antic muse has been listening to Rush on our behalf again:

Rush Limbaugh spotlights the heartwarming (and ass-cooling) story of how voluntary donations are our military’s real secret weapon

and comes to this conclusion:

Aside from bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase, “all volunteer army,” Rush seems to suggest that the next time a soldier runs low on something the armed forces should have “totally covered,” mom should send him a new one: “Dear Mike, I’ve enclosed your little sister’s new class picture, the latest Limp Biskit CD, some of those brownies you like, and, oh yes, a brand new automatic assault rifle. Kill the bastards, sweetie!”
I don’t know about you, but this perspective on military readiness frankly scares the shit out of me.

But it is about what one expect’s from rush and the bushies. Oh, and given the plentiful electricity in Iraq just what power source will they be using for the AC?