Take Back The Media!

Yahoo! News - Panel Presses for Rice's Public Testimony: Commissioner John Lehman, another Republican, said Rice 'has nothing to hide, and yet this is creating the impression for honest Americans all over the country and people all over the world that the White House has something to hide, that Condi Rice has something to hide.'
'And if they do, we sure haven't found it. There are no smoking guns. That's what makes this so absurd. It's a political blunder of the first order,' Lehman told ABC's 'This Week.'

-AND HE'S OUR PRESIDENT!!!

White House Whitewash - [Sunday Herald]

join the party party

Neither Silent Nor a Public Witness (washingtonpost.com): "Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage contradicted Rice's claim that the White House had a strategy before 9/11 for military operations against al Qaeda and the Taliban; the CIA contradicted Rice's earlier assertion that Bush had requested a CIA briefing in the summer of 2001 because of elevated terrorist threats; and Rice's assertion this week that Bush told her on Sept. 16, 2001, that 'Iraq is to the side' appeared to be contradicted by an order signed by Bush on Sept. 17 directing the Pentagon to begin planning military options for an invasion of Iraq.
Rice, in turn, has contradicted Vice President Cheney's assertion that Clarke was 'out of the loop' and his intimation that Clarke had been demoted. Rice has also given various conflicting accounts. She criticized Clarke for being the architect of failed Clinton administration policies, but also said she retained Clarke so the Bush administration could continue to pursue Clinton's terrorism policies. "

Guardian Unlimited Film | Features | Christ, you know it ain't easy: "the director has concocted a film so festive in its lurid, graphic, semi-pornographic, homoerotic violence that not even the most bloodthirsty film-goer could complain about failing to get his money's worth"

Salon.com News | "We should have had orange or red-type of alert in June or July of 2001": "Referring to the Homeland Security Department's color-coded warnings instituted in the wake of 9/11, the former translator, Sibel Edmonds, told Salon, 'We should have had orange or red-type of alert in June or July of 2001. There was that much information available.' Edmonds is offended by the Bush White House claim that it lacked foreknowledge of the kind of attacks made by al-Qaida on 9/11. 'Especially after reading National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice [Washington Post Op-Ed on March 22] where she said, we had no specific information whatsoever of domestic threat or that they might use airplanes. That's an outrageous lie. And documents can prove it's a lie.' "

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Zawahiri tape taunts Pakistanis: "'We have plunged into a war which has no end,' said Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of an Islamist coalition that backs Mr Musharraf."

Whether or not the tape is authentic, can there be any doubt that when Colin Powell, two days ago, described Musharraf as a partner in a US "crusade," his purpose was to provoke terrorism or revolt within Pakistan, allowing an expanded US military presence there? 'Crusade' re-enters US lexicon on war Whatever might be said about Bush's use of the word two years ago, Powell is not known for spectacularly ill-considered use of language.

Arms-Control Group Says U.S. Inflated Libya's Nuclear Bid "The administration has distorted what was found in Libya"
You remember this story, we blogged it in January: Libya never got nuclear programme off the ground, say diplomats

Asteroid Scare Prompts NASA to Formalize Response: "For now, there is no established chain of command to the White House in relation to possible asteroid impacts, nor is there any plan for what government agencies should do regarding possible evacuations or emergency preparations."

City Pages: Karl Rove's Moment: "What no one expected was that the worst damage would be inflicted by the White House's own hand."

Government Executive Magazine - 3/24/04 Sept. 11 commission cites intelligence agency failures: "A former FBI translator said Wednesday that the bureau had 'real, specific' information relating to the Sept. 11 attacks before they happened. Sibel Edmonds worked for the agency working from Sept. 20, 2001 to March 2002.
Edmonds said she was hired to retranslate material that was collected prior to Sept. 11 to determine if anything was missed in the translations that related to the plot. In her review, Edmonds said the documents clearly showed that the Sept. 11 hijackers were in the country and plotting to use airplanes as missiles. The documents also included information relating to their financial activities."

The Ratings Mirage: "neither cable news stations nor Nielsen Media Research are primarily in the business of serving the public interest--both are in the business of delivering audiences to advertisers."

Kerry Gets Boost From Surprising Sources (washingtonpost.com): "Kerry's presidential campaign is getting an unexpected boost from an unlikely bunch: former Bush administration officials and congressional Republicans."

Kucinich for President 2004 - Press Release: "Disclosure That Administration Manufactured Crisis to Invade Iraq No Surprise"

Statement -- March 21, 2004

Democracy Now! | The Peace Candidate: Kucinich Vows to Stay in Race

Priorities! -- Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities

News "a war based on lies and misinterpretations from London and from Washington"

State voting worries persist: "[A]ccording to a position paper prepared by the association [of Supervisors of Elections,] 'The issue of creating a paper trail for each voter is unnecessary except to eliminate the paranoia of the critics of these systems.'"

OrlandoSentinel.com: Elections: " 'We showed them our tickets and said we have the right of any other citizen to hear what our president has to say. And they said, 'If you don't leave, we're going to have to arrest you.' "

Mercury News | 03/20/2004 | Iraq invasion protested: "I bought into the whole rationale for the war, that there were weapons of mass destruction,'' Lyons said. "Now the whole thing disgusts me. I've come to believe that President Bush is the most dangerous man on the planet."

The Salt Lake Tribune -- Department memo told park heads to spin cuts

Op-Ed Columnist: Taken for a Ride: "So if the Bush administration were really concerned about maintaining a united front against terrorism, all it would have to do is drop its my-way-or-the-highway approach. But it won't."

TAP: Web Feature: Allies Axed. by Tara McKelvey. March 17, 2004.: "The message is: If you want to get re-elected, don't go to Crawford. Bush is a political liability -- in Europe, in particular. His foreign policy has trampled on the European views and it's now resulting in the election of governments that do not support his approach."

The Spokesman-Review.com - Bush's partial history The White House documents do show that Bush's military job description, called an Air Force Specialty Code, or AFSC, was listed as ‘‘1125D, pilot, fighter interceptor.”
Bush's pilot code was among those covered by Air Force Regulation 35-99, a previously undisclosed document recently obtained by The Spokesman-Review. Regulation 35-99 contains an extensive explanation of the Human Reliability Program.
Human reliability regulations were used to screen military personnel for their mental, physical and emotional fitness before granting them access to nuclear weapons and delivery systems.
Under the rules, pilots could be removed immediately from the cockpit for HRP issues, which happened in the 1974 Washington Air National Guard case. The two Washington airmen were suspended on suspicion of drug use, but eventually received honorable discharges.

"Unknown Soldier" Speaks Out To Bring Troops Home: "Q: Are the men and women in the U.S. military in Iraq sufficiently trained before going over there?
A: No. I am extremely concerned about the major shift that is taking place right now, between now and June, where there's going to be a much higher percentage of the troops being Reserves rather than full-time, active duty military. The difference is that the active duty go through far more training than Reserves."

St. Patrick, Rid Us Of These Snakes!: "No Republican gathering, from a fund-raiser to a Bush cabinet meeting to duck hunting with a Supreme Court justice, can be held without the blessing and imprimatur of the Almighty. "

Al-Ahram Weekly | OPINION | Clerical credentials: "When sects abound in a country lacking plural democracy, men of religion become communal spokesman, supplanting political plurality....Theirs become the final word for a factional identity that has nothing to do with the profound understanding of religious law....The stature is born of circumstance, stimulated by the collapse of civil society groups."

Iraq on the Record

Ballot mistake clouds election outcome - newarkadvocate.com

The Daytona Beach News-Journal: East Volusia: "So last week's election was the second Florida election this year that developed a kink despite low turnout."

Greenspan Shifts View on Deficits: "On Monday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office published new calculations showing that the budget deficit now stems almost entirely from tax cuts and spending increases rather than from lingering effects of the economic slowdown. "

Op-Ed Columnist: Weak on Terror: "Some of the administration's actions have been so strange that those who reported them were initially accused of being nutty conspiracy theorists."

KRT Wire | 03/15/2004 | Iraqi exile group fed news media false information: "Feeding the information to the news media, as well as to selected administration officials and members of Congress, helped foster an impression that there were multiple sources of intelligence on Iraq's illicit weapons programs and links to bin Laden.
In fact, many of the allegations came from the same half-dozen defectors, weren't confirmed by other intelligence and were hotly disputed by intelligence professionals at the CIA, the Defense Department and the State Department.
Nevertheless, U.S. officials and others who supported a pre-emptive invasion quoted the allegations in statements and interviews without running afoul of restrictions on classified information or doubts about the defectors' reliability."

The Miami Herald | 03/16/2004 | Miami soldier resists: 'This war is evil': 'I am not against the military. The military has been my family,'' said Mejia, 28. ``My commanders are not evil but this war is evil. I did not sign up for the military to go halfway around the world to be an instrument of oppression.''

Memo highlights Speaker's many new enemies - newarkadvocate.com: "We just kept looking around at each other like cows looking at a new gate."

Federal Times Online: Unpaid Halliburton subcontractor threatens to end hot meals for troops. "I just want to get paid," says this patriot.

MSNBC - Avoiding attacking suspected terrorist mastermind: "People were more obsessed with developing the coalition to overthrow Saddam than to execute the president's policy of preemption against terrorists."

OrlandoSentinel.com: Entertainment: "$1.4 billion flowed from the House of Saud to the Bush family and their interests.
So how much influence does this $1.4 billion buy?"

KR Washington Bureau | 03/14/2004 | Families of slain troops join antiwar protest outside Dover air base: "You will not end terrorism by invading a country"

Missteps on Economy Worry Bush Supporters (washingtonpost.com): "Clearly, the machinery's not working very well"

News: "Washington has been channelling hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund the political opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez - including those who briefly overthrew the democratically elected leader in a coup two years ago."

AP Wire | 03/12/2004 | PERSPECTIVE: Kucinich still could be factor in presidential race

GRAND THEFT AMERICA

KR Washington Bureau: "The government's top expert on Medicare costs was warned that he would be fired if he told the truth."

Yahoo! News - Rob Rogers

AlterNet: Culture War May Find WMDs

Study Faults Media Coverage of WMD: "Many stories stenographically reported the incumbent administration's perspectives on WMD, giving too little critical examination of the way officials framed the events, issues, threats and policy options."

TAP: Web Feature: Plugging Leaks. by Murray S. Waas. March 8, 2004.: "Rove and other White House officials described to the FBI what sources characterized as an aggressive campaign to discredit Wilson through the leaking and disseminating of derogatory information regarding him and his wife to the press, utilizing proxies such as conservative interest groups and the Republican National Committee to achieve those ends, and distributing talking points to allies of the administration on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. Rove is said to have named at least six other administration officials who were involved in the effort to discredit Wilson. "

The Unofficial Paul Krugman Web Page: " What you see in this chart is the signature of a corrupted policy process, in which political propaganda takes the place of professional analysis"

Bruce Yurgil's Political Velocity

HoustonChronicle.com - Hines: GOP learns Bush, gasp, is the problem: when the tremor struck Monday (on the evening news) and the strong aftershocks continued Tuesday (in the morning newspapers), the party seemed astonished at the real cause of their prescient unease: President Bush

KR Washington Bureau: "In building the case for war, Bush, Cheney and other top officials relied in part on assessments by the CIA and other agencies. But they concealed disputes and dissents over Iraq's weapons programs and links to terrorists that were raging among analysts, U.S. diplomats and military officials.
They also used exaggerated and fabricated information from defectors and former Iraqi exile groups that was fed directly into Cheney's office and the Pentagon. Those groups included the Iraqi National Congress, whose leader, Ahmad Chalabi, was close to hawks around Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and the White House, but who was distrusted by the CIA and the State Department"

Racial profiling will be eased, Ridge promises - www.smh.com.auBut only for non-citizens.

7,000 Orange County Voters Were Given Bad Ballots : "In 21 precincts where the problem was most acute, there were more ballots cast than registered voters....an exact account of miscast ballots is impossible."

The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Editorials: "It was never a question of whether, but of how President Bush would use the graveyards of Sept. 11 to season his re-election campaign."

The Pentagon's Secret Scream

Scalia Addressed Advocacy Group Before Key Decision :"After Scalia accepted the invitation [to speak at the religious group's fund-raising dinner], Supreme Court staff contacted [the group's founder] to make the justice's appearance conditional on the understanding that the dinner could not make a profit. To satisfy the court staff, Devlin said he assured them that any money from the dinner...would be refunded to guests. But, Devlin said, that turned out to be unnecessary. According to Devlin, the event made no money... 'It was a wash,' he said, adding that the bill for the open bar was higher than expected."

The New Yorker
March 5, 2004
Studio Script Notes on "The Passion"
Steve Martin

Dear Mel,

We love, love the script! The ending works great. You'll be
getting a call from us to start negotiations for the book rights.

Love the Jesus character. So likable. He can't seem to catch a break!
We identify with him because of it. One thing: I think we need to
clearly state "the rules." Why doesn't he use his superpowers to save
himself? Our creative people suggest that you could simply cut away to
two spectators:

SPECTATOR ONE
Why doesn't he use his superpowers to save himself?

SPECTATOR TWO
He can only use his powers to help others, never himself.

Does it matter which garden? Gethsemane is hard to say, and Eden is a
much more recognizable garden. Just thinking out loud.

Our creative people suggest a clock visual fading in and out in certain
scenes, like the Last Supper bit: "Thursday, 7:43 P.M.," or "Good
Friday, 5:14 P.M."

Love the repetition of "Is it I?" Could be very funny. On the eighth
inquiry, could Jesus just give a little look of exasperation into the
camera? Breaks frame, but could be a riot.

Also, could he change water into wine in Last Supper scene? Would be a
great moment, and it's legit. History compression is a movie tradition
and could really brighten up the scene. Great trailer moment, too.

Love the flaying.

Could the rabbis be Hispanic? There's lots of hot Latino actors now,
could give us a little zing at the box office. Research says there's
some historical justification for it.

Possible title change: "Lethal Passion." Kinda works. The more I say it
out loud, the more I like it.

Is there someplace where Jesus could be using an iBook? You know, now
that I say it, it sounds ridiculous. Strike that. But think about it.
Maybe we start a shot in Heaven with Jesus thoughtfully closing the top?

Love the idea of Monica Bellucci as Mary Magdalene (yow!). Our creative
people suggest a name change to Heather. Could skew our audience a
little younger.

Love Judas. Such a great villain. Our creative people suggest that he's
a little complicated. Couldn't he be one thing? Just bad? Gives the
movie much more of a motor. Also, thirty pieces of silver is not going
to get anyone excited. I think it'd be very simple to make him a "new
millionaire." Bring in the cash on a tray. Great dilemma that the
audience can identify with.

Minor spelling error: on page 18, in the
description of the bystanders, there should be a space between the words
"Jew" and "boy."

Merchandising issue: it seems the Cross image Has been done to death
and is public domain?we can't own it. Could the Crucifixion scene
involve something else? A Toyota would be wrong, but maybe there's a
shape we can copyright, like a wagon wheel?

I'm assuming "The dialogue is in Aramaic" is a typo for "American." If
not, call me on my cell, or I'm at home all weekend.

By the way, I'm sending a group of staffers on a cruise to the North
Pole, coincidentally around the time of your picture's release. Would
love to invite your dad!

See you at the movies!

Yours,
Stan

Ashcroft Funds Under Scrutiny (washingtonpost.com) Ashcroft is like a busted drug dealer paying his debt to society by dealing drugs.

'Enduring Freedom:' Abuses by U.S. Forces in Afghanistan (Human Rights Watch Report, March 2004)

The Detainees: As U.S. Detains Iraqis, Families Plead for News: "Iraq has a new generation of missing men. But instead of ending up in mass graves or at the bottom of the Tigris River, as they often did during the rule of Saddam Hussein, they are detained somewhere in American jails....American forces are still conducting daily raids, bursting into homes and sweeping up families. More than 10,000 men and boys are in custody."

FMQB: Radio Industry News, Music Industry Updates, Arbitron Ratings, Music News: "Stern Feels Bush-Whacked End Is Near "

Newsday.com: Air Force One phone records subpoenaed

Blix: 'I learnt I had been vilified, crucified and made to look like an imbecile': "I understood his formulations to say: the witches exist; you are appointed to deal with these witches; testing whether there are witches is only a dilution of the witch hunt."

Rall: NYTimes.com Pulled Comic Because of Conservatives: "If newspapers don't have the personnel to handle hate mail, said Rall, 'just delete it.'"

Greenspan: Maestro of Chutzpah

Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Opinion / Editorials / Gun bill's gaping holes: "Firearms and tobacco are already the only two consumer industries that are not subject to federal consumer safety regulations. Tobacco, at least, has been held accountable in suits brought by states and individuals on behalf of smoking's millions of victims and the budget-busting medical bills that government health programs have to pick up because of tobacco use. That legal recourse also would be denied to victims of guns under the bill."

Bush Ejects Two From Bioethics Council (washingtonpost.com)

Scalia Took Trip Set Up by Lawyer in Two Cases

Government Executive Magazine - 2/25/04 House panel sidetracks resolution calling for spy probe

Guardian Unlimited | Cartoons | 26.02.04: George Bush's stance on gay marriage

Dramatic Climate Change Could Become Global Security Nightmare Article includes link to original report in pdf format.

BW Online | March 1, 2004 | Commentary: Let's Wage War On Gas Guzzlers

Daily Yomiuri On-LineControl Japan's access to oil, control its military.

Primary Struggle Strengthening Contenders : "'I don't think Kerry can beat Bush. But I think Bush can beat Bush, and they're doing a very good job of it at the moment,' said one Republican strategist close to the White House.
"

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us: "Climate change 'should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern', say the authors, Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of the California-based Global Business Network."
Illustration here

Intelligence: C.I.A. Admits It Didn't Give Weapon Data to the U.N.

State Department Excluded From Senate Threat Hearing : "The State Department's intelligence branch, whose skeptical prewar assessments of Iraq's weapons programs were more accurate than other agencies' judgments, is being excluded from a panel that advises Congress each year on worldwide threats..., even though the bureau has participated in the hearing every year since it began in the early 1990s."

In the New Economics: Fast-Food Factories?

Bush recommending cuts in education spending after '05 : "President Bush, while promoting proposals to boost federal education spending next year, plans to pare back spending on schools in subsequent years, budget figures show. ...'Education is already underfunded in these budgets, and in fact 37 programs will be zeroed out in '05,' said John See, spokesman for the American Federation of Teachers. 'It will just get worse.'
The White House is proposing an education budget increase from $63.26 billion to $66.4 billion next year, although some school programs would get bigger increases than others. The numbers include mandatory as well as discretionary spending authority. But the total would immediately drop in 2006 and would fall to $63.6 billion by 2007.
That's less than 1 percent above current spending, so with inflation it would represent a decrease. It's also 4 percent less than Bush's much-touted increase for 2005. "

Electionline.org (Electionline Today)

MSNBC - NBC: Investigators question ricin test results "federal agents have found no source for the powder found in the mailroom of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s office" Did they look in Frist's pockets? Meanwhile the AP characterizes Bill Frist's "calming prescence" during the recent ricin hoax. It's easy to be calm when you know there's no threat.

Welcome to the ANG!: "'As threats to America change... the National Guard and reservists will be more involved in homeland security, confronting acts of terror [that] our enemies may try to create.'

President George W. Bush
14 February 2001 "

Joint chiefs chairman says duration of US military presence in Iraq is ``unknowable'': Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Richard Myers "said that if he and the top U.S. commanders in Iraq were to 'sit around a table, I think we could draw out a pretty good diagram of where we think we're going to go' with winding up the Iraq operation.

"On the other hand,... 'Actually, the things we've sat around and talked about before have been wrong on every count,' he said with a chuckle."

LITTLE REGULATION: Chinese citizens demand better job safety after deadly accidents : "By one estimate, an average of 300 Chinese lose their lives every day in industrial accidents, mine collapses and other disasters. China tallied a quarter of a million fires last year alone. More than 120,000 people died in work-related accidents from January to November 2003, the English-language China Daily newspaper reported in December, citing official figures. "

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | US lawyer sues over terror cases: "Mr Convertino says officials punished him for cooperating with a Senate investigation into failures in the war on terror by blowing the cover of an intelligence asset."

ESPN.com - Page2 - Bush's disturbing sleeping disorder: "Desperate men do desperate things, and stupid men do stupid things. We are in for a desperately stupid summer."

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: February 08, 2004 - February 14, 2004 Archives "Q: Why does a 'yes' or 'no' elude you on this?"

White House papers no help, says member of 9/11 panel

The Other Paper | Columbus's News & Entertainment Weekly: If you don't pay to subscribe to the Dispatch...

Mike Curtin, Dispatch president, acknowledges that the Dispatch, since the mid-80's Columbus's only paper, "has been a Republican paper." The Other Paper continues:

"In...88 years..., the Dispatch hasn't endorsed a single Democrat for president.

Until now....

'TOTALLY RECKLESS' was the headline of Sunday's lead editorial, in which the Dispatch disapprovingly linked the Bush administration's domestic and military policies....'It is becoming increasingly difficult to have any confidence in the fiscal policy of this administration.'"

The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Letters to the Editor: "President's 'nonpolitical' visit"

President Bush's 'nonpolitical' visit to the Daytona 500 race is as incongruous to the average taxpayer as the custom of requiring the family of a condemned man to pay for the bullets to execute him. Perhaps the visit was to honor Halliburton and the oil industry's support of the war."

Bush to Limit 9/11 Panel Session (washingtonpost.com)

Doug Thompson's The Rant: They Came to See a Race, Not a Photo-Op

HoustonChronicle.com - Files shed light on Bush Guard service: "But the documents released Friday indicated Bush's transfer to the Alabama squadron wasn't approved until September 1972, months after Bush's presence as recalled by Calhoun.

Emily Marks Curtis, who said she dated Bush in 1972 when both worked on the Blount campaign, said she had a clear recollection of Bush returning to Alabama in the weeks after the fall election so he could attend Guard meetings.

'He had left Montgomery and had gone back to Texas,' she said. 'Then he called and told me he was coming back to Montgomery to do his Guard duty and asked if we could see each other.'

She said she didn't see Bush at the Alabama squadron's base, but 'I can say categorically he left Montgomery, then came back for what he said were Guard meetings.' "

Kucinich Reaches Out to the Neglected (washingtonpost.com)

Herald.com: Miami & Ft. Lauderdale News, Weather, Dolphins & More: " The Department of State has notified elections supervisors that touchscreen ballots don't have to be included during manual recounts because there is no question about how voters intended to vote."

The Reliable Source (washingtonpost.com): "An Unguarded Opinion on Fortunate Sons
'Let's not go there,' Secretary of State Colin Powell said three times after Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) raised the flapola over President Bush's military service at a House hearing last week. Responding to Brown's assertion that Bush 'may have been AWOL' from National Guard duty, Powell snapped: 'I won't dignify your comments about the president because you don't know what you are talking about.'
As a Vietnam War vet, perhaps Powell does know what he's talking about. So let's go there -- specifically to page 148 of the hardcover edition of Powell's 1995 autobiography 'My American Journey':
'I particularly condemn the way our political leaders supplied the manpower for that war,' he wrote. 'The policies -- determining who would be drafted and who would be deferred, who would serve and who would escape, who would die and who would live -- were an anti-democratic disgrace. I am angry that so many sons of the powerful and well placed and so many professional athletes (who were probably healthier than any of us) managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units. Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to our country.' "